Bottles at night

kutezmarie · December 2012

My son is 10 months old and he still drinks 3 bottles at night. He drinks a bottle around 8 pm when he is about to go to bed. The next bottles are at midnight and 5 am. This has basically been his feeding schedule since he was 3 months old. I thought by now he would be weaning off the night bottles. He eats 3 meals during the day plus three bottles.

How do I help wean him off the bottles at night? Any suggestions would help. Thanks!

ryry1977 · December 2012

Maybe adding some water to the bottles (cut back on the milk) to start cutting back on the calories that he is wanting at night. Then slowly get more water. I have this trouble but EBF and not sure what to do! I wish she did bottles sometimes so I could cut it back.

jesselayne8 · December 2012

I wouldn't add water I would just decrease the number of oz per bottle or completely cut that midnight bottle first. Can you put him to sleep without a bottle?

caseycritchley · December 2012

My lo does something similar. And i have no idea how to stop it. I tried cio ,rocking ,bfing, no bfing, bottle with formula, with water.... he just wont give it up. Sorry no help just letting you know atleast one other person is with you. Ds will be one sat and i have been trying for months to sleep through the night

lindslalala · December 2012

I would start offering less oz at one bottle, until he is able to drop it and then move on to cutting back on the oz for the 2nd and then 3rd bottle.

crystaleyes39 · December 2012

for the 12 am bottle i would slowly reduce the amount you give him..and then eventually just replace that wakeup time w/ giving him a pacifier. He may cry it out a bit but at this point he shouldn't be eating during the night out of being hungry only out of habit..

acaudill75 · December 2012

How many oz is he drinking. I agree with PPs about weaning him off that midnight bottle. If you offer it, he will take it. Maybe LO needs more oz at the last feeding. DD2 usually gets a bottle at school 3:30-4:15, and then when she comes home we give her a light meal, and she passes out around 5:30-6. Then we will wake her up 10:30-11, give her a bottle, and then she's good until about 6 am. She always get 6 oz, usually 4-5 bottles a day. I recently gave her a bottle with water in, just with some cheerios while we walked around the neighborhood, and that actually made her stretch a couple of hours until her next bottle. Maybe put a little rice cereal in the final bottle until he sleeps through the night? He may be waking up because it is habit, and he just needs to be retrained.

phdprocrastinator · December 2012

I agree with the suggestion to reduce oz offered (whether you dilute or just give less, I've heard of success both ways).

We just started having DH go in to do the night feedings. DD was still doing 3 am and waking up around 6. I was nursing, and basically couldn't go in or she'd insist on nursing. One night with Dadda, and she stopped waking at 3 am. (Dadda is VERY proud of himself). I think she just had to break the habit with me.

Now, she wakes around 5. DH gives her a bottle and she goes back to sleep until 7-ish. It's a miracle! We're going to have to tackle the 5:00 bottle next - I think we're going to try diluting it.

gooshbaby · December 2012

my dd has 2 at night and my dr told me to stop feeding her. id she cries, just let her cry and shell eventuall go to bed. this was a couple days ago and i still have not done this. i still give her a bottle. it just seems cruel not to.

F15Wife · December 2012

I did the oz reduction and it failed completely. She wakes at 5am for a feed and I did 5 oz for 2 nights then went to 4 then 3 and so on. When I offered water at the end she flipped. I let her cry it out for over an hour the she started thinking 5-6 am was the time to get up for the day. We went almost 2 weeks doing this. I went back to feeding her a bottle. It puts her back to sleep and she's content. Not sure what to do either.

Want a personalized experience?

Bottles at night

Re: Bottles at night

Choose Another Board

Search Boards