15 Months Old Waking up to Eat Twice During the Night

She probably just wants the comfort of a bottle. Try giving her a sippy cup in the middle of the night instead. At 15 months she shouldn't have a bottle anymore anyway..that should have ended at 1 year!

I would try cutting out the cereal in her bottle and fed it straight to her with a spoon. She will eat more of it and the cereal will stay in her stomach longer which mean she will sleep longer. After eating her cereal then I would give her a bottle. I have a feeling that you will see a decrease in the amount that she drinks at night but then again you may not. Hope this works for you like it did me, after abt 3 days he slept thru the night for abt 6-7 hrs straight which was great for me. I read some of the other responces and abt fell off the chair. Children need milk, protein and other foods to keep them healthy. Any physician will tell you that the calcium is required for strong bones and teeth. While I agree you need not to give a milk bottle at night since it may cause cavaties, although both of my kids had a bottle til they were 18 months and both have perfect teeth. The worse thing you can do for you child is have them consistantly on a pacifer that is a good way to ruin teeth. Just my opinion but after raising 2 children and helping with my grandchildren I think I know a little bit abt raising child. Also whole milk may not settle well, try 2 or 1 percent milk to start with. Good Luck

ya know what. i disagree with alot of the things people have responded here. i have a almost 5 yr old and a 16 almost 17 month old. my oldest got rid of his bottle when he was around 3 yrs old. he needed the additional calories and he still does. he was sleeping through the night when he was 4yrs old. so it is only recently. he did get a bottle at night for a long time. but he also took a binky. my youngest has always refused a binky. he is still taking a bottle at night. he will continue to have a bottle at night for as long as i feel he needs one and as long as he thinks he needs it. he does drink water at night some times but not often. i would rather go with out sleep than listen to my child scream in the middle of the night cause he is hungry or scared or both. do what feels right to YOU!!!!!!!!!!! what feels right to some may not to you. some kids need that little extra.

I just wanted to tell you that I breast fed all my kids well into their toddler years. Each child slept with us in our bed until they were 3-4 years old. I have always nursed my babies/toddlers throughout the night without me ever waking up. I know that sounds crazy, but it's something I learned to do with our first child because I simply needed sleep. We didn't do this when they were really little for safety reasons.

Anyway, I think it's normal for some toddlers to need nourishment at night and she will out grow it. My only recommendation is to push solids with some fat in it before she goes to bed. I had a pediatrician recommend this for my 2nd child as he always woke up super early hungry and breast milk wouldn't do it. So, we got some pb crackers and put next to the bed. He would eat them and then go back to sleep.

I'm sure there are some very different opinions out there. I just wanted to give you my experience with my 4 children and let you know that I think it's normal and that they won't always do this. My 3 older children sleep well through the night and don't wake up to eat!

My youngest is 2 1/2 and still sleeps with us. I'm pregnant and since the milk has dried up he can't nurse at night anymore. We have a snack ready for him at 5am and then he goes right back to sleep. We also make sure he's had a snack at bedtime.

Both of my kids were big night-wakers and continued to do so until they were over two.

It sounds like she is often hungry at night, and it's well within the range of normal for babies to get a lot of their calories during the night.

That said, I would try to stop viewing this as "ok" if she's really hungry but "not ok" if she's only seeking comfort. If you woke up in the middle of the night scared and lonely, it would be reasonable for you to seek comfort, right? Same goes for her.

My parents did the whole cry it out thing with me, and I was a horrible sleeper for most of my childhood, all the way through elementary school. I also fought and resisted bedtimes for many years.

I would comfort her if she needs comfort and feed her if she needs food and remind yourself that this too shall pass.

Well, there are definitely two "camps" among your responses. I come down firmly on the side of - if a baby is hungry, feed them! If a baby needs comfort, comfort them! That's what mothers are for. There is no magic age where they sleep through the night.

Babies have "growth spurts" where they will be extra hungry. I would continue feeding your daughter when she is hungry and she will grow out of this night time need soon enough.

If she is drinking 16oz of whole milk at night and not eating duing the day, she is taking most of her calories at night.

Now I don't have experience with bottles/formula because we breastfed, but my youngest woke to nurse at 4am until he was 11mos old, then suddenly just started sleeping through it. BUT he would nurse immediately upon waking until he was 19mos old. We also didn't intro cows milk to our boys until around 18mos.

I don't think she should be drinking that much whole milk in the middle of the night, especially from a bottle. I think you need to go cold turkey. Tonight, offer her a sippy of water when she wakes. She may be hungry, but she needs to learn to eat during the day, not at night. A sippy of water should be sufficient to quench her thirst and your being there will offer her comfort. I'm not a fan of cry it out, but if you change up the routine she will likely cry, but do comfort her. But don't give in.

As for the picky eating, thats common around 12-18mos, but don't give in there either. Continue to offer her foods, and put one food she likes on her plate. Skip the baby foods, she's 15mos old. SHe wants to feed herself. Get her a little fork and spoon, put her food on a little plate and give her waht you are eating, cut up into little bites. put her into her high chair and let her eat herself, along with her sippy of milk. If she has one familiar food that she likes amongst foods she isn't familiar with, she will be more likely to try the foods. And if she doesn't eat as much, relax! Remember her stomach is still only about the size of her fist, and her growth is slowing majorly right now, so her eatin 8 bites is plenty for her.

It's a comfort thing, your going to ruin her teeth feeding her in the middle of the night and your just going to have to let her cry it out as hard as that sounds. I have experiance with this as my older daughter wanted a bottle til 2.5 years old in the middle of the night and it didn't stop til I threw the bottle in the garbage and let her cry it out. Took about 3 nights of hell but that was it. Once you cut out her night time feedings her appetite during the day should improve dramatically. Babies don't need a night time feeding past a few months of age after that it's all habit and comfort. I'm guilty of it too it's so easy to pop a bottle in my baby's mouth and have her go right back to sleep so I can get my sleep.

Now I have a 11mo.old in the same darn habit but we've been pushing 3 solid meals a day a good dinner and I'm watering down her formula at bedtime so she's not filling up all night. She has to fill up during the day. Eventually in a few days her bottles will be so watered down they will be all water then I will cut the bottle out completely. The longer you wait to cut the bottle after 12mos.of age the harder and harder the habit is to break.

My daughter will be 1 in about a week and a half. My goal is no night time feedings and no more bottles. We just successfully weaned her off formula, were watering down her milk bottles in bed to water, and pushing a sippy cup more and more then the magical day will come soon and those bottles are trash.

My older daughter is 8. I let her have a bottle til 2.5 years old her teeth are horrible. She has 4 crowns, and multiple fillings in her mouth. Everytime we go to the dentist it's bad news on top of bad news and my daughter absolutely hates the dentist. I am going to say yes she did inherit her dad's horrible teeth but that bottle habit didn't help matter, and then we went on to a sippy cup habit til she was about 5 same thing bad bad.

i have not read the other responses.

what i have to say is important and it is this:
you comfort your child when they need it.

that being said, giving a child a bottle of milk at any time when they are going to be falling asleep with it in their mouths is dangerous for their dental health. remember that though the baby teeth do fall out, the dental issues that are created from "bottle mouth" do not fall out.

if shes really hungry (and only you know your child's cues, along with dad if in the picture) it is fine to feed her, but try to get her to drink a gulp of water before falling asleep or something, wipe her mouth out with a rag is also a good idea if the water doesnt work.

however, though i do not agree that she has to be sleeping through the night yet, she should be able to go all night without needing milk. remember that after a year whole milk is ok, but it is NOT ok to be making it a large majority of her diet. milk is for drinking at meals not for filling her stomach anymore. she should be offered food at meals, and then a drink when she is finished eating. her diet should consist of mainly solid foods, not milk. she is DEFINATLY old enough for that.

also i would recommend to start offering her sippy cups with her liquids. bottles are not needed after the first year. start offering her water in the bottle, and juice or milk in the sippy cup at meals. at night time, it is perfectly acceptable to leave a sippy cup of water in the crib, my son would drink a whole sippy of water at night at this age. if this is the issue that she is just thirsty, then you will not have to worry about the milk in the bottle issue. if shes hungry, then, feed her, but make sure to wipe her mouth out or give her a mouthful of water when shes done having milk.

www.askdrsears.com might have some better information for you.

Read Baby Wise. It saved us twice! We were able to set up a good schedule with that system and our babies slept through the night by 3 months.

I'm sure you will hear this over and over...but she is MORE than old enough to sleep all night. (Assuming she is within the normal weght gidelines and is healthy) Time to let her cry it out. My guess wouild be she loves that snuggle time at night as well as the bottle. you will be a much better Mommy with a full night sleep! :)

At 15 months old, she can understand a lot more than she is able to show you. Start using a doll to play out scenarios with her that explain what is about to happen. Be urging the doll to eat her whole supper. Put the doll to bed (if possible in a doll bed in Isabela's room), and follow her bedtime routine. Then, play that the doll is waking up, but verbalize things that will help Isabela, "It's OK, she'll go back to sleep." Model that the doll may have a toy bottle in the kitchen, but not in the bed. Do this kind of things a lot. Repetition will help Isabela get it. In the meantime, start switching to sippy cups for her beverages, and using a nuk for her to suck. Have the doll do the same. That will help you to separate her nutritional needs from comfort.

Do consult the doctor, as another reader suggested.

Do read up on sleep hygiene. Ultimately, you will need to let her cry at night as she learns to comfort herself. Teach her things like taking a deep breath, again by modeling. She's been copying you since she was a bitty baby sticking her tongue out when you did, and she will copy things that you show her, now. If you teach and prepare her, it will still be difficult (may feel like it's ripping your heart out) to let her cry, but it will likely go much better than if you did not teach her, first.

Most Moms & Dads really need the support of each other when making this change of letting the baby cry at night. Make sure you are both ready, you only want to go through this once! At first, her crying will escalate as she realizes that things are different. Then, she will cry less and less as her expectations and ability to comfort herself make a shift. Finally, she will sleep through the night. Many parents find it helpful to time the crying so that they can see the time diminish. It also helps to see that even though it felt like "all night," perhaps she only cried for 15 minutes.

We have a 22 mo year old who has been sleeping through the night since she was 5 months old. I read the "Baby Whisperer" and what they recommended is that after a certain amount of time, when the baby starts waking up in the middle of the night, offer her a pacifier instead of a bottle. Eventually she will stop expecting to get the extra calories at night and start making up for them during the day. It worked really well for us, our little one had her days and nights mixed up for quite a while. It is a gradual process though.

You could maybe try lowering the amount of milk you give in each bottle at night. If she is drinking 8 oz. with cereal, then leave out the cereal for the first night. The next night drop it down to 6 oz. and then go to 4 oz. the following night. Then 2 and then just try rocking her on the next night. It may take a large amount of patience from you and fussing from her but she will eventually get with the new program. If she is still waking up for a feeding after a week of tapering down to no feedings, then maybe go in and just comfort her and tell her she needs to go back to sleep but don't pick her up. She will cry and it will be hard but she needs to learn to go back to sleep on her own. I hope this helps some. It's what I did with my son to stop the night time feedings. I did it around 6 mos. though, so it may be a longer and more frustrating process with an older child. I wish you the best and hope it works for you. Take care.

I think this is very unusual for a child this age. I would consult her doctor to make sure that there isn't anything going on. Every child is different, but I know that I wasn't feeding any of my children during the night at that age.

G. - Mom to four active children.

It does sound like she may be getting too many calories from whole milk mixed with cereal during the night, so maybe not as hungry during the day.

Try to work on breakfast, lunch and dinner so that she is getting most of her nourishment from those meals and healthy snacks. The bottle shouldn't be the main source of food anymore. Does she drink from a sippy cup? Try offering water in that at night instead of a bottle. It's really not good for her teeth to be drinking milk during the night.

A book I found helpful when my kids were babies/toddlers was The Healthy Baby Meal Planner by Annabel Karmel. As well as giving lots of different ideas and recipes for healthy food for your child, it also helps you plan out the meals.

Hi there, Sounds like it's simply a bad habit that is forming. First of all she should be done with the bottle.....with my kids I took it away at 12 months....out of sight....start the sippy cup now. And it does take about a week of adjusting. Then make sure she has good meals and healthy snacks.....if she's picky then feed her the same thing every meal....and add a little something new on the side even if she doesn't eat it. Then again it may take a few weeks to ween her off the habit of waking up at night. I'd start by consoling her but not feeding her. Or slowly ween down on the feeding.....2oz in a sippy cup just so she can have the comfort. Every change for them takes time and patience....it's not easy and it's not quick.....but it's our job as parents to take guide them....and for yourself to create good habits that will pay off in the long run....even if it's painful in the short run. Good luck.

Likely it's purely a comfort thing. My 20 month old wakes up periodically during the night, too, but it's comfort - not hunger - he's looking for.

I agree that you need to ditch the bottle. I prefer cold-turkey (weaned my son from both bottle and formula at 11 months by starting with only sippy cups of milk during the day and when that went well I took away his bed-time bottle and gave him a sippy cup instead. A month or so later we took that away too) but many prefer the "water down formula/milk slowly over time...".

Whatever works for you best (i.e. what makes YOU feel the most comfortable/able to be persistent in weaning) is the way to go.

The longer you wait the worse it gets/harder it is to break the habit of a bottle/waking up/etc... And even if she is hungry the first night or two, she'll figure out quickly that she needs to eat more before bed and adjust her eating habits on her own. She won't starve over a couple nights and you have to keep in mind that the long term damage from keeping her on bottles - and keeping you awake at night - is more detrimental than a couple of nights of anguish on your part. It won't be fun, you'll probably cry and feel guilty (I did for both my sons), but it's best for her (and you) to get her off the bottle/sleeping through the night.

Good luck!