Feeding FAQ: 18-24 months – Milk Feeding Problems

How do I stop my 20 month old needing a 10pm feed?

My little boy has always been an extremely hungry baby. He has only slept through the night with out a feed since 18mths. Before that he would wake a couple of times a week starving hungry at any time between 2am and 5am.
He still has a feed at 10pm. I would like to drop this as I have another baby on the way and don’t want to be feeding two at this time. I know he shouldn’t really need it at this age. He still has 8ozs at 7am and 7pm.

He doesn’t wake for the 10pm feed. He just takes 8ozs whilst asleep, but if I skip it he wakes at 2/3am starving hungry. He still takes his milk in bottles.

I have been slowly watering down this feed so it is half milk and half water now but I am not sure how to progress. Do I keep increasing the water, or should I cut back the amount, or change the time too? I feel that sooner or later he will notice the taste change and reject it.

He eats extremely large lunches and teas compared to all his age mates. He will have a large bowl of risotto/pasta shepherds pie with veg followed by a piece of cheese and fruit: a whole pear, banana or large portion of grapes. However he is not a big breakfast eater; he will eat maybe a small yoghurt and half a slice of toast. This has increased since I started watering down his milk.

Do you have any ideas how to eliminate this feed completely? My son just seems to have a large appetite; he is average sized (27lbs) but very active.

As you have a new baby on the way this issue needs to be resolved quickly. Continue to dilute the feed at 10pm every two nights until it is 7ozs water and 1 oz of cows milk. If he begins to wake in the night and/or reject this, offer water from a beaker to settle him.

A short period of sleep training may have to follow if he continues to wake in the night, but at his age it is more preferable to drinking this amount of milk in a bottle at night. He is eating well in the day so he has no nutritional need for the milk at night.

As you have already noticed, his appetite at breakfast has improved and will probably continue to do so as you reduce the milk intake.

He should not be using bottles at all at this age, so begin to offer him his breakfast milk in a beaker. Once this is accepted, give him his bedtime milk in the same way.

When your son takes his feed at 10pm the naturally occurring lactose which is a sugar and contained in milk will be coating his teeth for the rest of the night. Normally saliva will help wash it away, but during the night there is less saliva produced. This can be a cause of tooth decay.

Realise that once the baby has arrived, it may be far harder to get rid of the bottles than it will be now.

Some children of this age can be difficult about drinking milk from anything other than a bottle, which is why it is better to phase them out by a year. You may well have to think up some new ways to make milk acceptable. Try new cups and beakers; those with favourite cartoon or story book characters. Find some cheap “picnic” wear which comes in many styles these days. Try sports bottles and straws as an alternative, which are closer to sucking on a teat. But whatever it takes, find something he will accept now.

If his intake drops a little, just make it up with sauces, cheese and yoghurts which he seems very happy with.

This may seem a daunting prospect when you are expecting a baby, but it is better to face the issue now, so your son will sleep well in the nights by the time your new baby arrives.