Fighting sleep as we wean off the bottle

[Meg's Mom]

Megan has always had a bottle before nap and night sleep, not feed to sleep but part of wind down.  We are weaning her just now, went from 4oz to 3oz, this week on 2oz...and she is not a happy camper. 

Yesterday she refused her nap completely (tried for 1hr30min - she did get 5min in the car beforehand, so don't know if that was the trouble) and at bed has been screaming her head off (not crying, screaming when i leave the room) for 15min.  I am not sure if i should do walk in / walk out or pd or the chair shuffle?? 

Any suggestions welcomed.

I guess i have to admit that she was using the bottle to enter the stages of sleep, more so then i thought!  oops

[Mel55]

We weaned DD off her bedtime bottle, which was also part of her wind-down.  I had weaned her off the bottle except at night for a few months.

Anyway, the trick we used was to have some "tea" instead before bed.  We put warm water in her bottle and let her suck on that.  She basically lost interest and that was that after about 3 or 4 nights.

Now I give her a little warm water in her sippy cup and if she wants it she drinks some, and if not, she seems to go to bed as usual.  We just add in story time and she has a favorite baby einstein video and we do that before bed instead of a bottle.  Seems to work.

[Meg's Mom]

We too have gradually weaned, these are the last 2 bottles (nap and night) and gradually reduced the oz in each over a several weeks.  Thanks for the tip of warm water in the bottle, i will definately use that next week if she still seems to want the bottle.

Today has gone much better, I gave her the 2oz bottle then when she was finished i then gave her a cracker and her sippy with water while i continued to read.  She went down no problem.  I hope this continues.

[Mel55]

Yeah, it seems to be just a matter of changing the routine and getting your daughter to go along with it.  I would say it took a good 2-3 weeks before she wasn't asking for a bottle.  But I was very adamant about not giving in to her.

She is teething (2 year molars) right now and has woken up a few times at night asking for her bottle, but I just tell her no bottle and ask her if she wants some "tea" (warm water) instead.  Usually she goes for it.

I hope things get better for you !

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Hi Michelle,
Think you are on the right track with the cracker and sippy cup and maybe warm water in the bottle first. Maybe just vary the routine a little, if you read on the chair, maybe make a big deal of reading on the bed if there is a bed in her room or let her chose the book, something to distract from the bottle. I would also make the bottle earlier and earlier as time goes on so that eventually you get it out of the bedroom, maybe have it in the kitchen  and then gone altogether. Hope I am making sense. DD gave hers up at 6 months so not something we had to worry about thankfully- well I say thankfully now but back then it was a different story. Does she have a dolly or toy for her cot? Dd has gotten very attached to hers in the last week, and I have to "fix her" at sleep time, she lies down, palm facing down on the mattress and dolly goes on top of her hand  started when she was going through her last phase and she wanted to hold my hands so I told her to hold dollies instead    the things you do :-)

[Meg's Mom]

Thanks ladies, we are back on track again.  Since she was fighting sleep so much - even with the 2oz bottle - i decided to bite the built and ditch all the bottles.  I give her milk in her sippy w/ her snack and then replaced the bottle in the wind down routine w/ a very special nite-nite cup (a sippy w/ water but has a bob the builder sip top...very cool looking).  We made such a big deal out of the new nite-nite cup that she hardly noticed she wasn't getting a bottle anymore ;-).