Can anyone help with bedtime routine for 22month old?

[cheekymonkeymum]

Currently he has bath and clean teeth, downstairs for postman pat, milk and cuddle upstairs in his room with the lights off and then put into his bed.We give him his milk in a bottle and remember being told that you shouldn't do that after 12 month old. We also want to introduce his having a story at bedtime but don't know which order it works to do it all, when brush teeth, what to drink the milk out of. I want to ditch the TV really in favour of a story - please can anyone help with a routine that works for them. DS likes to have a routine but think we need to change what we are doing.

dd is 2.6 and still has a bedtime bottle
we do bath, and then bottle and a cuddle while reading a story with her big brother and either me or dh

takw tv out of room, give him the milk - its not important and is a confort, start telling stories. easy peasy

Once he#s gone upstairs for his bath don't bring him down again. We do bath, into bed have story and drink then clean teeth back into bed kiss and goodnight.
My DC are 6 and 3 but have had that routine since 1st DC was a baby.

thanks custardo, you might say easy peasy but it isn't to me and we don't have a TV in the room

DD has had her milk in a sippy cup since she popped the teat out of her bottle at about 18 months and poured the milk all over her bed - twice. She didn't bat an eyelid about changing to a cup.

We do bath (but not every night) and teeth, pjs, story on mine or dh's lap (and now she likes ds to come in too - he's a week old!) and into her cot with her milk. I usually turn the light off and sing a song or two, DH just says night night and goes out.

I want to know how we'll start brushing her teeth after her drink though. But that can wait!

And do you give your children milk and if so is it out of a bottle or cup? MrsJamesMartin your routine sounds sensible, don't know why we brought DS downstairs again really,thinking about it..it just became a habit!

Supper downstairs
Upstairs to brush teeth and wash face
PJs on
He chooses 2 books to read
Cuddle in chair and read the stories
Offer him milk, more often than not he doesn't want it.
Into bed, night night, lights off.

Ditto advice about not taking him downstairs again after his bath. My ds is just 22 months and bedtime for him is:

final bit of Cbeebies bedtime hour downstairs
upstairs for bath
for milk (in his room)
clean teeth (still in his room)
stories/nursery rhymes/cuddles
light out.

He knows what's coming and reminds us what should come next, and especially knows that when we go upstairs for bath etc, that's it.

i took "i want to ditch the tv really in favour of a story" as you had a tv in the room - honest mistake, i hope you can see.

easy peasy shoul have perhaps come like this
easy peasy!

becuase it was obviously not taken in the way in which it was intended

Tea
Play - sometimes tv
Cup of milk
Upstairs for teeth cleaning and bath
Into bedroom for nappy, pjs, sleeping bag
Stories
Cuddle
Lights off, music on
More cuddles
Into bed
Yell "mama mama" loudly until fall asleep.

'dinner, play, brush teeth, have a wash or bath, TV prog with snack/drink then upstairs for stories and calm music once the light is off. I stay with DS until he's asleep.'

sorry to nitpick leningrad but do you mind me asking why you don't brush teeth after the snack/drink bit instead of before?

ds is exactly 22 mo - we have been doing the following for ages and it works a treat for us:

5pm tea
6pm milk & CBeebies for ITNG and bloody Third & Bird, plus Charlie & Lola if he is still quite sparky, along with puzzles and generally pottering type play while TV on
6.30 / 6.45 bath starts, brushes teeth in or after bath, sip or three of cool water
7.15 at latest into PJs and grobag, books and cuddles, into cot, and one more book whilst in cot (lights turned down for that one).
big kiss, lights out and usually all done by 7.30 and don't hear from him for another 11 hours minimum.

on the bottle front I was strict on this and got him off it at 12/13 mo so don't know how your ds will react, but we use this cow cup for milk morning and evening and ds loves it. In fact I have 3 of the things as he refuses any other cup at milk time.

thanks custado, smiley face made all the difference!

I'd do -
tea
cbeebies
milk
bath and teeth
story
bed

Mine is 10 months so we do milk after story but am going to try and get it in before teeth soon.

Thanks everyone and also BocciBalls for the suggestion of cow cup. DS happily uses normal cup during day time at meals or sippy cup for grabbing a drink on the go so not sure yet whether just to try a normal cup at bedtime. All suggestions have been very welcome, a bit frazzled about this one not least as DS has recently decided that he no longer wants to get into the bath...but that's another story!

My DS is 16 months and we do:
-dinner
-play for hour
-snack
-upstairs for brushing teeth
-bath
-into PJ's and grobag
-stories
-into cot
-music on, blanky in hand, I say the same thing every night 'night night, it's beddy baws, mummy loves you, see you in the morning'
-leave room and RELAX

PS it took a while to get to this stage though, good luck with your new routine!

Like others have said, keep the bedtime routine upstairs. I have to get 3 DC to bed on my own (5y, 2y, 9mths)
Earlyish dinner
Bathtime 5.30ish
Dry and into PJs 6ish
(I try not to let them go mad playing at this point)
Brush teeth
Send DD1 and DD2 into DD2's room to choose stories and look at them quietly whilst I give DS his bottle and put him to bed.
Read DD2 stories (with DD1 there too)
Into DD1's room for her stories
Finished by 7.20ish.

It was a nightmare at first and getting DD2 used to the routine required patience and consistency but I don't have any problems and they love their bedtime which is happy and relaxing. When DH does it, it all goes pearshaped and he loses all control of them which can then result in a stressful and long session. From this, I can see that my method works. (for me)

I was wondering if anyone else's LOs had a snack before bed actually - mine has tea at 4.30 and then some cereal at 6 - I think it helps her settle down for sleep and sleep through.

Yes my DS has dinner around 430pm and goes up for bed about 630/7pm ish so I tend to give him a yoghurt or fruit pot before bed. He doesn't have a bottle you see and I stopped BFing in January

Mine has a bottle too - but she is a bit of a little piggy

DS has tea at 3:30pm at nursery, I give him a snack when he gets home from nursery about 5:30pm (toast or cereal), then he has a bit of dinner with us at 6:30pm (just to be sociable!) I've tried to cut out the 5:30pm snack but he gets too hungry.