Please Help!!! Having a Tough Time Breaking 15 Month Old Son of Bottle at Night

I used all the same trick that Chris used on her child....The only difference was, it was right around easter time and I told my daughter that the easter bunny needed her bottles for all the baby bunnies....Once that was said, she was all for giving up her "bubba" if it meant she could help the baby bunnies.....I know this sounds like a wimp-out solution, but it worked!!! Hope this helped!

If for no other reason, take the bottle away to save his teeth. It causes great damage lying on his teeth especially all night. He'll have to cry and it will be hard to do but well worth it. Good luck~

A smart lady once told me. "I remember each of my childrens first day of high-school. All of them were potty trained and none of them were taking bottles or pacifiers along."
Really puts it into perspective. He might just need the bottle for comfort longer than your daughter did. You are not a bad mom or lazy! Brush his teeth often and don't give him high-sugar liquids.

I argee with "don't push it". I don't mean to be rude, but why does it seem like everyone wants to let the babies cry/scream thmselves to sleep. Maybe I'm just lucky, but my son is almost 4 & he just recently stopped taking a cup to bed. Until he was a year old, we gave him a bottle & rocked him to sleep. Then, shortly after, the bottle had water (only about 1-2 oz). It was more of a pacifier. He took that until about 1 year ago. We then switched to a cup. He took that until about 3 months ago. He just stopped. By the way, I didn't like the nubby cups. The piece was too soft & my son was a chewer. It only lasted about a month.
I know that everyone has different believes on night time sleeping & how to do it. Everything I read said not to give them a bottle at night. We are supposed to help them learn to sleep on their own. I think that we all need to look for advice, but then follow our own guts. We know our children best & what's going to work for them. This worked for me. We even tried the cry themselves to sleep. HATED IT!!! When we went back to our own way, we all slept better, even my son. Again, I hope that I don't offend anyone. And, I hope I was of even a little help.

i dealt with this to this is what worked for me put him in bed with NO bottle hes going to cry of course wait 5 minutes go in and pat him a little to reassure him your still there leave the room go back in 10 minutes later if hes still crying pat him again to reassure then leave go in 15 minutes later ect... it will take a few days of doing this but believe me it works.. yeah of course you will feel bad cause your baby is crying but after a few night even a week or so hell be over it knowing that even if he cries hes not getting a bottle then he will just go to sleep on his own..i talked to my doctor about this and she said after 6 months of age its ok for a baby to cry for awhile as long as there not hurt and you know what a hurt cry is so just try that and believe me it works .....

Is your bedtime routine to give him the bottle immediately before he goes to bed? Maybe trying switching things up.. with my DS, his routine is, bottle (well now it's a sippy cup), cereal, bath, story, saying good night to animals/parents, then down in the crib. Maybe if you make the bottle earlier in the routine you can phase it out easier?

Cold Turkey it, we had to do that too! It's the hardesst to hear him cry but you have to. Go in his room and tell him that you love him and it's night night time and walk out. It took about 5 days of not sleeping before our son finally figured out we meant buisness. Good luck!!!

What i did for my kids was when i gave them milk to go to bed I would take one oz of milk out & put an oz of water in w/ the milk. then a few days later i would put 2 oz of water in with the milk, few days later 3 oz of milk. till all they were drinking was water. then i would slowly put less water in there bottle. i would tell them, this is all u r getting no more when u finish this. Im not saying this works for everyone but it worked for me w/ both my girls. good luck.

my oldest son was the same age when he was off it. what we did is we just made him so sleepy that he went to bed before he asked for it. and i went from there. you can go and put water in it and tell him it is this or nothing and he will see he will not want it any more and give it up. good luck

Try the nubby sippy cup. It has a rubber top, similar to a bottle, but it is a sippy cup. Cuddle your little guy while he drinks it but do not let him take it to bed with him. It may take a week, but he'll stop crying. Does he use a pacifier? Maybe that would help (although if he doesn't already use one...you'd just be creating a new habit).

Also, he shouldn't need to eat at night. My son did this for a while and the Dr. told me not to feed him b/c he didn't need to eat. Maybe try rocking him or a short story or just rub his back in the crib.

I've been through the getting up at night... good luck

Meriah,
Unfortunatly letting him cry and then giving in after 45 minutes is really going to bite you in the behind. The next time you do it, he will cry much longer, because he expects that you will give in eventually.

It is NOT easy but, somehow muster up the love and compassion to help him. I know he may not be receptive to it, but try to rock him, or read to him quietly, or play quietly with the lights low. Yes he will probably scream, BUT if you want to break the habit and avoid tooth decay issues due to this....then that is what it may take.

I am sure there are games, etc...you can try and play. But at 15 months old, my kids didn't have the longterm memory or ability to reason for any of that to work.

We broke my son of his pacifier at about the same age, and he screamed for two nights and then he would cuddle in to sleep with no problems. We cuddled him, spoke softly to him, rocked with him, etc... So he knew we loved him, but did NOT give in. Once he figured it out, he was wonderful.

He may eventually give it up on his own, but he may not. I am not saying what you should do. If you want to stop the night time bottle this is what we did. But if you don't, then don't. No matter what, he won't be in school with a bottle, etc... :-)

Blessings.
M.

All the moms that have responded have very good sound advice and I agree with most of them. If you want to "kick the habbit" so to speak, then you have a couple of different options. 1. you can go cold turkey and try and deal with the screams, but I would try a different bed-time routine. Like, bath time then get into PJ's and read a story. After the story is done have them brush their teeth. Tell them that once their teeth are brushed they can't have anything else to eat or drink and it's off to bed. 2. you can come up with a clever idea like the "Bottle Fairy" or if you know some one who has a little baby, let the child know that the baby needs the bottle and clean them really well and wrap them up for the baby. Since the are "Big Kids" now they don't need them. Or you can donate them to a shelter where there are less fortunate children in need of such items. I would also Stop giving them the bottle at nap time too, that is going to make it much harder to break the night-time one. I had the same problem with my youngest son whom is now 30mo. old and we(my son and I) just went into the kitchen and I opened up the cubbord and took all the bottles out and we took turns throwing them away. He thought it was a funn game and wanted to do more. (he was also 18 mo. old) The first few nights were a little rough, but After that he was fine. Now he goes to bed and takes his nap without any aide from a bottle or sippie cup. Another idea would be for the Pediatrition to tell him that it's not healthy. Maybe that might work.

I hope this helped. Good luck and keep trying. -M.H.

I do agree with the dont push it also. i always asked my mother in law that is a dentist about it all the time. She always told me to do water at night, so it cant sit there on the gums and do damage around the teeth. Im not sure if you have it, but my daughter was horrible with the bottle so i bought a sippy sup that had a straw and let her use that. Then eventually we went to a sippy cup. She was off the bottle by 13 months. That was the easy part for her. Now shes sutck on her pacifier and will not go to bed without it. You can try letting him cry. I know my daughter can go two hours. Then i give in becuase she starts making herself sick. I hope everything goes well for you.

I agree with the others that you don't need to wean him if it's traumatic, but I don't believe a child should drink liquids lying down. Their inner ears are shaped different then adults. Drinking any liquids while lying down increases their chances for ear infections & sinus problems. As mentioned prior- tooth decay is another issue with anything other then water.

We never let the kids take bottles to bed, so I don't have good advice for you. We do offer our oldest a "bedtime" snack of low sugar foods & milk from a sippy. (like cheese, cold cereal low in sugar or whole wheat toast) Maybe offering a snack just before bed will help?

Good luck!
Becky

hi maybe i am not the best one to officer you advise because i still let my youngest tak a bottle to bed with her she just turned 19 mo old it help her feal happy and safe at a very inportin time in her life they are learning so much right now and doing so much i feal you son will give it up when he is ready as long as you don't put juice pop or kool aid in and stay with water or plain milk let him do it with very little help from you it will happen my older three did it on there own aloy earlyer then my youngest now but no two kids are the same good luck

Why push it? Is there a "magic age" to be off the bottle? There isn't one to be off the breast, so why now?

My 19 month old still has one bottle a day - it's her nighttime bottle. She'll wean herself soon, I'm sure - no child ever went to kindergarten with a bottle.

I just wouldn't worry about it right now. Soon enough he'll reach an "independent" stage and will no longer want it.

Who says this is a bad habit?? ok say maybe some denitst, doctors or whatever. Is it "thier" kid?? I am a firm beliver in every child is diffrent and does things at there own pace.
But if you think you should nip this in the butt try a diffent bedtime routine. For example turn all the lights down low hold him rock him or read him a bedtime story. I do think its ok to let them cry for a little bit But I do not belive in the cring for like 30min or longer. My daughter fusses every now and then, but I personally never let her cry for longer than 15 mins and it has never hurt her. I never gave her a bottle at night but I was breastfeeding her before bed till she was 8m old.
Good luck!

Sorry, but you have to do it cold turkey, do not give in...you can go and sit with them and read till they go to sleep, sing, whatever, but if you don't break the habit it will get worse...and I know you don't want that. Tell your child if they do not take the bottle at night they are a big boy/girl and that you are very proud of them and then reward them the next day with a nice breakfast, or make a chart and put stars on it, and remind them you love them but we have to move on to the next stage in their life a regular cup to drink from, try this...T. Marie

Hi Meriah,

I have to agree with the other moms who said dont push it as long as it is only water and you brush his teeth. That being said if you really want to get him off the bottle a trick I used with my daughter (who was almost 3 at the time) was I told her the bottle fair was coming soon to take her bottles because she was such a big girl now. Then a few days later we put all the bottle in the window sill and told her the bottle fair would come and give her a big girl toy in place of the baby bottles. after she went to sleep I traded the bottles with a talking stick poney she had her eye on at the toy store. She loved it..she asked for her bottle a few times..but no much and after a week she didnt ask at all. The only reason I pushed taking the bottle was she needed to start school for additional speach therapy and did not want taking bottle to school to become an issue. I came up with the bottle fairy because I am a chicken...I did not want her to be made at me for taking the bottles. Yes I know this is bad...but she was at a age where we were haveing lots of little battles and I did not want to add to it. Any way I hope this helps....and as said before dont rush it if you dont have to....some kids just need it longer.

I had the same problem with my oldest son he wouldn't go to sleep without a bottle until about 2. I had to just go lay with him every night until he'd fall asleep for about a month or more. Finally, he got used to going to sleep on his own with no bottle and being alone in his own room. Basically, just do anything you can to keep him calm without giving him the bottle it will just take time for him to get used to not having one every bed time. It's not easy for sure. Patience is a virtue~

I agree with the mothers that said take the bottle and throw them away. I have had my two broke from the bottle since they were 1 but I also never put them to bed with the bottle cause I didn't want to have to break that habit later. But everyone is different. If you can find a way to do it with a brib like the other mothers I would try that. But if that doesn't work then you are going to have to take it from him and don't give in. Think about his teeth when the milk sits on there all night it can cause tooth decay. And you don't want to have to deal with that. You aren't lazy its just easier this way. It will probably take a week or so but stop it now before it gets even worse and what ever you do don't give in. If you think that you will give in then don't tempt yourself throw the bottles away and don't look back and don't buy new ones stay strong and remember it is helping the baby. Good luck