4yr old bottle feeder

[squish5]

Hi,
My four yr old will not give up her bottle of milk before sleep and also during the night when she wakes, any suggestions as to how i break the habit? I can't begin night training without nappies until i can stop her massive milk intake before bed
Thank you

I just threw them out and showed my dd that they had gone. She was most put out...

Perhaps leave a new cuddly something in it's place in the cupboard so a bit like the dummy fairy but a bottle fairy. If it's her sleep prop she may struggle to get to sleep for several nights I'm afraid.

I switched the milk for water during the night and left in a beaker on the side by the bed and said it was healthy for their teeth. I slowly reduced the milk intake before bed until they still want a small glass but are not too bothered

Dh had the brilliant idea of bribing dd with a reward if she stopped having bottles. This was when she was just under three. He picked it with her on eBay and everything. It was a cuddly penguin with a little heat up bag inside it which you put in the microwave. She bloody loves that penguin! And it worked so well - she gave the bottles up without any fuss.
She does still have milk in a cup half an hour before bed, though, so is not dry at nights yet. I guess this is the next thing to address. I'd better start browsing eBay!
I always thought I'd never bribe my child to do anything...

My DS had a dentist appointment and the dentist asked me if he had a dummy. I said is it that noticeable? (He dropped the dummy at 18 months but was still having a bed time bottle at 2.6) apparently so. So I said to the dentist, you tell him then and he duly did. We repeated that the dentist said no more baby cups all the way home. Got DS to tell Granny on the phone and our neighbour etc etc and then at tea time I gave him a cup of milk as he was a big boy now. At bedtime we did the routine a little differently, had a shower instead of a bath , different story etc and when he mentioned the milk, I just said remember what the dentist said and that was it. After 3 nights he didn't mention it again.

At 4 you could probably embellish this approach a bit more plus I would go with a bribe and a binning of the bottles.

On a slight tangent, dryness at night depends on the presence of a particular hormone. Unless your dd has that hormone present you will not be able to "night train" her, regardless of whether you get rid of the bottle or not.

However, it's still a good idea to get rid of the bottle, particularly if she is having milk at night which is very bad for her teeth.