Bedtime milk questions at 1 year - How much? How? etc.

[Georgia502]

I'm hoping some friendly mums out there can help me. I have information overload but still don't quite know what the right answers are. Apologies for the long thread!

My LO is 11.5months. She is a big girl (99th percentile for height and 91st for weight). I know she is due to move to cows milk soon and I'm hoping the transition wont be too hard. But before that I need to get her to drink enough out of the sippy cup. As of now she has been drinking water out of the sippy for some months, however she SIPS small sips regularly and only when very thirsty takes big gulps. She has never drank milk out of the sippy cup. I am worried how I will get her to drink enough milk to 1) Keep hydrated (given the majority of her fluids is milk) 2) At bedtime to sleep (If this train of thought is correct??!)

SO several questions really:

1. How much is enough milk at bedtime?

I know technically at this age it is about how much milk & food during the day rather than the quantity at the last bottle however she has always had a good 6-9oz at bedtime and I worry she will wake early upset (we had this happen recently as she started cruising and we realised she needed an extra snack after nursery before bed). She sometimes messes around with bedtime bottle and only takes 4oz but 10mins later will happily take another 4oz. If I'd taken the bottle away at 4oz would she have slept through?

2. How long does your LO take to drink milk out of a sippy cup and did you have to adjust your LO's routine to give your LO an opportunity to drink the milk?

3. Has anyone else had similar issues with the speed/quantity of bedtime milk and can suggest cups that they can drink faster with?

4. How do babies stay hydrated enough if the milk consumption drops moving to the sippy cup + they don't drink lots of water (especially in this warmer summer)?

Any help would be much appreciated and sorry again for the MANY questions!

hi, it's such a tricky time and every baby is so different when it comes to milk!

My child had a milk allergy so we were under a dieticiain. She told us that from 1 they should be drinking no more than 3 cups (120ml) of milk a day but this can also be included in their milk in their cereal. My child wasn't a big milk drinker so this was fairly easy for us to do.

I started moving away from giving a bed time bottle to instead giving milk in a sippy cup with tea. If he finished it I would top it up. Then he would have a good snack before bed if he wanted it. This meant I wasn't worrying about how quickly he drank the milk as it was just there for him to access for about an hour. But on the occasions he wanted to he could drink very quickly from it!

I have other friends whose kids love milk and they still have a bed time bottle at 2.5years! They can't imagine taking it away and it doesn't seem to be doing their kids any harm.

My main advice is don't try and make all the changes at once. Maybe keep the bedtime bottle but offer some milk in a sippy cup with tea and gradually increase that and decrease the amount in her bed time bottle.

And try not to stress about it, you will figure out what's best for your baby! you might just need to experiment a bit to find what's right

Hi I'm in a similar position. My Ds is also 11.5 months (1 on 11th July) and he is a very big boy. We are under a dietician and I know she is going say we need to reduce milk consumption due to his size. He currently had 3 bottles and 3 meals in 24 hours. My plan is to reduce/stop daytime milk as he is eating through the day and keep his bedtime one as it is. I am not worried personally about stopping a bottle as it's his comfort and he won't drink milk out of anything else.
My daughter still had a bottle of milk before bed until 2.5 yrs.
so don't worry too much about swapping if dc isn't happy drinking milk out do a sippy. The important thing is getting fluids into them.
Don't be pressured into anything just do what works for your baby. X x