[amybw]

My son has never slept well through the night. He goes down easily, but staying asleep is an issue.

He is almost 17 mths old and STILL wakes up at night about 2/3 of the time for a bottle around 2-3 am ( he is making little noises now). This is the only time he gets a bottle. Not even mentioned during the day.
Is this normal? I cant figure this out.

I do not believe in CIO. but i dont run to the first whimper either. I know his cries of i am only restless in my sleep or i need you now mommy. He has always been kinda noisy in his sleep too so i have learned his noises.

I have tried sippies of formula or milk or water ( please dont flame me for formula)
bottles of water- He will suck down a whole water bottle and cry again.
regular cups of water or milk or formula
nothing but the bottle of milk or formula. he can tell.
the only thing that seems to appease him is milk or formula in the bottle.

he acts like he is starving. I am wondering if it is habit or really hungry. I had a gal tell me the other day to let him CIO and after a few days he will get it. She let hers cio for about 2 hrs and that was the last time he woke at night. I refuse todo that and was so sad for her baby. ( few mths older than my DS) Her reasoning is that if we made a habit as an adult to get up at 2 am and have an ice cream sundae we would start doing it every night out of habit.
UGH. i wanted to kick her :LOL

I talked to the Ped. He just kinda shrugged. Ignorant man

I think DS is so active that he cant get in enough calories to sleep well. i have no idea. He sucks it down and immediately goes right back to sleep.

He eats dinner when we do around 6 ish. Has a snack about 8-830 - last thing we do before bath and bedtime routine. then bed about 830 or 9. I have heard to give milk products and fruits (or other high in sugar foods) before bedtime. The milk supposedly causes a drowsy effect (like turkey) and fruit or other high in sugar foods will keep blood sugar levels high enough to not get hungry through the night. So i usually give him cottage cheese and peaches or another fruit. or plain yogurt with fruit. I dont really do any sweets except oatmeal cookies i make, graham crackers, cereal bars or animal crackers and that is only occasionally.

What can i do? I am wondering if the milk products upsets his stomach and wakes him up, but would more milk appease this? I guess it could be like heartburn.

I can get up with him as necessary. I would like to get more sleep but it isnt the end of the world and he is my baby after all

. I keep thinking if we were BF'ing i may still be getting up with him for EBF.

I am just worried. I also got some flack fromthe Ped at 12 mths and 15 mths that we need to get rid of the bottles.

please help. Am I wrong or doing a disservice to my DS to continue night feedings? what is an alternative?

thanks!

Amy
i think it is the real thing now- off to get the bottle

 

[lisalou]

My dd is 21 months and just started not waking up at night to nurse. It was a gradual process and the night that I decided she would have to ask for nursing is when she decided to sleep though the night. She's sneaky that way. We eat dinner when you do and the only snack she gets before bathtime is a ginger snap or graham cracker. She gets 3 decent sized meals a day and 2 decent sized snacks and the ginger snap or graham cracker.

Anyway, it sounds like your son is truly hungry when he wakes up. Since he seems to know the difference between milk and water. Also since he doesn't do it every night I would err on the side of hunger. DD won't take a bottle with me but my ped's original suggestion for nightweaning was to give her a bottle of 3/4 bm and 1/4 water. Then slowly dilute it further. My ped does believe that a stomach can get used to getting fed at certain times and thus decreasing the amount of calories at night would increase intake during the day. I think she was sort of right b/c dd has begun eating significantly more at dinner and now she's sleeping through the night. Except she seemed to do it the other way, she began to eat more during the day and thus eliminated the need to wake at night. But I don't think you can force a child to eat more than they want to you can just make sure you offer them enough.

I think you'll find a lot of moms here are still nursing their 17, 18, 21 month olds at night and even older. So I don't think you're doing your son a disservice by giving him a bottle at night if you think he's hungry. Just make sure you're offering him enough during the day. Make sure he continues to seem to be asking for a bottle at night. For me I sort of realized I was automatically nursing dd when she woke b/c it was easiest. Not that she was necessarily asking for it.

 

[PancakeGoddess]

there are a few recent great threads about this in the nighttime parenting forum.

 

[BabyBliss]

My daughter is 15 months and sometimes only wakes once to nurse (around 3-4am) and sometimes it seems like she is up every three hours. When she goes on those jags for a couple of weeks I assume it is a growth spurt, but boy can it wear you down! There have been times when I worked hard at getting her to sleep without nursing because she was just waking up too early and couldn't possibly need to eat (ie., waking at 11pm) and I didn't want to reinforce the wake/nurse relationship, and as the pp said, just because it is the easiest way to get her back to sleep doesn't mean that is necessarily what she is looking for. But once in the night, when nothing else seems to do the trick, I would guess he is hungry.

 

[amybw]

Thanks all! I apprecite the advice and opinions. I just need reassurance occasionally that i am doing the right thing :LOL

I am afraid i will cause his teeth to get all messed up or something either in shape or cavities. I guess I could squeeze in a little water at the end.

thanks for makingme feel better.

Amy

 

[FoxintheSnow]

My DS is 15 1/2 months. He always sleeps through the night and is extremely active during the day and we've never ever done cio. This is his approximate daily menu (or what he had yesterday anyway):

Breakfast: A bowl of oatmeal and a banana
Snack: At the healthfood store I buy these energy type bars in the bulk bins loose. He eats them as a snack and thinks its the same as a snickers
Lunch: Potato Wedges, cooked carrots, soy hot dog
Snack: apple pieces, rice cakes, soy yogurt
Dinner: Black beans, pasta, peas, shredded cucumber
Dessert: sorbet

As far as milk goes, he gets about 2-3 sippy cups full of milk or soy milk. Plus water and juice throughout the day. He has a sensitivty to milk too so I try to avoid it.
At his last checkup he was 50th% for weight. If you want you could try following the menu I use for my son. I think the key is to make sure they are getting enough solids. My son did formula too as an infant but made the switch to milk at a year. *If* he is getting enough solids during the say he could very well be waking up out of habit.