Help !! Toddler asking milk before every nap/sleep

brindhaaa · Sep 16, 2011

Dear friends

Dont know whether someone would have faced this . My son 3 year old is asking milk ( using bottle - tried all method to stop , still trying ) before and after every sleep .

During the day after having lunch before going for nap ( the gap will be max one hour ) he needs milk , after sleep ( 2 hrs) he needs milk. During night before going to bed , he is having milk and he wake up once midnight and ask milk .He gets up many times if i somehow convince and put him back to sleep till he has milk . one more time in the morning .

Altogether in a day he is having milk about 5 times:drowning. He just throws tantrum and cries till i give him milk.He is taking abt 200 ml each feed . I tried to reduce the quantity but again he will not compromise on the quantity, he needs exact 200 ml each time .:bonk.

Iam very much concerned. Dont know how to stop this habit. Please help.

umaakumar · Sep 16, 2011

Dear Brindha,

The best way to stop is to be very firm and hide all the bottles. Tell him there are no bottles available at home and a robber or someone has taken it away. It takes a lot of patience, but has to be done.

Regards,
Uma

brindhaaa · Sep 16, 2011

Hi Uma

My concern here is rather than stopping the bottle , how to stop giving him milk whenever he ask

SriVidya75 · Sep 16, 2011

brindhaaa said: ↑

Hi Uma

My concern here is rather than stopping the bottle , how to stop giving him milk whenever he ask
Click to expand...

why wouldnt you want to STOP the bottle feeding habit when your kid is already 3 yrs old?
I would have done it the other way round i.e give milk in a glass and stop the bottle. basically that way you would know if he is bent upon the milk or the bottle ..or both.

jhalli27 · Sep 19, 2011

brindhaa... i agree with people above. first step is to stop bottle. only then will you know if he wants milk for the bottle or bottle for the milk. and either ways - in the night time - it has to stop.

how is his food intake? if he is having good amount of food, then you can just slowly reduce the quantity of the milk. and tell him like 'only this much milk is left'... same in the night. IMO - 5 times milk - 1 litre in a day - is definitely too much. dont get offended - im not telling anything personally. but as per dr's recommendation - kids should have balanced diet. and in that - no more than 16oz(480-500 ml) milk is needed. so u can reduce his bottles to thrice a day. will be perfect to give 600 ml.

in the night time - give him bottle with water. that is if u still wanna give him something to have/bottle. ideally - u can push the dinner to near his bed time - that way he will not be in aposition to have milk. say 30 mins before bed time - and give him water, i tried this for my DD and it worked.

initially she too used to have milk 3 times in night. i was tired of waking up so much. i gradually reduced and reduced and now at 22 months, she doesnt have milk anymore at night. i give her dinner by 7.30 and by 8 she finished it. her bed time is 8.30-9 pm - so i give her bottle of water and she sleeps with it. y next step is weaning her off the bottle now totally... so have promised myself to stop it by when she is 2.

bottom line is - we are the mothers and have to be in control. not give in to our kids. in the longer run - thats what will keep us and them happy. so be firm and dont negotiate once u decide something needs to be done.

all the best

brindhaaa · Sep 22, 2011

Thanks Srividhya and Jhalli27.

Yes i should have tried it long before ,but being in the joint family , i couldnt. Whenever i take steps its someone or the other to pull me down . Anyway finally i decided to put an end to this , and on the first place i explained to my son in many ways regarding the prblem in using the bottle , and now the intake has reduced from 5 times to 2 ,but ofcourse in bottle . Now i have hopes that he will def change to cup/sipper/straw soon.... and iam trying in all possible ways and the last resort is to hide /throw the bottle .

Thanks a lot for your suggestions.

polymorphic · Sep 24, 2011

Does your son drink even water from a bottle? I mean, has he not got used to holding a glass and drinking on his own? If not start with water( since there is no problem of spilling), and then upgrade to milk in glass. You can also try mixing milk with 30 - 40 % water. I am doing this to my 2 yr old so that they dont fill up woth milk and also dont get dehydrated. Sucking a bottle gives security to kids. try to spend enough time with him, playing and talking to him in encouraging way. I started using a soft spout kind of sippy cup(not the nipple kind) when my baby was less than one yr old. In your case, I would say stick to cup/ glass or max sipper. Feeding bottle is a big fixation for young kids and the longer you take to remove this habit the tougher it gets.

brindhaaa · Sep 24, 2011

Thanks polymorphic.. Today morning i hide the bottles and told him yesterday night a thief had taken it and i offered him a colourful straw cup. He didnt cry but nor did he drink milk , he said amma iam not hungry and i dont want milk :bonkeventhough he came out of the bed straight to me asking for milk.

I didnt react , but i kept the cup in front of him with milk and went inside. He tried drinking one or two times , then he kept and left .. dont know what he is going to do rest of the day ...

Friends what henceforth if he doesnt drink milk since we are not giving in bottle . iam worried soo much because milk is the only diary product he is fond of , he has aversion towards yoghurt or other diary product .Has anyone gone through such stage .. please help ...

SriVidya75 · Sep 24, 2011

Hey read what polymorphic has written...

sushmavja · Sep 25, 2011

brindha,
try giving him in different kinds of sippy cups or glasses..u can find many sippy cups with cartoons on them.try to buy one which has his favourite cartoon on it.