2 year old and bedtime bottle

[DrJones1]

Hi Everyone, first time posting in Mumsnet. Here goes. My LO is 2 years old and still taking bedtime bottle. This has not been a problem for us as he would have slept through the night. Early to bed round 7.30-8pm and normally awake between 6-7am with 1 hour nap. He has had a bout of illness with colds and I feel a period of sleep regression as he wouldn't nap and prior to the illness was waking through the night and super early in the mornings. we've always settled him back with a bottle. We just didn't know what other way to settle him without a riot. He rarely woke before but I feel the bottle has now become part of the problem as he may be wakening for the bottle. In the early hours you do anything to get them back over. I'm afraid this has now become a habit and I'd like to stop the bottle altogether. I have read about watering the bottle over a period until it's all water and they might decide themselves they don't want it. Then....there's cold turkey which is actually causing me anxiety the thought of it but if I thought it worked and quickly I would give it a go. Has anyone any experience of doing this that could offer me some advise please? Thanks in advance.

I think unfortunately it just sounds like habit. That's not a criticism it just is what it is. I think you're either going to have to tough it out which means go cold turkey and take the hit and just give cuddles etc to try and placate or you're going to have to keep giving the bottle until he's ready to stop. My 2YO didn't have her bottle to soothe to sleep but had one just before bedtime and when we cut that out and gave her a big girl cup she was fuming and even threw it on the floor in disgust lol. I think the main issue of having it to soothe to sleep is that it then sits on the teeth and coz it's full of sugar that's not great. Practically to get over that you could try gradually watering down the milk then switching to water? Good luck. It's hard but just rememeber that especially if you're by his side giving him love he's not really going to be traumatised if you take it away from him xx

Sorry to hijack the thread but @Jannt86 I read your reply with interest as my 2YO still has a bedtime bottle (downstairs and before brushing his teeth) and I really could do with getting him off it...how did you do it? Literally just give your daughter a cup of milk each night until she got used to it? He will be soooo angry! 😩

Yeh just did it. She wasn't happy at all and there were tears and throwing it on the floor and more tears when we told her that's all the milk we have lol but she got the idea after a few nights xx

Thanks!! Sounds exactly like when we stopped his morning bottle 😩