Baby Wakes for a Bottle in the Middle of the Night.........

It's really hard when it's 3am. You should try putting him to bed without the bottle. Babies that have a sleep crutch like rocking or a bottle or music dont know how to put themselves to sleep. If uses the bottle to go to sleep when he wakes up in the middle of the night (which all babies do) he can't go back to sleep without it. So, I would suggest giving him a bottle & then lay him down without the bottle. He'll cry but it's a lot easier to handle ____@____.com 2 1/2 yr old still isn't a good sleeper. The earlier you fix it the better. M.

I recommend the book "The Sleep Easy Solution" It tells you how to wean your baby off the nighttime feeding. Does he wake up at he same time every night for the bottle? If so, the solution is to wake up an hour before his normal wake up time and give him a bottle. Do this each night making the bottle one ounce smaller each time. By waking up and giving him the bottle before he wakes up requesting it, you are teaching him that crying isn't answered by a bottle. Hope you find this helpful and to everyone out there, the Sleep Easy Solution has advice on sleep problems at all different ages. I HIGHLY recommend this book.

Hi S.. What you do is called progressive waiting. You'll be tired at first but it will pay off big time in the long run. We are trained socially to respond to every little sound our babies make and feel like bad moms if we don't but let me tell you what you are teaching your child if you jump evey time he makes a sound. You are teaching him that he is in control and that if he creis long enough and loud enough you will eventually give in. Not good training for later. The first night, give him what he wants but be slow to respond. Wait 5 minutes or so and when you do go in, don't pick him up, just give him the bottle. The second time you go in, wait 10 minutes and again, dont pick him up. Soothe him and be nice but don't pick him up!!!!!
For every time you go in, wait another 3 to 5 minutes in addition to the time you waited before... 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes etc. If he learns that you are not running to him, he will have to figure out something else to do with himself and he will soothe himself back to sleep. Its really good self-esteem training for him. If you cant stand to listen to him scream, put on headphones for the time you need to wait. I know it sounds mean, but in about a week, you will have a full night's sleep and a happier baby. Good luck

You do not necessarily have to take the bottle away at night, but you definitely CANNOT allow him to fall asleep with it! All the milk in the mouth while he sleeps has so much sugar, it can actually cause decay in his teeth before they even come up! And most likely, the teeth that he may currently have are not in such good shape, and may even be decaying already - so you need to stop giving him that bottle in his crib.
When my daughter was one and eating mostly solid foods (with some milk in bottles still) I made sure to give her a BIG dinner of solid food an hour or two before bed so that she was good and full for a long period of time. Then, go ahead and offer him a bottle right before bed, with you feeding it to him in your arms - he will be nice and full, and will generally start waking up less and less at night, as his dinner and bottle are quite enough to carry him totally through the night. If he DOES wake up at night for a bottle, and you know he ate a good dinner and drank his milk before bed, offer him a bottle with water in it - you CAN give that to him in his crib, or hold him and give it to him. He may take it or not, but either way, the bottle will become less desirable and he will give it up more easily.

Hi S.,

I'm a stay at home Dad and I'm kind of going through the same thing with our 13 month old. We have been giving him some solid food before his bedtime bottle. Things such as part of apple or crackers. This seems to work better than just a bottle alone. Also, lately we've seemed to notice that a bath or even a spongebath before laying him down seems to keep him from waking up in the middle of the night. Good luck!

Jim

S.,
I'm so sorry you are still dealing with this. A year would have driven me off the deep end! Although my daughter isn't as old as your son I can sympathize with your frustration. Unfortunately I just had to deal with the crying for several nights. Eventually she did go back to sleep but it killed me to listen to her scream. My husband was a huge support. When I wanted to go in and soothe/feed her he talked me out of it. Good luck!

My son did the same thing, except it was to nurse to 18 months, then sipper cup to 27 months. The only times he'd sleep through the night was if I fed him about a 1/2 cup (total when prepared) of baby cereal right before putting him to bed. Even now, we have a snack before brushing our teeth and going to bed. at his age (2 1/2) it is sometimes a peanut butter sandwich, sometimes a bowl of cereal, and sometimes (still) baby cereal.

So I guess my suggestion is, feed him something a little filling before starting the bed time routine and see if that does the trick. I've also heard of adding rice cereal to the last bottle, but never tried it.

Hope it helps~ J.

Dear S.,

What about a pacifier? Some people are opposed to them, but I have found them very satisfying for the baby and for the family too. Try a pacifier in the evening and rocking and then put it back into his mouth at 3:00 also. Probably the other Mommies will have better ideas, I am a little older and they may have invented something better.

You are right, you do need your sleep and rest too. Being a mother and wife is a hugely important job and you need all your wits about you during the days. C. N.

My daughter would wake up in the middle of the night for a bottle too, finally at 20months I just could not do it any more, her pedi said it was fine to let her cry it out, and that it probably wasnt that she was really hungry, it was probably more of a comfort thing to help her fall back asleep. So I moved her crib to her room, it was in our room, and on a weekend when I didnt have work or school the next day or anything going on so if she let me I could sleep in. I let her cry it out, when she woke up, I went and checked on her to make sure she was fine and closed the door, I closed the door to my bedroom too, to help drown out the noise, also I turned on a fan and that helped a little and when she would finally stop, like 1/2 hour 45mins later I would go check on her and open the doors again, It only took 2 or 3 nights of her crying it out and then she sleept through the night. If only I had known that I would have done it when she is a lot younger! My son just turned 5 months and he still wakes up 1-2 times and Im only going to do that for another month or two and he is going to cry it out too. You just have to stick through it and it will be sooo worth it.

hi... you should never put cereal in a baby bottle!! Ever! please don't do this. it's a total myth that it helps them sleep. sorry, it is. his waking is likely developmental, not related to his hunger (though if it's a gorwth spurt he could just be ravenous and if so, ti will resolve on its own). so do what you can to separate him from the bottle in bed and you might have a few tough nights but you'll get there. try elizabeth pantley's "the no cry sleep solution" for more on this. it's a pretty good resource. good luck... it'll pass, i promise!

S.,
Try reading Dr. Ferbers Solving your child's sleep problems. The basic idea is this: We all have times in the night that we partially wake up and then fall back asleep. Most of the time we don't notice. Your child is doing the same thing, however, he can't recreate the same experience he had when falling aseep so he has to cry for you to come do it for him. Think of it like this, if someone stole your pillow while you were asleep and you rolled over in the night to find it gone you would wake up and be upset too. The key is to let your child fall asleep on his own with conditions that he can recreate by himself in the night. Now, for a baby/child thats him in his bed with no cup/paci/walking/rocking etc. You should let him cry it out when he goes to bed not at 3am. This will be better and easier for both of you. Using Dr. Ferbers method my daughter (and every other member of our mommy group - about 12) fell asleep within 30 minutes the first night and slept on their own by the third night with little to no crying. Good luck and feel free to email me for more specifics if you choose to try this method, or if you have time read the book it has great information and methods that really work even though they are a little tough on Mommy's nerves!!

Have you tried making the bottle with the baby cereal, maybe the mixed grain since it's heavier than the rice. The oatmeal is too thick and will get stuck in the nipple. On advice from my mom (which has been passed through our family for years) I started doing this with my son when he was 4 or 5 months old. This got him sleeping longer through the night because he didn't have to wake up hungry. I normally would put about a formula scoop full of the cereal in an 8 oz bottle and let him drink it all up. He was normally out cold by the time the bottle was done and didn't wake up until about 5 or 6 in the morning. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Hi,

I did the same thing! But I stood there and made sure he finished his "evening" bottle while lying down in his crib. I heard it was bad, but it was so comforting to him. He sometimes wanted another one, and I thought...well he's only one. As soon as I started him on jars of food, he slept through until morning. The formula just probably isn't enough to sustain his stomach from growling and waking him up. Give Gerber...or whatever you would use a try. It was amazing. Like...hey...he hasn't woken up all week, since the food for dinner. The last bottle was like dessert.

we recently switched giving our twins a nubby sippy cup before bed in place of a bottle. but they don't go to sleep with it. they drink it about 20 minutes before bedtime. as far as the middle of the night thing? we weened our girls between 13 and 14 months by decreasing the amount they got in their bottle by one ounce each week until they were only getting 1 ounce of soy milk when they woke up. after that ounce was gone they'd either go back to sleep or cry a bit and i'd offer them water. they didn't like that. eventually they stopped waking up because i think that one ounce just wasn't worth it to them. now they sleep through the night no problems!

I think you're on the right track. My advise is to let him cry it out, but you have to be consistent and set your mind to it, get support from your husband, or a family member/close friend who can help you be strong and resist going into his room when he wakes up. There will be a few nights a very little sleep at the beginning but he will catch on and it will be so worth it in the end. I kept a log of the time my son woke up, how long he cried for and the time he went back to sleep. It may not be something you want to be doing at 3 AM but it did help me track the progress and keep my going with the plan. Good Luck!

My son use to do the same thing, so I started only giving him water at night, and I would only give it to him in a sippy cup. (I weaned him from the bottle at age one) It took 2 or 3 nights for him to accept the change, but once he realized that he's wasn't going to get milk he started sleeping through the night. He still takes a sippy cup of water to bed with him and if he does wake up it's already there for him so he doesn't cry. I hope this helps!

S.,

You're right about letting him cry it out. What I would advise doing is turn the monitor off, so you don't have to hear him as loud. I know it's horrible to hear your baby screaming at the top of his lungs. My advice is that once you can get him to put himself back to sleep one time - the next time and time after and so forth will be easier (for both of you). He will eventually learn how to put himself back to sleep and you won't have to hear the constant crying. My mother said that the 3 of us (my brother and sister) woke up in the middle of the night until we were 2. My son who is now almost 2 1/2 has been sleeping through the night since he was about 11 months. I think it depends on the child. I would also give your son a snack before bedtime. I still do this with my son because it fills him up and he sleeps longer. I hope this helps a little and I wish you lots of luck.

L.