Bottles before bed

[Fuzzyduck21]

Ds has just turned 1 and we have introduced cows milk. I've heard it's bad for their teeth to give cows milk straight before bed (after brushing teeth). How do you give milk before bed if not in a bottle? Not sure how much he'd take from a baby cup...what sort of cups do you use? Suggestions appreciated! Are the ones with straws any better??

[isthistoonosy]

I just brushed their teeth after the bottle.

[ThursdayLastWeek]

Same as isthistoonosy.

Until DS chewed the teats, then he had his milk in his Tommy tippee cup.
But he was probably 2yo before we changed,

[Caterina99]

We just do bottle (now sippy cup at 15 months) downstairs with story and then brush teeth as part of pjs and going to bed.

[dementedpixie]

The same was true of formula. Were you not brushing teeth after the bedtime formula bottle?

[eurochick]

Ours still fell asleep on the bottle (after tooth brushing) until around two. Her grandad is a dentist and he wasn't in the least concerned.

[Fuzzyduck21]

No I didn't brush teeth after formula as didn't realise it was as bad. I like to get him sleepy on the bottle and brushing teeth after would wake him up but guess that is just what needs to be done.

As adults we are meant to wait 30 min after eating to brush teeth due to risk of brushing away enamel so same would be true of babies?? So would need to give bottle, wait 30 min, brush teeth then bed? Suppose got to do what you got to do.

I've heard some dentists are fine with bottle after brushing and some aren't so never know what's right thing to do :(

[Dixiechick17]

We tried to change to bottle and theb teeth bringing and it just didn't work for us, so our 16 month old DD still has her bottle to go to sleep, and we brush her teeth before that.

[NickyEds]

We do teeth after milk. Ds is 2.9 so has his out of a cup but dd still has a bottle as she's 15 months. We started this at 12 months when she got a tooth. Ds had a bottle until 6 months ago but we always let him finish it downstairs and then do teeth and bed.

[ImogenTubbs]

Tbh, sometimes we brushed DD's teeth before the bedtime bottle while we gradually changed her routine. Not ideal but it was short term as we wanted to get her out of the reliance on feeding to sleep anyway. I understand the real no-no is leaving them with the bottle to chew on overnight.

[BrainPrions]

It's not great for their teeth, but if you're taking him to the dentist every 6 months for a cleaning, he should be fine having a bottle to fall asleep to as long as you don't leave it in the crib. Our pediatrician didn't care if DD needed a bottle to sleep as long as she didn't sleep with it. It's when the milk pools in the mouth that the sugar in the mouth will rot the teeth. She was rocked to bed with a bottle until she was 2. Then we asked her if she was ready to be a big girl yet, and she just unceremoniously toss them in the trash and went back to playing with her toys. That was the end of bottles.

She never got a cavity, but mileage may vary depending on genetics and so on.