Weaning a Toddler Off the Nighttime Bottle
31 January 2011 by Nanny Lili
Filed under Bedtime & Sleep, Eating, Readers' Enquiries
When your child has reached the point where he or she no longer needs a bottle but is still attached to it as a comfort item (particularly at bedtime), you may be in for a struggle, as reader Kayley B. has found out. She writes:
Hi, my 3 year old daughter still wants a bottle in bed and gets up in the night for another one, she won’t sleep without one and when I tell her she is not having another in the night she screams until she gets another. Please, anything I can do?
Kayley,
There are a couple of techniques you could try. First, you could dilute the milk with water. Start on the first night adding a little bit of water, then over time add more and more water. You could also give it to to her cold if you normally give it warm. As a last resort, you could try soya milk.
Take your daughter shopping to choose her own sippy cup and maybe put that in the corner of her bed or somewhere she can reach it, just in case she wakes up thirsty. Let me know how it goes for the two of you!
