My 1 year old is waking up about 3-4 times a night for his bottle. This stopped after he got tubes in his ears and then has picked right back up! He is teething so I know that possibly messes up his sleep cycle more than normal. When he gets up, he has at least 2-3 ounces of his bottle. He even sleeps with an EMPTY AND CLEAN bottle and he has his bottle in the car . It's at attachment that hes grown to. Any help??
Thanks everyone for the replies and advice.
As far as sippy cups. Thats a battle within itself! We are keeping Walmart up with $$ on sippy cups. We have tried hard straw,soft straw, hard top, soft nipple. But nothing resembles the soft dr brown nipple that he has seemed to come attached to.
I hate the fact that this is something that we are going to have to fight him with because the attachment to the bottle is so strong its unreal! He's my first child, so of course I'm terrified of letting him cry during the night to learn to self soothe because I find it so heart breaking. But its not healthy for either one of us to be getting up as much as we are at night with because hes having sleeping problems.
Can you give him a really big bedtime snack to help him make it through the night without eating?
I'm not so worried about the attachment or the bottle of water in the crib - my 3 year old sleeps with a sippy cup of water still. But, it should be water, not milk, in the middle of the night so it doesn't damage his teeth.
Replace the bottle with a sippy cup of water. When that is all he gets he will sleep because it is not worth getting up for. they have sippy cups that have a soft top, simular to a bottle. THen later you can change to a hard sippy.
You will need to sleep train and only give bottle When necessary. My kids started sippy cups at 8-9 months.
Good luck
At that age, he should not be waking up in the middle of the night unless he's sick or in pain. He's probably not hungry unless you eat dinner very early and he goes to bed very late. My guess is that he never really learned to soothe himself to sleep, so he's using the bottle to do so.
You have a lot of options here, but if he's using the bottle for attachment, try to replace it with something more age-appropriate, like a toy or something else soft. My son had a favorite stuffed animal at that age and took it everywhere! My daughter is the same age as your son and she is on sippy cups ONLY during the day (she likes them) and has a bottle at night before bed. It's part of our cuddle routine, but that will go out the door when I am off for the summer.
It's not good for them to have the milk on their teeth and gums at night. You are going to have quite a battle for a while, but it's time to get him sleeping through the night with his own soothing strategies if he wakes up!
Does he have any other "lovey" or security object? Are you worried about his attachment to the empty bottle or his night feedings?
At 1, if he eating 2 oz 4x a night he's doing it for comfort not nutrition, so it's time to sleep train.
May be time to start replacing the bottle with a sippy cup of water.
If he's drinking 2-3 ounces (of formula?) 3-4 times a night, I think he's at least a little hungry. You could try increasing his daytime food intake just a little bit and see if that helps curb the hunger.
I wouldn't worry about it too much. I know the recommendation is to be off the bottle at 12 months, but really, what's another month or two. If he's teething, it's very likely his desire for the bottle will decrease once that tooth cuts through.
I would give him a bottle of water. Milk at night is not good for his teeth.
Just give him a bottle of water at night. I do not see a problem with a one year old having a bottle with milk during the day.
I don't know of any kids that sleep entirely through the night until they are older. Your baby is about to grow and become a raging toddler. He's hungry. Feed him. This stage should last another few weeks. If he's got the bottle and he's sucking on it happily he needs to suck, if he had a pacifier he'd put it in and go back to sleep. But since he only has the bottle he's sucking that.
If you take the bottle away he's going to seek other things to suck, like his thumb or fingers, the corner of his blanket, etc....if a kid needs to suck they are going to suck.
Sucking is a reflex, like breathing is to us. It is part of his biological make up. Without that urge to suck he would not eat and starve to death. It is what they check for in the hospital before they'll let you take him home. When they ask "did he take a bottle?" they are really asking "did he suck?". That's how a baby is wired to get their food. SO they suck. As they grow older they slow down and eventually stop. If that is interfered with they can develop bad habits and do the wrong thing.
He should still be taking 24-30 ounces of formula per day. If he's already transitioned off formula then he should be getting whole vitamin D milk. Plus 3 small meals and 3 snacks per day.
His little tummy is about the size of his fist so if he's eating enough to fill that space he's had enough if he acts full. If he's eating more than that he's still okay up to a point. Sometimes we do have to be aware there are biological illnesses where a kid does not know they are full and can eat until they harm themselves.
So if you are not feeding your baby a good dinner of food that you eat and then a bottle and a snack before bed perhaps your child is basically hungry and that's why he's waking up so much.
Kids need to eat about every 3 hours. They just can't eat enough to carry them longer than that time frame.
