How would you put a weaned toddler to sleep?

[mambera]

DD (16 mo) has always been an awesome sleeper. She sleeps 8-10 h and dream feeds maybe 3-4x per night but I barely wake up for those. I feel lucky.

The only way we have ever put her to sleep has been with milk. Either nursing if I'm there, or with a bottle and some rocking if I'm not. (I don't want to continue the bottle habit too much longer for fear of rotting her tooth.)

We are thinking about TTC when she turns 18 mo. I can't imagine sleep is going to be much different then. I am wondering whatever are we going to do about bedtime when the milk dries up??

I would like to hear from mamas who have BTDT. How did you get your kid to sleep after weaning if milk was the only way they'd ever known? TIA

[Phoebe]

It sounds impossible but we've done it fairly easily 3 times now! At about 18 months they really understand alot. We just prep them beforehand by telling them that Papa is going to lay down with them and read stories. Very quickly Papa and toddler find thier own way.
Honestly, I was able to put them to bed without nursing fairly easily around 20 months or so just by lettin them know we were going to "do it this way instead". Also, offering a sippy cup with water helps too. But, it can take FOREVER for them to go to sleep with me there. For Papa, they pass out much sooner.
They learn the new way quite fast usually. I'll bet you'll be surprised.
I would recommend consistancy though. If you go back and forth it can really drag things out and create a real struggle. Just go with the "here's the new plan, kiddo" and adjust from there. But I wouldn't go back to nursing to sleep unless you resign to keep it that way for a while.

Good luck!

[SophieAnn]

I've put my neice to sleep a few times this way:

I climb into bed with her (twin bed) and read a story. Then we might chat quietly for a few minutes. Then I'll usually sing a song and rub her back for a little while and she falls right to sleep.

Sounds like it would be a good job for your DH.

[mizzoh]

when nursing to sleep stopped working, we started rocking ds to sleep. this worked really well until he was about 2 1/2 and was just too heavy to rock. at that point we started lying next to him in bed while he fell asleep. i started working with him during naps - it took him a while to get used to just lie there and fall asleep without rocking or nursing, but he did. we also had a regular routine - bath, books, sleep