Weaning a Baby

Hi, S.:
What is the rush? The baby is developing at his own rate. Let it happen naturally.
Pretty soon he will be off to college and you will wonder why you didn't take more time and enjoy his
step by step process.

Try not to campare your child with other children. Every child is different but progress at his or her own pace. Good luck. Patience is a virtue. Now you understand why.
D.

I'm not sure weaning is the issue - I think your child is just in the habit of waking throughout the night.

Is your child sleeping in his own crib or in a family bed? If in his own crib (and you may not like this advice), but I honestly think the best answer is not to respond to him with a bottle - just let him cry it out and go back to sleep on his own. I ultimately broke down and did this for my 9 month old, and it was horrible for the first night or two, but by night three it was better, and by night four she was sleeping through the night, and we never really had a major problem with it again (she is 3 1/2 now).

Some babies don't cry at all during this kind of sleep training, some cry for longer periods, but a 1-year-old does not NEED to be feeding at night, nourishment-wise. I think you're ultimately giving your child a foundation of poor sleep habits by reinforcing his waking with a bottle. This is a hard problem when you're in the middle of it (between your own sleep deprivation and just wanting to comfort your child - I remember it well!) but having your child sleep through the night at long last is so rewarding on so many levels - just do it! :-)

Best wishes to you,
H. S

My son is 15 months old and still does not sleep thru the night. He generally is up 1-2x thru the night, unless he is teething, and then it is generally 3x or more. My daughter, now 8, didn't sleep the entire night till she was about 3. Granted, she was able to get herself back to sleep most nights, but there were still nights that she wanted me to come in when she woke up in the middle of the night.

My son is breastfed, so I do not currently have any issues with takling away his bottle. With my daughter who was bottle fed, I started watering down her milk till eventually she was just on straight water at night, since dentists do not reccomend allowing milk to sit on teeth all night. I also started using a soft spout spill-proof sippy for her(easier transition from the bottle then a hard spout one) at night. She actually still has a bottle of water next to her bed incase she gets thirsty in the night. Granted not a BABY bottle, but it still serves the same basic purpose.

Neither of my kids were taking a paci much after 6 months, so I completely understand the frustrated 'inbetween' stage where a paci would likely have made things easier. But then that is jsut one more thing to wean then off of later.

First, whole milk needs to be the main source of liquids from 12 to 24 months, so don't try to get him drinking other things. He should only be drinking the milk. Are you saying he is waking in the night for a bottle or sippy of milk? I would say first, make sure he is getting adequate nutrition during the day to make sure he isn't really hungry at night. Then I would say try to start cutting out one of those feedings at a time. It will be hard, but it is your choice to give in to him or not. Try whatever else you need to to get him back to sleep without the milk - rocking, singing, sound machine, patting. If it's purely a comfort thing for him, this will work over time if you are consistant in your methods. However, I will say that some kids just aren't good sleepers period. My son didn't sleep through the night consistantly til he was 2 1/2! He wasn't waking to eat or anything. So with your son, the milk may not really be the issue - he may just not be a good sleeper - with or without the milk.

When my daughter at 12 months, she would also wake up several times during the night to nurse. When I weaned her i'd go in at night when she cried and hold her, but i wouldn't sit down with her in the rocking chair like we would normally do to nurse. Then I'd stick her back in her crib. I'd let her cry it out, because she wasn't hungry she was just used to nursing to fall back to sleep when she woke up. After a few days of not getting fed, she slept straight through the night 11-12 hours. Just be strong and don't give in when he cries. Pat him, hold him, and soon he'll be sleeping all night.

I had the same problem. I seriously never thought my son would stop nursing but he was fully weaned by 13 months. I cut out the middle nursing first. Then I cut out the night nursing. I had previously seen a post on this on mamsource and used it's advice on this. When my son woke up to night nurse I said - you are a big boy now and you don't need to eat now. please go back to bed. He screamed at me but I did not give in. I did however hold him to make him feel secure. He used to night nurse a lot so this was hard but within 2-3 nights of doing this he was nightweaned. then i cut out the bedtime feed and finally I weaned him from the last nurse which was the morning feeding. It went really well since he was used to taking bottles of breastmilk/whole milk. The only real problem I had was with my body. I had read many books on how to wean but they really don't tell you about how to wean you. Make sure you continue to pump while weaning. when you drop the 1st feeding, pump for 5 mins during that feed the first day and decrease by 1 min each day until that pumping session is fully finished then move on to dropping the next feed the same way (this is what the lactation consultant advised when i experienced engorgement). If you still feel engorged you can put cabbage leaves on your breasts just remove them when they wilt. good luck and feel free to contact me with any questions.

Milk really needs to be a major source of liquids through their second year - they need the fat of whole milk for their brain's development.

That being said, our 22 month old only wants to drink milk - she drinks so much we have to cut it down with water when she gets past her 24 oz that the pediatrician recommended.

As far as the weaning, it sounds like it's completely habitual and comforting. I wish I had advice on how to correct it. Our son is 3.5 and still crawls in bed with us each night - we have NO idea what wakes him up, just that he ends-up snuggled next to us sponging off our body heat.

Good luck!

I had the same problem at night with my daughter. We eventually learned that she had ear canal problems that would cause drainage to build up after laying flat for so many hours. It made sense, I would put her to bed and then after about 3 or 4 hrs she would wake up crying, I'd pick her up (causing the ears to drain) and give her a bottle and she would go back to sleep...she used to get more ear infections than normal kids and I never would have made a connection with the two problems but after her 6th ear infection I brought her to a ENT specialist and he said it is common with babies who have this ear canal problem. We had him put tubes in her ears(at 18months) and she has slept through the night and been ear infection free since then. So I dont know if you son ever shows sings of ear issues but i thought I'd mention it just in case you also never thought to connect the two issues.