How I Weaned My Toddler From Nighttime Milk Bottle In Two Weeks

I only recently managed to wean my toddler, who’s over 2 years old, from his dependency on nighttime milk feeds and I am ecstatic because I finally have my full night’s sleep back (kind of!).

I know every child is different when it comes to eating, sleeping etc. Some naturally progress and let go of certain routines and habits when the time is right while others need some help adjusting to something new. In my case, Kiaan was very accustomed to having one nighttime milk feed between midnight and 3am and it was okay when he was younger. But now that Kiaan is 2 years old and on a proper schedule of three solid meals, snacks and milk during the day, I know he is well-fed and full at bedtime so the midnight milk bottle serves no function other than being a pacifier in the middle of the night to help him fall back to sleep. I also noticed because Kiaan was drinking milk at night (when he really didn’t need to anymore) his sleep was quite disturbed and he often woke up extra early and couldn’t go back to sleep because he “needed” milk to do that.

So once I decided to wean Kiaan  off the middle of the night bottles, I did research and found three main options:

1. Quit cold turkey
2. Dilute water with milk
3. Reduce the volume of milk

Making Kiaan quit cold turkey i.e taking the milk away and letting him adjust and self-soothe just didn’t seem like something that would work because he was so used to the bottle as a pacifier — I just assumed he would have a major meltdown if I chose to do this. So I opted for a combination of diluting the milk with water and reducing the volume of the bottle over the course of ten days to two weeks.

I honestly didn’t think it was going to work but there was no other option available so I decided to give it a shot following the schedule below:

Note: Kiaan drank about 8oz of milk once a night so that’s the amount I was working with.

Day 1-2: 1oz water + 7oz milk

Day 3-4: 2 oz water + 6 oz milk

** I started reducing the overall quantity of the bottle from 8oz by 1 oz every few days**

Day 5-6: 3 oz water + 4 oz milk

Day 7-8: 4 oz water + 2/3 oz milk

Day 9-10: 3 oz water + 2 oz milk

Day 11-12: 2 oz water + 2 oz milk

Day 13: 2/1 oz water + 1 oz milk

Day 14: No feed

During the course of the 14-day weaning period I could see this method working because even with the diluted watery milk and reduced quantities, Kiaan happily drank whatever amount and concoction was offered and went right back to sleep without asking for more.

By day 14 he drinking only 2/3 oz milk mixed with water and I thought it’s such a small amount that he wouldn’t really miss it. So that night I decided that when Kiaan woke up I was not going to not offer any milk and see what happens. And right on schedule around 1am he woke up and whined a little bit. I didn’t respond or go into his room and waited watching the baby monitor closely. He paused for a moment or two and whined again and then in a few minutes when straight back to sleep!

From that day on he pretty much sleeps through the night without waking up for milk or if he does wake up for any reason he’s able to go back to sleep on his own and without asking for milk.

Having my full night’s sleep back and knowing that Kiaan is also sleeping better is incredible. I’m still somewhat surprised at how effectively this weaning method worked on Kiaan but it did and I’m not questioning it.