getting rid of the bottle

at the moment miss 2 goes to bed with a bottle of 1/2 milk 1/2 warm water and a bit of cheese(shes a cheese freak) and she wakes up heaps during the night wanting a bottle and will scream and scream a really high pitched scream until someone gets up. we are wanting to wean her off the bottle at night but dont know where to start. we made a mistake i think when we weaned her off the dummy and the bottle at night replaced the dummy.we have tried just giving her plain water but boy oh boy did she scream and she banged the bottle against the door until we got up(about 45mins later)
how do we get rid of the bottle with minimal screaming???

cool thanks. i am a bit worried cos miss 2 will not stop screaming. and i am kinda worried that if she screams for too long she will make her self sick. but i may try the bottle in the lounge before bed.
already we have had to take everything out of her room except her bed cos she would just play once she finished her bottle and she was moving the small table we had in there and puttin it by the door so she could turn the light on to play.

Hey there good luck. Paris and ayja always had their bottles in the lounge on a special pillow, so it never was a mission getting them out of going to bed with one.. it was more breaking the habit of having one before bed.. and waking during the night for one.

With both girls, when we stopped the bottle.. we instead took them and let them pick out a special cup to have their warm milk in at night before bed.. and instead of lying on their pillow in the lounge, we read them a story while they drunk it.. it was their "big girl" way of picking their own special cup, and doing the big girl thing of having a story and their drink in the cup before bed. mostly they still have a drink of warm milk before bed and a story.. sometimes they just want water instead.

We also, once we had gone and chosen the cup (toyworld has those straw cups with the characters on the lids.. thats what paris chose.. and it's ONLY used for before bed, and before afternoon nap for those special milk drinks) we got home that day, put all their bottles in the bottle carrier (those plastic ones that most sets come in).. and THEY put their bottles in the bin. We didn't do it.. they did, we carried them out, after explaining to them all day that we were getting a big girl cup so they didn't need bottles any more.. they carried the bottles, we opened the bin.. they said "bye bye bottles", (i think ayja might have hugged them) then into the bin they dropped them. I didn't want them to have memorys of mummy and daddy chucking away their bottles. It was all about them, making the connection with it going out in the wheely bin - which they know is final.. it's gone forever once it's in there.. "ew yuck rubbish"

It was VEEEEERRRRYYY tempting to keep just one for just in case.. but if we had, and had given in.. how credible would we have looked?

It takes alot in the first few days, constant reminders that no, remember we went and chose your big girl cup, you have your milk in their now and have a story.. wow what a big girl you are, and you put your bottles in the bin.. ew they were yucking and old.. ew they are in the rubbish.. how gross and stinky are they now.. remember the rubbish truck came and took them.. blah blah. lol (as said previously elsewhere, am the queen of spinning bull)

As for overnight.. we stopped that before the complete removal of the bottle. overnight we started offering water only.. from a cup or sipper bottle. the first night was hard.. the second night wasn't so bad.. and hello, the next night.. he he, ayja didn't wake up. (paris once she slept thru at can't remember what age.. she never had the bottle again,, very lucky there.)

I would say, move the bottle time to the lounge first.. and tackle the going to sleep without a bottle thing first. once you have that, then try the special cup and story approach.   chuck the water only thru the night thing inthere where you feel like it.   lolol.

it's hard. i found it hardest with Ayja cos she is a screamer.. and she wakes Paris. but if she gets too crazy screaming, she every once in a while did get bought out to the lounge, and had cuddles etc.. but ha ha, she went back to bed without that bottle ..

as with everything with our stroppy demanding pushing the limits 2-yr-olds... perserverence. lol once they think they have the upper hand.. boy do they run with it. stoke their egos, and make them feel special and like they are the biggest bestest girl in the world etc.. and they will eventually come around ot the idea.

Edited by mum2paris

Kobe still has his bottle at night and when he wakes and if we dont give it to him he cries till he throws up.
I like all these ideas and will try them but my question is when do you say ok your to old for a bottle they have to go? it just seems like a major hassle when really is it a big deal. I know some people hate kids having bottles and thats cool but Im just dreading getting rid of bottle and its not hurting anyone right?

Jake still has his bed time "booby" in a bottle, he won't take it from a cup.. weirdo, it dosen't worry me really, its not like he walks round with it sucking on it all day. ssshhh don't tell plunket!!

my karitane nurse told me when haleigh was 4months to start giving her wee drinks from a cup to get her used to drinking water form a cup.
so we did water only from pump bottle or cup and milk from bottle til she was 8months old then lunchtimews were milk in cup.
then when she was one she was reaching for her cup to drink from more than the bottle which is how i knew she was ready, at that stage she was only having it at night to settle before bed anyway so it jsut seemed pointless carrying it on.
my mum got rid of my bottles when i was 10months and was shocked i was still suing one for haleigh at one.

if i could i wouldve held onto her being a baby for as long as i could but shes always been independant. she has 2 carebears and a cuddly she uses to soothe herslef to sleep at night along wiht her thumb.

yeah chesse could be the problem, cheese reacts with me always has if I eat it before bed, same with yoghurt

you could, but with moving she'll need a familiar routine tohelp her settle in, so either start "practising" for the new house, or try once she's settled in.    And i didn't think of the cheese. my older sister used to have horrendous nightmares etc if she had cheese - aparently according to mum, lol.

It could be because of her age that it might be night terrors that wake her up screaming unconsolably. Paris used to get them alot and nothing would calm her, we'd just talk calmly lie her back down and half the time she'd just zonk out again.

Jack still has a dummy I would prefer him not to but its just a battle I don't really wana deal with right now we only have it for sleeps so I don't see the problem. The same with bottles I think I don't see the big deal with the actual bottle more the milk decaying teeth.

thanks so much ladies....
well last night df only put water in the bottle at bedtime and no cheese and she was fine.she only woke up twice and df thinks it may be the fire siren in town that wakes her up sometimes.so we are sot of making progress.