What should I give in place of the bedtime bottle

[Taler]

DD (19 months) has been showing signs she may be ready to come off her bedtime bottle (please no comments regarding her still drinking from a bottle as am fully aware of the disadvantages).

It has been suggested that I shouldn't necessarily REPLACE it with anything as that defeats the purpose of them not having something at bedtime. I wondered what your thoughts were on this?

If I ditch the bottle altogether then on the days she's at home with me she'll have her dinner at 5pm (finishing around 5:30pm) and then go to bed around 6:45pm. On the days she's at nursery she has her dinner at 4pm and a snack around 5:30pm. So whether she's at home or nursery she potentially wouldn't have anything else after 5:30pm.

What do you do with your LOs?

And do you give milk as a drink with their meals or in between meals as it's been suggested that doing it in between can fill them up too much.

Am thinking maybe to give her cereal around 6:30 ish.

I know there's no hard and fast rules but sometimes even little decisions like this I find difficult to make. Would appreciate some opinions please.

Thanks in advance.

[TarkaTheOtter]

I give mine milk in a cup just before bed.

[Newtobecomingamum]

Hi I give milk in the morning when my little one awakes up around 6/6.30am, breakfast 7.30/8pm.

I was in same position as you in relation to nighttime bottle... First three nights replaced the milk with water in the bottle and then got rid of bottle. Now we give him a sippy cup with water whilst we read night time book (he takes a couple of sips and that's it) then bed. I like him to have a little bit of water before bed so he doesn't wake up thirsty in night etc, sometimes he doesn't want it but at least it's offered and I know he doesn't need it.

Works well for us x

[OpposableThumbs]

My DD aged 4.2 has a mug of warm milk downstairs just before bed. I don't see any reason to stop milk if they like it. Obviously she brushes her teeth afterwards and then gets in to bed.

[GingerDoodle]

Mine is 2.8 and has a small amount of milk in an oxo tot sippy cup whilst watching Mr tumble. That's been our routine for a long long time (although the amount has streaky decreased and we went through the phase of an accompanying biscuit).

[Fugghetaboutit]

Warm Milk in cup

[MistressMerryWeather]

DS2 is 22 months and gets warm milk in a cup, as others have said.

It's part of his routine and just settles him in for the night.

[TheseSoles]

I'd give a little milk in a cup if they really want it, but otherwise I wouldn't give anything - thinking ahead to potty training and night dryness one of the things if they're having trouble staying is to cut out drinks before bed, might as well never introduce the habit!

[NinaSharp]

3.5yo still generally has milk before bed, most of the time with a cup and straw but sometimes still in a bottle if she's cranky (some fights are not worth having for 1 minute drinking and teeth cleaning afterwards).

Some days she doesn't want milk, so might have a banana or an oatcake.

However dropping milk at bedtime isn't something I'd push. Good calcium and all that.

[MMcanny]

Milk in a cup and a cuddle, more effort required to drink and they stop when they've had enough. If it still goes on forever you can water it down gradually so by the end it's just a cup of water. My school aged kids still take sports cap water bottles to bed with them. So does DH come to think of it. Just realised I responded to someone the other day with surpise their 18mo was still having a bottle like it was outrageous but when I put our situation like this it sounds no different!!!

[NickyEds]

Ds is 17 months and still has a bedtime bottle. He doesn't really like milk with his meals and I don't see the big deal with him having it really. I did a bit of reading about it and the main problems seem to be;

1. Anaemia- this is only when they're drinking loads of milk at the expense of food
   
2. Talking- It's one bottle for 5 minutes a day- hardly going to stop him talking
   
3. Teeth- Again, it's not like he has it in all day and we brush his teeth afterwards
   
   I've started to have a sippy cup of milk as well as the bottle in the faint hope he starts to prefer it. I think we're miles off having no milk at all before bed. As long as they're eating ok, not gaining loads of weight and you brush their teeth afterwards what's the big deal?? My niece still has a glass of milk before bed and she's 16!!!

[Taler]

Thanks for all responses.

I think we are going to stick with milk. Like most of you say, milk before bed is good. Am sure it has certain things in it too that induces sleep(?).

Need to ditch the bottle though and have tried this before (albeit quite pathetically, ie didn't persist).

Trouble is she associates milk with her bottle.

Oh well, wish me luck...

[MistressMerryWeather]

Trouble is she associates milk with her bottle.

Then maybe introducing it during the day wouldn't be a bad thing to start off with.

Cup of milk with breakfast? See how she goes.

[33goingon64]

We had no issues swapping bottle for cup of milk. Choose a special cup that is only used at night time.

[ArgentinianMalbec]

My DD also 19 months has only just stopped having a night time bottle and has her milk from a cup instead. One day I'd not washed the bottles up so I gave it to her in a cup and she wasn't bothered at all. We haven't used a bottle since - it's been over a week now! Not to tackle the dummies!!!!!

[KW89]

We give our now 21 month old milk in an open cup and a biscuit about half hour before bed. Wanted to get him off the bottle before his baby brother arrives in August, so when he was about 18 months we made a big thing about big boys having milk in a big boy cup (he's been using an open cup just with meals since he was 15 months) and a biscuit before bed, and me and my husband sit down and have milk and biscuit with him. I was dreading taking the bottle away as we had tried at 12 months and he had just refused it, but he made no fuss and we haven't looked back since :) He likes to set out the coasters and hand out the biscuits. Other than that cup of milk, and milk on his cereal in the morning he doesn't drink it throughout the day, I just makesure he has calcium in other ways, yogurt at lunch etc... Good luck!