help - 1 year old is up for 4+ bottles during the night!

My 1 year old still drinks his bottle at night... I don't think its a
big deal - BUT when he needs 4+ of them it is - because he's up every
hour and cries until he gets a bottle.

Jeff...

You taught him well. You taught him that every time he cries in the middle
of the night, he will get a bottle. And he learned the lesson well.

Luckily my body is somewhat used to this and I only get really
exhausted one day every couple of weeks, but its still very very
frustrating to be getting up with him and running to get him bottles.
Of course, with the amount he's drinking his diaper easily gets over
loaded and leaks into the blanks every night.

Any advice on getting rid of the bottle problem?

Ericka Kammerer...

While I'd be the first to say that some babies
seem to need a nighttime feeding for longer than usual,
clearly four or more bottles a night is something more
than just hunger. It's certainly something you can change,
but it's not going to be easy. I think you'll have a
slightly easier road if you do some thinking about it
before you decide on a strategy.
First, you'll want to think about why he's
waking. Most likely some of it *is* hunger. If he's
consuming that many calories at night (assuming these
aren't water bottles), his body is now accustomed to
eating those calories at night and he's probably eating
comparatively less during the day. With that many wakings,
he is probably also using the bottle as a strategy to
get back to sleep during very normal wakings at night.
He'll need another strategy for falling back to sleep.
A bunch of it is probably just habit.
Second, you'll want to think about alternate
ways to meet the needs that are causing the wakings
now. He'll need to eat more other times of day, and
he'll probably need to develop some better ways to
fall asleep.
I don't really think there's any right strategy
with this. You can go cold turkey, and have a rough
few nights but get it over quicker. Or, you can take
a long slow road of teaching better sleep habits and
gradually diluting the bottles and shifting more
calories to the daytime. Or you can look for something
in between. The strategy that often works best in
my experience is to plan a major shakeup (like a
vacation) and then do a little prep work while you're
waiting for the big event. For instance, you could
plan to really shake up the schedule around the
holidays (go visit family maybe?). In the meantime,
start introducing a lovey of some sort and start
making sure you never put him down totally asleep
(don't let him suck at the bottle until he's out
cold--put him down sleepy but awake). In fact,
you might do well to do something in between his
bedtime bottle and putting him down (bath? story?
songs?--anything that breaks that association
between bottle and falling asleep).
When the time comes for vacation, just mix
it all up--new location, different schedule, get
different people involved with bedtime and any
night wakings, etc. Try to get in more feedings
during the day. If you're the one who usually shows
up with the bottle at night, get others to volunteer
to take a night waking or two and try other strategies.
When everything else is different, it's easier for
babies to adapt to a different approach. Do you want
to knock out all night feedings, or just get him down
to one? If just one, maybe feed him once at your
bedtime, and then do everything possible to stall him
with any other night wakings. Don't let him sleep in
after the relatively sleepless night. Get up as usual
(or even very early, if he's just not sleeping at all)
and feed him *then*, and keep up the daytime feedings
in the hopes of getting enough calories in during the
day. At night, push the lovey and rock, pat, cuddle,
whatever, but don't feed. Keep the days really busy
so he's active and gets tired. The main thing, though,
is to shake up his whole routine and then let it
settle back down into something more acceptable.
I think that's a lot easier than trying to go cold
turkey changing a routine in place (especially with
a strong-willed baby), and it's a lot shorter than
doing the long, gradual process. Plus, if you plan
it right you get some help ;-)

Best wishes,
Ericka

Nan...

We solved it by switching to water bottles at night. One night of
protesting and our dd got used to it. I see nothing wrong with
nighttime bottles if it's a comfort thing for them.
You could always replace the comfort thing with something else, such
as a favorite toy or lovey, too.

Jeff...

Don't give the bottle to him. Tell him when he goes to bed that he won't get
a bottle in the middle of the night. It will take two or three nights until
he gets the idea. They will be long nights, but you'll and he will live.

The alternative is to wait until he is 17 and goes to college. But doing
this sooner will save a lot of laundry.