Help Getting 2 Year Old off Bottle at Night

Lots of people go the water route. My nephew however then demanded to have bottles with water in them, so it kind of backfired. He also wet his diapers and kept my sister up all night.

I got rid of bottles after my first was one, much sooner with my others. I did the crying it out method with my first. I did the exact time increments they suggested. I did it word for word. It didn't take me many nights. I think maybe even 2. I hated it though.

With my others, I modified it. I went in when I could tell they were upset, and just acted like it was nothing, soothed them and when they had calmed I left again. But because I wasn't watching the clock and just doing what I was comfortable was, I was way calmer and less stressed, and my babies sensed that. I think my poor first born must have known I was a wreck. It was a pretty horrible experience.

If you find it easier to offer him a sippy cup with water just in case he's thirsty, you could try that. But ultimately if he's waking 3 times at night at his age, you are just going to have to carve out some nights and get through it. Good luck

Is he just thirsty? My second son was like that - turns out he just wanted a bit of a drink. I gave him a sippy cup of water in his bed and told him that when he wanted wa-wa at night he could take a sip but there were no refills during the night. Turns out his grandmother (father's side) takes a glass of water to bed with her as she is a mouth breather and wakes up thirsty for just a sip or two. His father does the same...

Do not give him the bottle with milk in his crib or you will have tooth decay for sure. Also, if you haven't taken him to a dentist yet, get on that!

Why is he still getting bottles at all? Start there, maybe the problem will fix itself

A 2 year old getting bottles is a big problem to begin with. The fact that he still needs to eat at night is another issue. This is going to be harder to break than a pacifier, but you need to do it for so many reasons.

Have you talked to the pediatrician? In general, they are very opposed to children having milk at night anyway - all that milk sugar sitting on their teeth. Very bad for dental issues and decay. I don't think a wet diaper is the biggest problem here.

Moreover, he is drinking for comfort, not because he is hungry. Even a 1 year old can go all night without eating, so if you take the bottle away, he will make up for it by eating more during the day.

And of course, he's not sleeping well at all - and that is very bad for brain development. He needs a good night's rest, so he needs to go back to sleep by self-soothing. You can look up Ferber or sleep-training, but you do it basically by small amounts of comfort at ever-increasing intervals, and zero feeding and zero picking up or doing a lot of engaging. You don't ignore - you go in at 10 minutes, then after 20 minutes, then increasing intervals. He needs to not wake up all the way, but calm back down. It's usually 3 nights of you being exhausted, and then it's done. Switch off with spouse or grandma if you can. But you cannot give in and give the bottle, not even with water.

And of course you are not sleeping at night either - so please don't drive until you solve this problem.

It's hard. My first two kids I cut the bottle cold turkey. They cried for 3-4 nights. I did feel I "neglected " them. But that's not so. They had no teeth problems. I really think giving a bottle overnight is more neglect because to be honest you most likely give the 2 yr old a bottle to pacify him for your benefit. My third kid I let him have a bottle overnight. He got tooth decay. At 3 he had to go and get 3 teeth on top and bottom pulled. Lots of money and tears later I so regretted it! That did affect his speech later till his adult teeth came in. Please go cold turkey now your not neglecting the 2 yr old.

My kiddo was like this. Take him to the dentist. It turned out my kid had horrible cavities from drinking milk all night long. The pain kept him from eating much during the day, which lead to him waking all night for milk (and with wet diapers). I didn't realize he was in pain because he would still eat, just not much. I attributed it to 2 year old pickiness.

$8000 later, my kiddo's teeth were fixed, he ate enough food during the day, slept through the night, and just like that, the bottle was gone.

We used Ferber. We did it early. It worked for us. No night feeds or changes once we were done.

Babies don't need to be fed at night once they are 12 lbs or 3 months old. Any night feedings beyond that age are for comfort. Once they are taught to self soothe, no need for the bottle and less need for a change.

We plan on doing Ferber for ds#2 as well.

With my 2 y/o granddaughter, I stopped a bottle shortly after her 1 year birthday. She only drinks from a sippy cup at night with water in it, so when she gets thirsty she takes a few sips of water and goes back to sleep.

It's two habits you need to break.
First, water down the milk bit by bit every few nights till he's down to plain water.
Then, little by little give him smaller amounts of water at night.
It might not help with the sopping diaper issue - just make sure you keep a good mattress protector on the bed and maybe you can use an absorbent pad under his sheet to help catch what the diaper can't hold.
Some kids are just heavy wetters.

It's just a habit, and it's a particularly BAD habit because he's bathing his teeth in sugar all night long. You should not be giving him a bottle anymore either. It can cause him to need braces when he's older. That's one potentially expensive bottle you're giving him.

Are you giving him bottles during the day? No more, if you are. Get rid of day bottles, period. I think that the poster who said to cut the milk with water until it's nothing but water is giving you good advice. The crying will just have to commence. You need to toughen up and let him cry rather than continuing to let him do this. At the point that he no longer gets what he wants, he will start sleeping through the night. You haven't let him learn how to self-soothe, so the milk is what puts him back to sleep. And the waking is because he anticipates the milk.

It won't be easy, but it's the right thing to do.

if there's milk in it start by watering down the milk, if you do 6 oz of milk normally then tonight do 5 oz of milk to 1 oz water, then tomorrow night 4 oz milk to 2 oz water, then even water to milk, next 2 oz milk to 4 oz water and finally just a little milk to mostly water till you can go to just water, then you gradually decrease the amount of water you put in there the same way

I would replace the bottle of milk with a cup of water. He is too old to be taking a bottle, and after his teeth are brushed at bedtime he shouldn't have anything but water.

Our boy wanted a bottle at night until he was about 2 1/2. I talked to the pediatric dentist and he told me a lot of good things. Our boy actually has the best teeth of all the kids.

When a kiddo continuously holds a bottle in their mouth with milk dripping on their teeth, not drinking it down then putting it down, absolutely milk dripping for 10 hours a night dripping on their teeth....that's what causes milk rot teeth.

The dentist told us to practice normal dental care and to not let him keep a full bottle in his mouth once he went to sleep.

So we would let him have his bottles. One day he walked up to me and gave it to me and didn't want another.

Some kids need to suck. My daughter did. When I just took her bottle away and let her go she started sucking her fingers. So her hand is deformed but the pull of the sucking and her bottom jaw is recessed due to her hand pushing against it and pulling her top teeth forward.

I don't think it's a big deal that he has a bottle at night. I wouldn't let him have it during the day. I'd give him a binky and tell him no bottles unless he's in bed.

As for the diaper, you're just going to have to change him more often at night. Put a plastic mattress pad on the mattress and you can even put pee pads under him, even under the sheet but on top of the mattress.