What age should bottle of milk and dummy stop?

[susiesuelou]

My DD is 20 months old. She still has a bottle of milk (cows milk) on an evening before bedtime (the only thing that successfully gets her to sleep), and a dummy when she's either tired or upset (the only thing aside from a cuddle that will soothe her when she's upset - she sometimes even goes to the place in the kitchen where she knows the dummies are kept and reaches up for them when upset).

I know this can be a contentious issue that sparks a lot of debate... Just want to know general opinions on whether it's OK for me to continue both of these things until she turns 2, and then start to phase them out? As that was my plan.

Thanks.

I'd be aiming to stop both by 1st birthday due to the impact on teeth

I weaned her off the night time bottle as she turned three. She felt grown up because i gave her a beaker with a lid and then no lid. But she never fell asleep with the bottle. She always gave it back and then tucked in for the night.
Re dummy, she spat it out in disgust when around 7 months and I chucked it in the rubbish, so of no help on that one I am afraid.

Mine both had a dummy past two in those circumstances but they had got rid by three.

Mine had dropped their evening milk bottle by 20 months but I think if that's the only bottle she's having it's not really an issue. The issue with bottles past one I think is that they shouldn't have them all the time so they learn to drink from open cups/straws etc and they shouldn't be having anything other than milk or water in them. But one in the evening isn't going to harm.

All I would say is that she should probably clean her teeth after the bottle. That's the only 'issue' I can think of. Could you wean her off the bottle to sleep and replace with the dummy? That's the only thing I'd change in your situation. But I also wouldn't stress about it. I'd just try, if you know what I mean.

2 of mine went past 2 and their teeth are fine. I don't think there's any harm in occasional dummy use up to and even beyond 2. Just start gradually phasing it out at 2 and if necessary do the dummy fairy thing to swap it for a present at some point.
I honestly think.the teeth impact is overstated with modern dummies. and most teenagers have braces these days anyway and end up with lovely staright teeth

Ds had evening milk drink in a free flow sippy cup by around 1 year old

They say by 12 months, but most people I know continue well past then, including myself.

Mine still had a bottle of milk before bed until she was 3!!!! 😳Not what I intended, I tried switching to a cup at 1 but she refused to drink it (and for nutritional reasons she did still need quite a lot of milk so it wasn’t an option to just not drink milk at all). To be honest I got a bit lax about trying to switch to a cup and life went on and I realised she still had it once a day at 3. When we went on holiday I just didn’t take the bottle and she was forced to switch to a cup and it was actually fine. We did always do teeth after the bedtime milk to be fair which I think is the most important thing. She has seen a dentist and no problems with teeth so it doesn’t seem to have done any damage.

That's a really good point about brushing teeth after the bottle. I brush her teeth after her bath and then she has her bedtime bottle half an hour afterwards and falls asleep with it. I could maybe try the bottle sooner straight after bath, brush teeth and then dummy to get her to sleep.

Feel really daunting to try to get her to sleep without that bedtime bottle, it's all I've ever done 😬

Bottle stopped by age 1 and dummy age 2.

Just to add, I've tried her with warm milk in her sippy cup that she has water from (not at bedtime but at other points in the day), and she will not entertain it. Just hands it back to me saying "no". But takes it in her bottle at bedtime with no issues at all.

My little one is 17 months and still has a bottle before bed, he’s never had a dummy though. He doesn’t fall asleep with the bottle but it’s always been part of his routine and he still goes mad for it. We got one of those cups similar to a bottle but it came out way faster and he just spilled it all down himself because he was expecting the bottle. I think we’ll try and gradually get him to take it in a cup with a straw or something over the next few months but I’m really not in a huge rush and I would doubt if sucking a bottle for like 3/4 minutes is going to majorly damage his teeth

We adopted our LO at 11 months and he is now 3. HV told me they usually recommend dummies and bottles dropped by 1 to reduce the impact on teeth but advised us to stick with it for longer to help with attachments as he was used to it. Around 2 years old I changed his bottle to milk in a cup and he lost interest within a week! He still has a nighttime dummy. He has only ever had it at night and I’ve been waiting for him to get a good level of understanding so he knows why we are taking the dummy away. He has this now so I’ve been prewarning him for a while that we won’t be able to find any more dummies for 3 year olds and when he breaks this one (usually chews through them) that he won’t be getting a new one. I did worry about these issues for a while but to be fair I’ve relaxed a lot about it. I was planning to stop the dummy around 6 months ago but he randomly started sucking his thumb about the same time and I didn’t want him replacing the dummy habit with that.

Thanks everyone, that's helpful.

My biggest concern about making changes now is that she doesn't understand. I can't explain to her "mummy is changing your milk into a big girl's cup but the milk is the same
" etc, because she's just not old enough to to understand that at 20 months. I want to be able to explain the changes if that makes sense?

@Kath85 I have a thumb sucker.

Damn nightmare. I know I will be paying for braces when she is older.

Incidentally we tried her with dummies but she spat them out to put her thumb in her mouth.

We stopped the bottles at 12 months and thankfully our son just took to his sippy cup and it was like bottles had never existed 🤷🏻‍♀️

As to the dummy... We've weaned him down to just having it for sleeping so now the next step is to eliminate the need for that altogether. We've got a dummy fairy story book for him for Christmas so will see how that goes. The idea is to slowly introduce the concept that he's too big for his dummy now.

@TheBirdintheCave

How old is he now if you don't mind me asking?

Here we used the dummy until 2 years old. Bottle until 18 months.

My DS dropped his dummy at just under 2 (he had only been having it for sleep since about 1). Bottles, he had bedtime and morning bottles until he was at least 18 months, possibly closer to 2, and then he transitioned to one of those beakers with a built in straw. He never drank milk from a normal sippy cup or 360 cup but he was happy with it in a straw beaker for some reason!

Mine is 2yo and still has his bottle of milk before bed. He refuses a straw cup or a regular cup.
He self-weaned from the dummy at 18 months.

Never used a dummy, cups from one (DS was BF but also had expressed milk in a bottle). He's just turned 4 and still has a cup of warm milk before bed

My 3 dc all had dummies and bottles of milk until they were 3 and all have lovely, straight, healthy teeth. Dentist used to warn about use of them but now comments how perfectly lovely/straight their teeth are. I'm glad I didn't listen because they all got so much comfort from the dummies and bottles.

This makes me feel so much better!

We still give our 3yo a bottle at bedtime but we removed the top and gave her a metal straw, so she still technically gets her bottle.

@susiesuelou He turned two in November :) We were going to try removing the dummy around his second birthday but he just didn't seem ready in terms of level of communication/understanding. Those six or so weeks since his birthday have made a huge difference though.

Mine both had moved to a sippy cup at around 10 months. They never had dummies so I can't really advise on that. I think they stopped having milk at bedtime at age 1 but had cereal to fill them up instead.