when do you give a toddler their evening milk?

[hugebelly]

My toddler is 22 months old.

Do you give them a bottle before bed and then brush their teeth?

Or, do you give them a bottle to take to bed and they drink it at their leisure? I do the latter as I didn't know it was 'wrong' because of tooth decay etc. I need to change, but want to know what others do.

Constructuve advice please!

[stickybeaker]

I give my DD hers in before bath then she brushes teeth in the bath. After that I try to give her only water if she asks for a drink.

IMHO milk is kinda just for fun at this age. My DD has milk at breakfast then cheese, yoghurt etc so I don't think she needs bedtime milk too, it just sort of marks out the beginning of the bedtime routine for us.

[stickybeaker]

I'm also slightly worried about choking when talking a bottle to bed. ACtually my DD has a cup with a spout so the milk couldn't actually just keep flowing but I think it's a bad habit to indulge in as the milk floods the mouth and then stays on the teeth causing decay.

Not trying to lecture you in any way - just letting you know my thought process

[Seona1973]

At that age ds had a cup of milk downstairs before the bedtime routine even started. Even now at the age of 3 he will often have milk and a biscuit around 6.30/7pm when dh gets home.

[jamaisjedors]

I don't.

And if you want them to toilet train at night fairly early on, it could be good to stop the evening bottle to avoid the extra fluids just before bed.

[TwatthewWright]

My DS is 20 mths and I stopped giving bedtime milk a few months ago with no problems.

He is a total milk monster and I thought it would be really difficult to do and he still has a mid-morning and mid-afternoon bottle.

I stopped because he was eating less dinner as he wanted his milk.

I was worried about his teeth.

He was wet through in the morning and I figured that the sooner I get him out of the bedtim emilk habit the better for when he is potty trained.

Please dont give him anything other than water after he has brushed his teeth.

[DomesticGoddessInTraining]

I don't give DS (21 months) any milk at all at bedtime. I used to offer him a cup of milk but he wasn't interested so he doesn't have anything at bedtime.

[hugebelly]

very interesting, thank you.

My DD only has milk at lunch and bed as it signifies bedtime.

This evening, we gave her a bottle at 6.15 expecting her to finish it by 7pm. However, she only drank 1oz, then teeth, then bed with no bottle. Took her nearly an hour to get off. Hopefully, it won't be a stressful night.

[stickybeaker]

I always tell DD that 'big girls like x don't do whatever it is..' She's at an age that she idolises her little friends and doesn't want to be a 'baby'.

[Dancergirl]

My dd is 3 and sometimes has bedtime milk. We take it upstairs and she has a bit before her bath and a bit while reading stories. This does mean that she has it after brushing teeth but my view is that you can't worry about everything. I know it's not great for her teeth but she only has a bit and I think some children are just more prone to tooth decay than others. There are other factors involved other than having bedtime milk. Just my view anyway.

[kitkatsforbreakfast]

dancergirl I may have had your opinion before I saw the Alder Hay programme.

Now I'm really glad I got my dc off evening milk when they were pretty young (around 18 - 24 months I think) even though that was mostly because I couldn't stand the soaking nappies in the morning.

[Rhian82]

DS is 18 months and we haven't done bedtime milk since he stopped wanting to breastfeed at bedtime. He has tea about 6pm though, and generally has milk with that, but nothing after then.

[hairymelons]

21mo DS has a whole bottle after brushing his teeth and sometimes takes it to bed. And occassionally has some in the night if he wakes up shouting for it (not often thank god). I know it's terrible but we've just stopped bfing so I don't want to take all his bedtime milk away at once!
Getting rid of the bedtime bottle is next on the list once he's settled into not bfing. We'll still do milk downstairs after his bath then brush teeth and stories upstairs. He won't give it up without a fight though, he LOVES a good drink of milk as he's dropping off.
Don't worry about it too much if you're planning on making a change anyway.

[MrsJohnDeere]

Evening milk ditched at 12mo here. After that they were given a cup/glass of milk with dinner if they wanted it, teeth cleaned afterwards.

[thegirlwithsomethingextra]

DD stopped her evening milk after at 12 months. She had her dinner at 6ish and then up to bed at 7 so no need for anything else before bed.

Now she's older (nearly 3) she has a cup of water by her bed in case she gets thirsty in the night.

[LadyBee]

hugebelly, we have a routine where DS has a warm milk drink, either from a bottle or a cup depending on what we see first, while we read two stories snuggled up together on our bed once we've got PJs on after bath.
Then we brush teeth, then into his room to get into bed. We've been reducing the amount to just a small drink. I think this is a routine that will grow with him and it works for us.

[Highlander]

stopped a bedtime BF at 18 months. threy have water