changing nursing to sleep routine at 13 months?

Re: changing nursing to sleep routine at 13 months?

• ss265 member

  June 2014

  We nursed and then transitioned to a bottle right before sleep until around 12.5-13 months. At that time, I just moved the bottle to earlier in his bedtime routine so he didn't associate milk with going to sleep and it also allowed me to brush his teeth before bed. We didn't give a sippy before bed because we wanted him to learn to go to sleep on his own. We still gave him milk when he woke up in the middle of the night and kept that up until 17.5 months, mainly because he is low on the weight charts and we wanted him to get the extra calories.

  Taking away the bottle right before bed did help him STTN for a few weeks. And taking away the middle of the night milk has resulted in him STTN since.

  

  
  

  
  

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• skibunny59 member

  June 2014

  I stopped nursing DD to sleep when she was around 13 or 14 months.  I changed up the bedtime routine and would nurse her after bath and then do books and bed.  I still had to rock her to sleep until about 20 months.  Now at age 2 we don't rock her anymore but we do hold her hand while she falls asleep.

  Even after stopping the nursing to sleep she still woke up at night.  I would still nurse her back to sleep once she woke up.  I nightweaned at around 18 months.  Changing her bedtime routine and putting her to sleep without the boob was surprisingly easy.  It would just take her a little longer to fall asleep at first.

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• ashiscute member

  June 2014

  I weaned DD at 13 mos and DS at 14 mos.  I nursed them to sleep up until then.  I never switched the time I nursed them but instead offered a cup of milk and snuggles during book and then just straight into bed.  Neither of my kids fought it.  That was the last feeding I weaned from so I did not nurse for middle of the night wake-ups.  Once that was no longer an option both of mine slept so much better at night.  Good luck.

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• littledaisies member

  June 2014

  Thank you everyone!

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• fusionbride member

  June 2014

  littledaisies said:

  My little guy is 13 months and is still nursing but I'd like to slowly stop by the end of the summer. His routine goes like this: bath, pjs, book then nurse to sleep. I'm thinking of changing up his routine to  nursing him after his bath, reading a book then giving him a sippy cup to sleep. I want him to get in the habit of not nursing to sleep. The thing is he still wakes up a few times a night and I nurse him back to sleep. I'm not sure if I should tackle that first before changing up his routine.  Has anyone else been through the same?

  
  

  why would you sippy cup to sleep?  Isn't the whole point to break the food/sleep connection and teach them to fall alseep on their own?

  
  

  I personally would just put them in bed after reading a book and call it a night.  And not bother doing a temporary transition that you are going to have to break again in a few weeks.

  
  

  if you really must give sippy cup, make sure it only has water in it

  
  

  
  

  To answer your other questions:  We did it around 10 months, and just moved nursing earlier in the routine, away from bedtime.  By then we had already stopped MOTN nursing, so I can't help you there.  But as you can see from my comment above, I favor just doing all transitions at once-- transitions are stressful but kids are adabtable, so just break the sleeping/eating connection in one rough coupld of days.  When we stopped MOTN feeding, I send in DH to do a "shhhh"ing back rub and it worked great.

  GL!

  
  
  

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• LisaLisa1980 member

  June 2014

  I just stopped nursing to sleep at 12 months & had DH put him to bed. I weaned him off bf entirely last week.

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• ashiscute member

  June 2014

  theresat858 said:

  Around 12 months, DH started putting DD to bed instead of me.  Nursing to sleep had gotten inconsistent for her at that point - sometimes she'd nurse to sleep, other nights she would nurse, unlatch, and then I would rock her for a while. 
  We moved nursing to before the bedtime routine - so nurse, then bath, diaper, PJs, book.  Daddy took over bedtime. 
  It was a rough transition for the first few nights. On the first night of daddy putting her to bed, DD screamed/cried for 30 minutes in his arms while he rocked her.  On the second night, she cried for 15 minutes.  By the third night, she was used to the new routine and settled into going to sleep for daddy.  Since then, it has been easier for DH to put her to bed than me.  (I never went back to nursing her to sleep, but I do put her to bed a few times a week now.  When we first switched, DH put her to bed whenever he was home for at least a month). 
  
  We have allowed a sippy of water for a long time and are just now trying to cut it out.  It is difficult for me to go cold turkey on that because she will drink 3-4 ounces of water at bedtime, and that's probably about 1/4 of her daily fluid intake (which is very much on the low end of normal, but she has consistent wet diapers and no signs of dehydration).  So we are trying to get her to drink more with/after dinner and offer less at bedtime, but it's being a slow process. If you can avoid getting into the habit in the first place, it will be easier to break when you are trying to get away from fluids at bedtime in anticipation of potty training.
  
  

  Honestly I wouldn't be too concerned about this.  I allow how ever much water DD wants up till bedtime and if she asks I let her keep her water cup at night.  Most LOs night train much later than day train.  But my DD has been night trained for almost a year even with unlimited water.  When they're ready that won't make a difference.  

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• Beth.1212 member

  June 2014

  I basically stopped (purposely) nursing my LO to sleep around 5 months. While he was learning how to put himself to sleep I was pretty vigilant about having him still awake when he finished nursing. Once he was able to sleep independently, I didn't fight too hard if he wanted to drop off. If he started having trouble falling asleep independently I would have gotten more vigilant again. 

  
  

  Even at 17 months, if my LO wakes up in the middle of the night I often nurse him back to sleep, though. Take this with a grain of salt, b/c my LO rarely wakes up at night so it's not usually an issue for us. If he was waking every night I'd probably have to approach things differently. 

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