3 y/o waking up multiple times at night for a drink

DS has been doing this for a little over a month now. It's driving me insane! He wakes up at least 2 times (last night he woke up 3 times) saying he wants milk. I've tried ignorning him and seeing if he goes back to sleep or telling him to go back to sleep, but then he cries and stays up longer. I was thinking maybe he wakes up hungry and just asks for milk b/c of that so I make sure he eats a good dinner, but it hasn't helped.

How can I break him of this? It's like I have an infant all over again!

Re: 3 y/o waking up multiple times at night for a drink

Can you put a sippy of water next to his bed for him?

Re: 3 y/o waking up multiple times at night for a drink

Re: 3 y/o waking up multiple times at night for a drink

We've been dealing with this on and off for months now. My DS wakes up and wants me - he tried the milk thing for a while, but it was a made up reason for me to come to his room. What I did with that one was to offer him water. If he was really thirsty, he would take a sip or two. Generally, he wasn't thirsty, just wanted me to come to his room.

I go back and forth with going in his room and not. I hate to give in to him, but some nights, neither or us is sleeping, so I just go in and lay down with him until he falls back to sleep. Other nights I just keep putting him back in the bed and leaving. It generally depends on what I think the chances are he will go back to sleep. I am exhausted a lot of the time when this happens, though.

Something you could try is giving him some milk before bedtime and then putting him on the potty before you go to bed - the "dream pee" we call it. We did this when we were trying to night train DS. My DS would go without really waking up and then go right back to sleep.

Message edited 1/6/2012 10:55:11 AM.

Re: 3 y/o waking up multiple times at night for a drink

DS was doing this as well, but I realized that it was just his way to try to get us into his room. I stopped going in there after I realized.