How to Get Baby Sleep Without Bottle

As the babies seem to grow faster, mothers find it hard to change their routines and develop habits. Babies, either a baby girl or a boy give tough time to parents in accordance with their changing sleeping hours and a sudden rising wave of hunger. Babies almost always be hungry after a similar amount of not being fed and they usually get tired after a similar amount of time of being awake, so you need to observe his or her sleeping and feeding times minutely and develop your routine around what they naturally do. This will need consistency resulting in an ease.

It’s a common misconception that a milk bottle just before bedtime can help a baby sleep throughout night. Bottle feeding is harmful for the baby. It does not help the baby to learn self-regulation as the breastfed infant does, because, he will often drink for as long as the bottle nipple is in his mouth. Crying at night cannot be a sign of hunger only, but also there can be reasons too. Before bottle, you must try to sooth him or her while singing a lullaby, rocking or rubbing back. Diaper can also disrupt the baby sleep. A comfort zone at bed can help the baby sleeping calmly.

It is advised to never put your baby to bed with a bottle. Babies who fall asleep while drinking from a bottle can choke.

American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents wean children off from the bottle prior to age 18 months. Extensive use of bottle can cause tooth decay. As bacteria in their mouth use sugar from the liquid and produce acids that can attack the teeth. Pediatrician Richard Ferber says that unnecessary night feedings may actually cause sleep problems. Drinking while lying down can cause ear infection as well

As we said earlier, with a consistent watch of baby’s routine and mood, one can develop his or her habits. To do this effectively, one needs to take the following steps.

1. To avoid bottle at bedtime, make sure your baby gets enough to eat throughout the day.
2. Replace the bottle with baby’s favorite stuffed toys or pillows to make the bed comfortable.
3. Diverting attention can be much helpful. This can be done by soothing baby with a lullaby, song or any soft music. Telling stories or singing poems can be effective too.
4. Reducing the amount of milk by one ounce every night over a week can lead you to get your baby sleep without bottle. After you have only ounce of milk, you can easily remove the bottle.  It will be an effective trick that will go gradually, requiring consistency.
5. To get your baby sleep without bottle, you can also dilute the milk of the bottle by adding water into it. For the first few days, fill half of it with water and half of it with milk. Then slowly add more water until it becomes a bottle of water and your child will lose his interest in it.