17 month old baby not sleeping in night and drinking milk every 2 hours

[Tootiredmom]

I have a 17 month old who from the very beginning wakes up every 2-3 hours for milk.  He used to wake up for 2-3 ounces at a time but now he has rice cereal before going to bed around 9 pm i give him his milk at 11pm and he drinks 5 ounces.  After that he wakes every 2-3 hours for 4-5 ounces of milk.  He eats solids all day long and i have tried giving him water at night  and he throws it across the room.  i tried for 5 days straight to go 6 hours at least without giving him milk and he cries for an hour at a time for his milk.  nothing is working and i am so tired.  please someone tell me should i just cut the milk cold turkey? how long will it take?   

[LindaB]

Someone told me to start watering it down until you get just water and then they'll stop waking up for it. It's worth a try?

[~inbalance~]

Hi there
Can you post his routine so we can see what is going on?  He certainly doesn't need to be having milk at night at this age and it is likely a habit.  Also, may I ask why you are still giving him rice cereal at this age?  Is he eating regular meals with you as well?
There are two methods we use when sleep training toddlers, you can read about them here:  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=80750.0
Feeding at night for this long will be a pretty ingrained habit to break, so you can probably expect it will take some time and he will be quite upset, but really there is no need for him to be getting milk so I would advise you to try and stop as soon as possible.  We'll help you figure out how.