another kid question

[Brett Hartwig]

OK, everybody was so helpful with my last kid question, here is another. How in the world should we go about weaning our 2 yr. olds from the nighttime bottle of milk? I know the "cold turkey" method is probably what we need to do, but we have tried that a couple times and they have such a fit, they are going to bed too late. They use sippy cups all day, don't even play with a bottle, but at naptime and bedtime they take the bottle to go to sleep. If you read my last question, you know they will be starting daycare in October and we would rather not have 2 year olds drinking out of bottles like babies when the other kids don't use them. Not sure what to do.

 

[Kevin Palmer]

We told ours it was broken and showed her a broken bottle. She accepted that the first night with not issues at all.



The second night it was still broken but she was not impressed. It took some time but she fell asleep. It was a ruff night though for all...



After that, never had another issue. We were done in two days.



My other daughter was good to go instantly. Went to regular cups before 2 and never had to screw with a bottle at night at all.



The better method is to never introduce the bottle around sleep time as it become associated that it is required to have the bottle when it it time for bed/sleep..

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Freeport, I hate to do this, but I have to lecture, because maybe with a lecture you will understand the importance of what you are trying to do, and the harm with what you are currently doing, and therefore wean them "whatever it takes."



First of all, at two years of age, your children no doubt have teeth. Putting them to bed with a bottle is like you eating candy and then not brushing your teeth and going to bed. It is very bad. It will rot their teeth.



So, here are my suggestions:



1) Get rid of the sippy cups altogether. Give them cups (not sippy kind) only at mealtime, and maybe once in between for a few minutes. Oh, and give them water in them. Maybe a glass of cold, skimmed or 2% milk during the day.



2) Feed the kids. Make sure they are eating mostly solid food at this point. At 2 years old they should be pretty much eating what you all eat, maybe in smaller, mushier forms.



3) Set a strictly followed bed time. At that age it should be no latter than 7:30pm. The first few nights they will cry, and cry, and cry. Let them. Go into another room, listen to the radio, read a book, whatever. After 20 minutes of crying, go in, tell them they need to lay down and go to sleep. Offer them a drink of water from a cup (crying can dehydrate a child), then lay them down and leave....repeat every 20 to 30 minutes until they fall asleep. Most kids fall asleep with 1 to 1.5 hours. The next night, do the same thing...each night it will take less for them to fall to sleep. DO NOT give them a bottle of milk and DO NOT let them get up.



That's what I would do.



Good luck.

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

Good tips TJR. And, don't give them juice before bed either...LOL I know too many parents that do that and they wonder why the kid doesn't sleep. Hello...Sugar in the juice!



Broken bottle works good too.



"The Binky" I threw it out the window while driving...she watched as it went out the window (it never left my hand)...LOL never asked for it again after that. I think she was 1.5 years old at the time.

 

[Scott Heckler]

The Nanny show, yeah I watched one show when nothing else was on, had you box all the bottles up and take them someplace together to show them you are giving them away. The broken bottle works too.

 

[Johnny O]

TJR has good tips. Also I found when an infant is colicky (won't go to sleep no matter what), if I closed their door and let the vacuum cleaner run out in the hallway then the white noise would help them go to sleep.

 

[Chris H 3]

We told my son that toy store would take pacifiers in trade for toys. So he took a zip lock bag of them to the store and picked some small toy out. We told him that he didn't have enough pacifiers for that toy but that we would pay for the balance. Then we explained it to the clerk who seemed to understand the deal and bought the toy. He never asked for a pacifier again.



Alternatively, kids can weather the cold turkey method a lot better than their parents. So I would suggest that. Just "steel your heart" before you try it.

 

[Scott Doughtie]

I have to agree everyone about the milk and juice, and all other items discussed. I will go one step further as I have just gone through this in the last 6 months: Little to no liquids at all at least an hour before bedtime. You will realize the benefits of this at Potty Training time. Making it through the night without an accident is the ultimate goal of potty training and liquid before bed severely hampers that. If they are thirsty, a few ounces of water will suffice.



Above all, a strict nightly regimine will work the best. Of course, milk at bed is what you have been doing, so it you need to adjust. At the minimum, try weening them off by reducing the amount of milk to where they get none at all.



We are all experts with our own children and taking into account what we all have said combined with your own tests, you should be able to kick the milk at bed habit.

 

[TomT]

Sippy cups are not for the kids. They were made so the adults don't have to constantly clean up messes!

 

[CountyMounty]

Some good suggestions so far. Unfortunately it is too late to do what is reccomended and never give them a bottle in bed always atleast a half hour or hour before. Since they have been getting a bottle in bed or right at bed time they associate the bottle with going to sleep, that is their routine and they do not want to break it and it will be tough to get them to. A reccomended way to do it is to do it slowly over a week or two, you can try the cold turkey method, or try to trick them in some way, but that only works a very small percentage of the time. The gradual method is to either A) try to start giving it to them a little earlier each night 10mins before bed, 15 mn, up to 30min to an hour or B) the second approach is to gradually reduce the amount over a couple weeks until it is done to nothing, 3/4bottle, 2/3bottle, 1/2 bottle, etc.



No matter what you try your most likely going to have to deal with a lot of crying and protest but you need to be persistent, easier said than done. Most parents know how hard it is to just let your child cry. Also you can try to replace the bottle with somehing else of a completely different nature, meaning replace the routine of the bottle with some other routine like reading a book, signing a lullabye or something else. At 2 years old they are getting to the age of reason where they can be "bribed" in that you may be able to get them to agree to not have a bottle in exchange for doing something else they really like to do. Or use the exchange method along with the gradual reduction method. Tell them you will read them a story if they only have 1/2 bottle and so on.



While we have been lucky with our son with the whole bottle thing the same has not been true for a pacifier. Like many parents we started out thinking we wouldn't use one but that changed fast (the hospital staff had him using one on day one). Now we have it so he only gets it at bed time period and he is fine with that but I know when we try to break that routine it will be the same situation you are in. We were going to do it soon (he is 13months old) but recent articles in both Parents Magazine and "The Growing Years" have suggested that waiting until around 2yo is better. The recent trend has been back towards thinking that pacifiers are a good thing (except for the parents when it comes time to take them away).



Yeah I know I sound like a magazine article...that is because I read Parents and Parenting all the time, Dont Laugh



Again Good Luck.

 

[Johnny O]

I notice in a lot of the newer houses that I work in, the master bedroom is off to the side on the first floor and the kids' rooms are upstairs on the other side of the house. I think this is a good layout.