Your right about kids being manipulative that early but their behaviors do get naturally programmed just by normal every day activities. I'm just suggesting that you slightly alter the their program to your advantage instead of your disadvantage. In my case, my kid was waking up several times a night, taking one slurp off a bottle and then going right back to sleep. This was happening repeatedly every night and I guarantee he did NOT need anything. I know several groups of parents who are still getting up in the middle of the night to feed their toddler(s) and they are >= 1 year old for heavens sake! It is almost always due to people like yourself who are unwilling to let their kid cry little when they can guarantee they don't need anything. It just doesn't hurt a kid to cry a little.

It's obvious you should tend to your child if they need something. It's obviously you have to use some common sense here. The point I am trying to make is that it doesn't take long before they are fully capable of sleeping the night without being fed.