My daughter will be 9 months in two weeks. She started sleeping through the night at about 8 weeks. At about 4 months, she began crying for a bottle in the middle of the night. She doesn't actually wake up unless I don't answer her need fairly soon, but she cries very loudly in a plaintive way. She sucks down the bottle and then puts her pacifier back in her mouth and sleeps the rest of the night.
I'm not so bothered about getting up in the middle of the night, but I'm afraid it is going to ruin her teeth. She only has two on the bottom, but she has had them for about 3 months so I'm expecting the top ones pretty soon. My husband thinks the bottom ones are already yellow, but I think he's imagining it. However, I know the sugars in the milk will eventually damage her teeth.
What can I do? She is obviously very hungry. I've tried giving her just water, but she rejects it. I've tried feeding her a lot of rice cereal before she goes to bed, but she still cries for that bottle.
2007-07-26 02:42:56 · 12 answers · asked by tianjingabi 5 in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Newborn & Baby
First, there's some ignorant answers on here (IE: forcing her to sleep hungry or giving her cereal in her bottle...NO!!!).
Call your pediatrician for advice you can trust.
If you want my experience, I followed the advice in a book called "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. In a nutshell, it said that if your baby is waking up for one extra feeding and falling right back to sleep, she really is hungry....so feed her! If she's waking and wants to play....then try to get her to sleep through.
Clearly your child is hungry in the middle of the night... she goes right back to sleep, right? So feed her the bottle and then take it away (don't let her sleep with it). If she's not sleeping with her bottle, her teeth will be fine.
My son did the same thing up until about 10 months old (I think the book said up to a year old is fine...but don't quote me on that). In any case, he had more than 8 teeth by then. No problem. He nursed (not the bottle), but it's the same...when your child is done eating, take away the bottle, lay her down and don't worry! She's fine! And a great sleeper!
But still...for this type of question, trust your pediatrician.
2007-07-26 02:57:18 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Try an 8 oz. bottle right before bedtime with mixed cereal, rice or oatmeal. I like the mixed. But, to wean her from night time feedings you have to stop answering her cries. When she cries go in and repalce the passy and lay her down. Walk out. After about 5 min. do the same thing. This should take about a week. Then she should be doing fine. Also newly mobile babies are known to wake up more in the middle of the night. And then the teeth. Formula bottles do not contain the sugar that whole milk does therefore it shouldn't be ruining her teeth so young. So don't worry.
2007-07-26 09:51:35 · answer #2 · answered by lovely 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's the kids who have a bottle hanging out of their mouth all night long while they sleep that have teeth issues. A feeding durring the night taking the bottle away afterwards will not likely damage her teeth. About an hour or so before bed let her snack on a couple crackers or such. Just do not do it too close to bedtime... when she wakes up, cut her bottle down... if you give her 8 oz normally give her 4 instead. Do this for a couple nights THEN supplement the feedings for water. She probably isn't as hungry as she is thirsty durring the night. Put very little flavoring in the water if she is that adamant about it... sugar free of course.
2007-07-26 09:49:25 · answer #3 · answered by Kishauna_P 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There is baby tooth paste that you can use on your baby's teeth. I won't deny her food if that is what she needs to have a full belly and sleep. Take a paper towel when you are done, and get the sugars off of her teeth before she goes back to sleep. If she is hungry she will cry until she eats. Don't punish her just don't feed her a few hours before her bed time, and make it a nice warm bottle of rice cereal, and then give her a warm soothing night time bath.
2007-07-26 09:58:02 · answer #4 · answered by Sweet 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You can switch the bottle to water only. She probably won't like it, refuse to drink it. She'll get upset, cry and after a few days of realizing mom isn't going to give me milk anymore, she'll quit.
Cold turkey is really the way to go though. Just quit giving her the bottle period. Once my sons teeth started coming in, I quit juice and milk at night. All the fussing he gave me was okay because I was doing what's best for him.
If she's really that hungry, maybe give her a bottle sometime between dinner time and bedtime. See if that helps sooth the hunger pains. I read in one of my books though that there comes a point where the midnight feeding becomes less of a nutritional value and more of a habit.
2007-07-26 09:54:03 · answer #5 · answered by Debbie G 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Ok don't put cereal in her bottle. Cereal is to be eatten with a spoon inless instructed diffrently by a DR. Believe me on this one its not good for them... I was told this by specialists and nutritionists for my son who had digestive problems and failure to thrive. it doesn't help them sleep through the night that is a myth. Also you know what? My son is almost 3 and he gets a bottle of milk at bedtime because he had the failure to thrive and is still under weight and the DR of all people said it was OK he just told me to make sure to brush his teeth. Which are perfect and no cavitys. You can wipe a babys with a clean wash cloth or get one of those little tooth brushes that go on your finger. Just wean her of it slowly... thats what I did with my other kids. I slowly made less and less in the bottle until there was none or with my difficult one I went from milk to juice and then watered it down to the point it was just water. I am sure she will be just fine.. Its probably more of her just be thirsty I mean I know I wake up at night sometimes and need a drink....
2007-07-26 10:17:51 · answer #6 · answered by nhmommyof3 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It just sounds like she hasn't got enough in her belly before bed. I usually give my daughter some custard because it's thicker than cereal. In regards to her teeth being yellow, do you brush them? You can get toothpaste for milk teeth. She might have more teeth coming through by the sounds of it, you could try giving her some baby panadol before going down, that might work. When she's waking up, she might just have a bit of wind.
2007-07-26 09:55:11 · answer #7 · answered by jaytei 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Putting her to bed with a bottle will destroy her teeth! STOP! She's old enough to sleep through the night without a feeding at 6 months. Our pediatrician told us very firmly that we must start sleep training at that age, because our daughter was still waking up for a feeding. I listened to her mostly because she had 4 kids of her own. It took about 2 weeks of crying for 15 minutes every night, but then she adjusted. We all slept better after that.
2007-07-26 09:48:12 · answer #8 · answered by Kat H 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Considering she's only 9 months I doubt you have to really worry about her teeth.
My suggestion: slowly water down her milk every night. Add a little bit more water as you progress so she doesn't notice the taste difference. Eventually her body will stop wanting nourishment in the middle of the night. If she starts to wake up after you give her the watered down formula she could be too young to get through without a little boost (sometimes this is an indication of hypoglycemia).
2007-07-26 09:48:57 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
What we did was just go in, give my son his pacifier, comfort him with words and lay him down again. We didn't rock or hold him a lot, just simply told him to go to sleep. After about a week of doing this, he stopped getting up- he knew it was usless and that he wasn't going to be fed. Good luck, different techniques work for different kids!
2007-07-26 10:32:15 · answer #10 · answered by s0_blessed 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋