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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

honestly, when did you child give up the bedtime bottle?

50 replies

pleasethanks · 27/09/2011 19:25

My DD is 1 and she takes a bottle before naps and before bed time at night. She doesn't fall asleep on the bottle, but it certainly relaxes her. I have tried giving her milk from a cup, but she is having none of it and spits it out. Yet happily takes water from a cup. Part of me thinks just go along with the bottle and she will give it up when she is ready, but then the other part of me thinks maybe I should bite the bullet now and get rid.

When did your child give up the bedtime bottle and was it hard?

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Ragwort · 28/09/2011 15:30

Never had a bedtime bottle - used to bf and give a feed before bedtime but when I stopped bfeeding (8 months) went straight on to cups and I didn't give a bedtime drink.

My DS had school friends (8, 7 & 5) who still had 'chocolate milk in a bottle' before bed - you can imagine the ribbing they got when their classmates found out .

BirdyBedtime · 28/09/2011 15:34

DD was under 1 - she hated her bottle and would happily drink milk from a cup. Between 9 months and stopping the night time bottle was a real battle and one day we just decided it wasn't worth it.

DS is a completely different story. Loves his nighttime bottle still at 2.8 although we are trying to cut down on volume. He point blank refuses milk at any other time whether cold/warm/bottle/sippy cup/straw (although nursery insist he drinks a little bit there). We do wonder when we should stop, but he's getting the calcium so who knows ........ We brush his teeth after as I do worry a bit about them. Interesting brushing the teeth of a child who is sometimes sound asleep!

mosschops30 · 28/09/2011 15:37

Both of mine had a bottle at night until they were about 4. Tbh i didnt see the problem, they were drinking milk from it and they associated it with sleep and bedtime.
Dc3 will probably be the same, hes almost 2 and still enjoys night and morning 'boccys'.
The other two chose to stop, it happened naturally

StrandedBear · 28/09/2011 16:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bigkidsdidit · 28/09/2011 16:29

Can I ask you all, with older children and late night milk, how do you fit in teeth brushing? DS is only 8mo but has four teeth and I was wondering how to arrange bedtime routine with both milk and teeth...

Gigondas · 28/09/2011 19:10

Being honest she usually brushed her teeth before bed (occasionally after bottle)- not iideal but when she was small she was usually asleep at end of bottle and gettin her too any kind of brushing involves a certain amount of wrestling.

Moss chops so glad to read that my dd not only one who enjoyed bottles for a while (only for milk).

RockStockAndTwoOpenBottles · 28/09/2011 19:15

DD1 - 18m
DD2 - 9m
DS - 20m
DD3 - 13m

notcitrus · 28/09/2011 19:17

Ds was over 2 when we forced him to switch from bottles to sippy cups for milk.
He's now 3 and will drink from a mug/glass during the day but bedtime milk and any nighttime milk is still the sippy cup.

We do milk before nappy and toothbrushing but most of the time there's a demand for another cup once in bed... which we give in to as then he falls asleep. Any later drink demands result in only water.

SpottyTeacakes · 28/09/2011 19:20

I swapped dd's for a beaker when she was one, but she never drank much anyway, maybe a couple of ounces? She still has milk from her cup now, at 15 months, but still doesn't have much

ilovesprouts · 28/09/2011 19:21

gs1 still has bottle gs2 does not have bottle they is 3 weeks between them

BornToFolk · 28/09/2011 19:23

DS was 2.7. He wouldn't have milk from anything other than a bottle when he was a baby (i.e. when he turned one) so we carried on for a bit, eventually getting him down to just one before bed. But he loooooved that bedtime bottle and it was very good for calming him down before bed.
Eventually the Bottle Fairy came and brought him a Buzz Lightyear doll and took the bottles and it really wasn't an issue at all so I'm glad we did it when we did.

Bigkids, we always brushed DS's teeth after his bottle, starting from when his teeth came through at 6months. He was well past falling asleep on the bottle by that age so it wasn't an issue. He just drank his bottle while having a story, then brushed teeth and into bed.

pocketfullofposies · 28/09/2011 19:23

I stopped with bottles with both of mine just as they were turning one

Sirzy · 28/09/2011 19:27

DS stopped of his own accord when he was 18 months. We were on holiday and I dont think he liked the milk so refused to drink it all week so as he went a week without I didn't see the point of bringing it back at home!!

Made it much easier waiting for him to be ready!

cottonreels · 28/09/2011 19:41

I forced the switch from bottle to tommee tippee cup at 13 months. Took 3 days of her not wanting it and refusing but i didnt give in. Then took it from the cup like shed always had it that way.
Still has a cup of milk at bedtime , 23 months, but we brush her teeth afterwards. Its part of the routine, but doesnt make her sleepy. At all.

DoTheStrand · 28/09/2011 21:28

We dropped the morning bottle soon after he was 1, it was taking him ages to drink and I had started freelancing in the mornings so needed to get him up and to his childcare promptly. (Well it wasn't quite as well thought out as that, I just kept forgetting to give it to him and he never asked...).

He kept the bedtime bottle til 22 months - I think it was a comfort thing. But he had a run of bugs and after a few distressing bedtime vomit sessions followed by second baths/hairwashes I started giving him his bottle downstairs then finishing it off in the bath - so if he was sick I could just hose him down with the shower head! He then started drinking less and less so I took it away and he didn't seem at all bothered.

I don't think it did him any harm having it until then, we always brushed his teeth after milk and before he went into his cot. He occasionally asks for milk during the day now (which I give him) and when he is ill he sometimes asks for milk in a bottle (which I also happily give him now as a treat if he is unwell).

LunaticIsOnTheGrass · 28/09/2011 21:44

BornToFolk the Bottle Fairy visited us as well

She came when DS1 was 3.5 & left him a big bucket of duplo.

DS2 hated his bottle, had a beaker for all drinks after about 10 months.

DD has just turned 2, she still has her bedtime bottle. It's her comfort object, she has ASD & she goes off to sleep with her bottle no problem & about 80% of the time sleeps through.
Without the bottle, the whole house will be awake all bloody night & its just not worth it.
We'll be getting rid of the bottle when she is ready, I'll leave it up to her to decide when that will be.

BlueChampagne · 29/09/2011 11:44

19-20 months when we went on holiday and he didn't know where to look for the bottles! We did take them just in case, but didn't offer.

YouHaveNoPowerOverMe · 29/09/2011 13:34

Ds1 about 12months. He was having his milk in a cup during the day from about 9months so wasn't too difficult to get him onto a cup at bedtime. He had one of those cow print beakers I bought from Sainsburys. He's 2 1/2 now and won't drink milk so has a small cup of camomile tea before bed.

Ds2 still BF to sleep at 13mo this so no bottles to get him off.

Petisa · 29/09/2011 13:43

dd1 nearly 3. Has fab teeth.
dd2 never had a bottle but will prob be bf to sleep for a long time

olibeansmummy · 01/10/2011 21:27

Well he's 2.4 now...

He still loves his night time bot bot but drinks from a proper open cup beaker or glass if he steals ours so not too bad

FrillyMilly · 01/10/2011 21:33

DD self weaned at 10 months on to a sippy cup. Literally one day just would not entertain a bottle anymore. She stopped having sippy cup about 2 and is 3 this month. She still has a night time dummy though. Most children have something that comforts them for bed.

feelingratheroverwhelmed · 01/10/2011 21:37

About 18months I think. I tried once before but gave up as he wasn't drinking much and it affected his sleep. When we finally did it I made the decision that if the sleep suffered for a while then so be it. He doesn't drink anywhere near as much out of a cup, and tends to tip it down himself, but his sleep was fine.

I admit though, when he's unwell or unsettled for any reason, he gets a bottle again. Milk really does help him sleep, so if there's something affecting him, such as a cold for example, I have no problem letting him have the comfort of a bottle again for a few days. He's always happily gone back to a cup once he's feeling better.

supadupapupascupa · 01/10/2011 21:37

chucked all bottles at about 1st birthday, soon got the hang of sippy cups. Occasionally has a horlicks before bed as doesn't really drink milk - depends on how much dairy i can get into him in the day.
his bedtime was so much easier once we got rid of the bedtime drink. he learned to to settle himself

supadupapupascupa · 01/10/2011 21:38

wont sleep without his 'chompy' though

LaWeasel · 01/10/2011 21:42

When DD turned 1 I chucked the baby bottles and swapped them for the older ones which are advertised as age appropriate for toddlers (she liked the ones with a straw) it still had the sucking motion so she was fairly happy with it.

She gave up on those and decided she didn't want milk anymore by about 18mths, and then went back to having (cow's) milk but in cups at around 2yo.

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