How do i fix this habbit?

[GoneBatty]

Hi gals,

I think ive messed up my 11 month old sons sleeping n maybe its why im having trouble now.

When he started holding his bottle on his own he would fall asleep with it of a night so to save disturbing him id do pj's and put to bed with his bottle.......what a mistake! :banghead: he wont go down without a bottle now and when he wakes up during the night i have to get a bottle for him to go back to sleep. We are going through HEAPS of milk and i want to get DS off to sleep without bottle especially so he learns to go back to sleep by himself without bottle when he wakes of a night.

Any suggestions for help would be very greatly apperciate!

[jaimie]

Does he use a dummy? He may just want to suck on something. Depends on how you feel about replacing one habit with another. Has to be better than constant feeding tho:)

[Gumnut]

Hi

I had the same problem but it was with breastfeeding. She would only fall asleep on the boob and when she woke at night she would want the boob back to go back to sleep! Drove me insane!

Anyway, the only way we stopped it was to go cold turkey and just not give it to her. Was a HORRIBLE couple of weeks but was absolute bliss at the end. No probs now and it wasn't replaced with another "habit". Every time she woke at night we would give her a cup (she refused bottles) with water and she screamed the house down. It was really just a battle of wills and in the end she realised that she wasn't going to win!

I've heard that it takes about 3 days to get them out of a bad habit but with her it took longer but she is extremely stubborn.

Wasn't great but I tell you what it was probably the best thing we did because I got my sleep back. Also, I've heard you should always brush their teeth after their last bottle because milk left in their mouth can rot their teeth.

Good luck!

[xkwzit]

Hiya Clair
I've heard of ppl offering only water in a bottle at night. There's no risk of tooth decay and not alot of extra milk taking the place of food they might otherwise eat. And you can leave a water bottle with him all night. One mother I knew trained her kids to find it by themselves (it was always wedged in behind their pillow - I believe they were a bit older than your boy).

If he goes bananas with straight water, you can water it down gradually over time. Eventually he might think it not worth the effort.

Best of luck:fingerscrossed:

[GoneBatty]

Hi,
Thanks for the replies. I will try the water. he does drink water of a day sometimes but i dont know how he will go of a night.

I will keep you posted on how things go.

Claire

[GoneBatty]

Oh and yep he has a dummy. he wont go to sleep with just that.