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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
night bottle hell
Okay, so I need some advice and to vent. I'm at a loss and don't know what to do. After we took LO to his first dentist appt, the doc said no more night bottles. So we started to take the milk away and only put VERY diluted juice at first. We tried this for a week, and it was hit and miss. Some nights he wouldn't wake up at all, other's he'd be crying for 10 minutes and then it went down to only 1-2 minutes. Then the last few nights he's up to crying again.We try filling him up right before bed and I know it's more of a comfort thing. His paci most times isn't enough.
So last night we started with watered down juice bottles and he was NOT having it. We caved and gave him a small milk bottle around midnight, and then he stirred for a bit I think at aroun 3, and we gave him a diluted juice bottle and he was fine and didnt' wake up again. The night before he cried on and off the whole night. I don't know what to do. I'm sick of bottles but don't have the heart to cut him cold turkey. I figured after a week he'd get it but didnt' do much good. I dont' want his teeth to get rotten, but would like to get a full night's sleep sometime this century. 
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Re: night bottle hell
Bar tab = $156,000, Bus to Foxwoods = $0, Puking in the Stanley Cup = Priceless
I'm a little confused - why does the night bottle have to go? I mean, I know eventually they need to be off bottles completely but is he falling asleep with the bottle and his teeth are being affected? Or is it just his age? Is the night bottle his only bottle? What does your Pedi say? Maybe he's just not ready yet.
What about giving him a sippy at bedtime and gradually making it less and less milk?
Like I said, the bottle with juice in it really has nothing, it's like less than a sip amount and the rest water. It barely changes the color, but it's enough to trick him sometimes. Obviously I don't want him to have dental issues. If I did I'd just say screw it and give him milk all night long. I forgot to mention his crib is in our room because we only have one room, so the whole weaning process is 100x more difficult because he sees us in bed and wonders why we aren't paying attention to him.
Well the dentist said that he could have serious dental issues if he goes to sleep with a bottle as far as milk and tooth decay. Normally he drinks it and then rolls over and sleeps but I've caught him with the bottle in his mouth empty and so that's why we want to do away with it. Pedi agrees that he should not be having milk at night. He is still in bottles during the day, we just put juice or water in his sippy cup. He's really just chewing on the straw on occasion I see him actually taking a drink, so I know he's capable, but when I put milk in it he goes nuts. I really just need to be strong and cut him off, but at the same time I wish him to just leave it by himself when he's ready and not let him cry it out every night. We are all in the same room and we both work, so it's just been awful lately as far as sleep goes
No, we used to do that way back when. Now we just give him a big bottle 20 minutes before going to bed and then he goes down in the crib with his paci.
Are you brushing his teeth between bedtime bottle and putting him to bed?
When my son was 18 months we went cold turkey and threw away all the bottles and he cried it out a few nights. But we still gave him a sippy with water (he hates juice!) I'm not sure what I would do if we only had one room though....do you have a pack n play in another room he could sleep in if he wakes up ?
I had to put my DS 2 in the pack n play in the living room with some soft toys once when he woke up in the middle of the night. We have 2 bedrooms and both boys share a room so I didn't want him to wake up his older brother. He just played for a few minutes and went right back to sleep.
Yes we brush his teeth in the morning after breakfast and then after his big bottle before bed.
we'll try giving him a sippy with water tonight, I just predict it will go wrong because he hardly likes them with juice let alone water. We do have a pack in play but the only other room is the living room which we aren't comfortable leaving him in there. We live in a mobile home so it's small. Also, he has climbed out of the pack n play a few times (I have no idea how as I miss when he does to know how he's doing it lol), so I think if he really wanted to, he'd just climb out.
I'm confused.
Dentist said: no more bottles before bed, MOTN, or no more bottles IN the crib?
Are you trying to switch to sippys of water, or bottles of water again before bed, MOTN or for IN the crib?
He said no more bottles in the crib.
I would just make sure he's getting enough to eat during the day, give him his last bottle with dinner or like you said 20 mins before bed. We do a routine every night and DD has learned that when its time its time, sometimes she cries but it eventually stops and she puts herself to sleep. IF she wakes in the middle of the night and cant soothe herself or is not satisfied with rocking, then I warm a bottle of water and let her drink that and put her back down.
As far as the room sharing, have you ever considered getting a partition to create his space vs. your space? You know, like the one's you see in movies that people change behind? Idk how big your room is but just a thought... GL!
Carrie
Thanks Carrie. Maybe we'll just have to rough it a few nights. I absolutely hate to know that he's so tired from crying that he goes to sleep on that stressed note instead of in a calmer state. I gotta do it though. I'm sooo tired of washing bottles. He'll be two in september, he really needs to learn to drink from sippys.
Our room is tiny so partitions wouldn't work. I recently started going back to work, so hopefully we'll be able to move soon and have more space.
That's a tough one. Try just one change at a time. If he's used to being handed a bottle in the MOTN, try taking him out of his crib and feeding him and putting him back no bottle. Then the next week do the same thing but with a sippy of milk, then attempt sippy water (or watered down juice until it's just water) THEN working on getting rid of the MOTN waking. This way when he cries he's no longer expecting you to hand him something, and you know he's not crying out of hunger.