When and how do you swap from bath, milk, bed to milk, bath, bed?

[mrsflux]

Ds is 16 mo and we have always done bath, milk bed but I know he will needto start doing milk first so we can brush teeth more effectively and so milk isn't a sleep aid/ crutch.
How and when do you do it?

Don't want to start too early and mess up bedtimes which are usually pretty good.

NickOfTime - I have no recollection of having milk before bedtime ever, and only started having a glass of water after bed as an adult, but know I was breastfed before bed until about 9months or so, so for myself didn't have a milk-sleep association, but read this recently in a parent-baby mag (can't remember which one) and can see the point: if you don't want to disturb baby, milk then cleaning teeth could be a problem, whereas milk, bath (teeth), story/cuddle and bed wouldn't cause any disruption. However, it was a brief mention in a paragraph about setting up a bedtime routine, so not sure how much it would be a issue overall... Also, I know that formula/breastmilk/follow-on milk are all quite high in sugar, so could cause an issue with tooth decay. And as Jumpjockey said, when you have a bathroom downstairs, the disruption could be great for baby!

We did this around the same time.

DD would have a beaker of milk after her bath but before bed. Like you it worked perfectly and were worried bout changing it but felt needs must.

We changed it to a beaker of milk before her bath, then brushed her teeth whilst in the bath, then replaced the drink time with a story.
We went shopping that morning and bought a selection of new special story books. She gets to choose her story and we found that it took her mind off not having the milk and we still get that little cuddle before bed :)
I think she asked for milk for the first couple of nights and was told that she'd already had her milk but apart from that was fine and still went off to sleep fine.

It think its a matter of biting the bullet and sticking to the new routine. He will soon get used to it. Maybe you could use the story to help clean his teeth..ie If you clean your teeth then you can choose a nice story to read.

Was always bath, story, breastfeed. When I stopped breastfeeding at 15 months it was tea, bath, story, bed. No need for another milk drink IMO.

Never did the evening bath, and did extended bfing for all of them. So it was teeth brushed, cuddle and bfing, sleep -- fingers x-ed on that last one, but generally all went smoothly.

I introduced a storytime as well as the cuddle when they were able to listen intently to the one story for the length of a little book, and we also sang, said nighttime prayers, then bfeeding. Generally, when potty training began, I tried to limit late evening drinks from a cup, so no drink after dinner (around 7) until bed (9ish)

What is wrong with a milk/ sleep association? I am 34 and I have a warm cup of milk before bed each night while silently reading my storybook.
My 16-month old has a bath, milk, teeth in bedroom, then we let him play with the books and choose the teddies for bed, then he chooses a teddy and climbs into his own cot and we pull the side up and he falls asleep. The whole thing is done by 7.15pm. For as long as it works I wont look to change it, he is slowly cutting down his milk by himself now anyway. I always offer 250mls am and pm but he rarely has over 200mls these days.

We always used to do bath & potty, teeth, milk & stories, bed. Milk was some cow's milk in a beaker and also BM until I stopped BF when DS was 2.1. We introduced lots more stories when I gave up BF last month to ease the transition.

We changed the order mainly because DS had a few leaky nappies. So now we do bath, milk & 2 stories, then potty, teeth and last story and bed. It seems to be stopping the leaks and I prefer DS to have milk before cleaning his teeth now too. He has gone from 1-2 cups of milk plus BM at night to 1/4 to 1/2 cup of milk before bed and that is his own choice.

we did it at 9 months- no problem she was bfed too.

I changed to milk downstairs, then bath, book and bed, only because I wanted to stop DD from drinking from a bottle. Sick and tired of washing them up!

You could continue what you're doing, and brush teeth after milk in his room. It won't make any difference where you brush teeth, as he won't be able to 'rinse and spit'

As PrettyCandles said, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it!'