14 month old wanting bottle in the night - advice how to wean him off?

[Teija]

My DS started sleeping through since he was 7 months. His night awakenings have coincided with him starting nursery this autumn and being poorly (cold, cough etc). He had a period of couple of weeks that he wouldn't eat well and woke up in the middle of the night wanting milk. He has now continued that despite being well and doesn't settle unless he gets a whole bottle of milk. On most days he eats well (3 meals a day plus snacks) so he really shouldn't be needing an extra bottle. Does anyone have advice how I could wean him off the bottle, please?

Additionally, I'm struggling to find him a bottle that he accepts and have gone back to using his baby bottles. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Many thanks.

[mewkins]

Extra high carb snack before bath. . And if all else fails water down bottle gradually over a week or so. Plus when you give the bottle have minimal interaction.

[Teija]

He has a dinner at nursery at 5pm and we give him a snack (basically whatever we can get down (bread, yoghurt, banana) when he comes home at 6pm. He goes to bed at 7pm and has a full bottle of milk.

What snack would you recommend?

How do you water down bottle? Do you mean mix the milk with water and gradually increase the amount of water so that by the end of the week it's only water?

[mewkins]

In that case he sounds like he's eating plenty so shouldn't need extra milk at night. If thr bottle he's waking for is 5oz say, night one go in and give 4oz milk mixed with 1oz water, do the same night two, then night 3 give 3oz milk with 1oz water anf keep going til you're down to only 1oz milk mixed with 4oz water. Stick at that and hopefully the waking for milk will stop. ..

[Teija]

Thank you, I'll try that. I was planning on starting tonight but he had mild fever so will have to wait for few nights. I'll let you know how it's going.