23 month old still having a bottle morning and night

[angelberg]

My DS still gets a bottle of formula milk (the toddler one) in the morning and at night.

While I'm not so worried about him having one in the evening (I assume this stops around the same time he would be expected to go dry through the night), we usually give him one between 5.30-6.00 am - and he normally goes back to sleep til around 7.

What age do they normally stop wanting a bottle in the morning - or when can they do without it?

I'm not sure this will be much help but my DD (2.4) still has a bottle in the morning, one when I pick her up from nursery (in the car) and one before bed. She has them during the day if we're at home too. She doesn't have formula any more, I stopped that at two. She now has semi-skimmed milk.

I have tried to get her off bottles and onto milk in cups but she's not interested. All other drinks are from a normal cup - apparently sippy cups are for babies

Also, she's always dry at night regardless of bottle being consumed. I'm not sure the two things are necessarily connected...

Anyway, good luck and hope someone answers your question more helpfully than I have.

I am interested in the reply to this Angelberg. My 14 month old still has bottles (cows mlk not formula though) and loves them. He also has one around 6, when we bring him into bed with us, and then he goes back to sleep so we love it too, especially since he has been a very poor sleeper. But sometimes it can take him 40 minutes to go back to sleep - he might sleep till 8.30 though). But we did wonder if we were training him to wake for his bottle, and should we phase it out. So I would be interested in other experiences about this issue too, and hope you don't mind me piggybacking on your thread.

My ds (19m) doesn't have a bottle in the morning but has quite a lot of milk on his cereal so its equivalent. I think so long as his appetite is otherwise good, I don't think its a big problem, I always drank lots of milk as a child.

But is there a reason why your ds is still having formula? Over 12m, normal cows milk is fine (and a lot cheaper).

Doe she happily eat breakfast after a bottle of formula?

My DD does eat breakfast after her milk but it's cow's milk, not formula. Usually only toast or cereal.

My 4yr old and 2yr old ds both have a cup of milk every morning before breakfast and every evening before bed, they still eat their breakfast, so I dont worry ( and ds1 is dry at night) . Both of them are quite small for their age, so Im just glad they are getting the benefits milk can give.

We got my ds who turned 2 on sunday out of his morning bottle about 8 weeks ago by letting him have a cup of tea like us in the morning. We literally put mostly milk then dip one of our bags in with some hot water and thats it. But he stopped having his bottle quite easily like that as i suppose he feels grown up.
He still has a bottle and night and its such a comfort thing for i cant see it ever stopping lol. Its part of our bedtime routine and cant see how we can change it to be honest so i not worrying just yet.

I have to say i really must get him drinking from normal cups but how does it work when ya out and about if u stop letting them have sippy cups/toddler cups what ever they are called??

My dd is abit younger at 17mths.

She has a sippy cup of cows milk in the morning when she wakes. Usually sat in bed with me. Then breakfast when we are both dressed and downstairs.

Also has cows milk before bed too. We recently moved her from a bottle to a sippy cup which she took fine but would never go down so well as before and be unsettled at night..Out of curoisity we went back to the bottle and shes sleeping perfectly again! So think we will be sticking to the bottle for a while yet!

Personally im not bothered about her wanting milk in the morning. Im guessing she will grow out of it. If not then I guess its no different to use wanting a drink when we wake or like needing a coffee before we function properly!

I would try and wean him off bottles and on to a cup IIWY - cup better for his teeth.

Not sure if you are concerned about bottles per se or just drinks of milk tho! If it's the milk, I agree, give him cow's milk. Drinks of milk as wanted are fine imo. My 3 no longer have drink as a regular thing at night but they are old enough to get a drink if they want one.

my DD1 has cup of milk morning and evening (small one in evening now though to try and get her dry at night) and she is nearly 3, she had it in a bottle till she was 2. i think if they want the milk give it to them, agree though prob switch to cows milk and try to get him to have it from a cup. we went to buy a special new big girls cup which she chose, to have milk from to help make the switch.

Like pigley my 17month DD also has a bottle of cows milk before bed, but all other milk during the day (breakfast, mid morning & sometimes mid afternoon) is from a cup. I want to drop the bottle because of the teeth issue but she has about 8-9oz from her bottle and I am concerned that a)she won't get enough dairy and b) she won't settle at night. I did try her with a cup at bedtime once but she wasn't interested in drinking, so I went back to the bottle. We always brush teeth after milk, but still want to drop the bottle in favour of a cup anyway. Any tips?

To Hanoigal... Yes, that's moreorless my concern about it: that we're encouraging an early waking habit that might otherwise result in a longer, quieter sleep.

Until very recently, he's not been a great sleeper... waking up once or twice a night most nights, easy to settle but meaning no full night's sleep for us. I have argued with my DH about, because I would like to encourage my DS to sleep or go back to sleep in the mrnings without one of us having to get up.

He's still drinking formula because it's the toddler one - "apparently" containing more vitamins than cow's milk. I don't envisage a problem weaning him off that as such and probably should do around now (for financial reasons as much s anything)...

He drinks out of cups the rest of the day and can be encouraged to drink something new by sticking a straw in it!

Anyway, i live in hope that now his nights are getting quieter, eventually he'll sleep a bit longer in the morning - perhaps without the bottle to get him back to sleep.

angelberg i have the same problem with my ds he sleeps from 7.30 right through till 6 he then screams for a bottle to go back asleep with. i say everynight before i go to bed tomorrow he will have to do without and get himself back to sleep. i give up after about 1 minute the thought of more sleep gets me everytime. he sleeps till 8.30 with his 6 oclock bottle. sorry i havnt given any cure just sympathy really

My HV has advised changing from bottles to cups now (13mo) as any later it will be difficult but I don't think he'll take enough so I'm hanging back for now, but he is quite a bit younger than yours.

On a similar note he sleeps till 8am if I give him a dream feed at 10pm, but when I have tried to get rid of it he wakes around 4am for a bottle.

I guess there will come a time when the dream feed stops working?

My daughter now 2.5 I stopped bottles entirely by 15 months. As by 12 months she was having milk in a sippy cup at breakfast and dinner and would drink half a pint of cows milk at both meals, I just had to keep topping her cup up. Didn't stop her from eating her full meals I would add.

As she got bigger I gravitated up the Tommee Tippee cups by age they recommend. So she now has the one for 2 year olds which is supposed to be the final one before moving to a real cup.

My son who is 12 months, is now on a sippy cup all day and has milk with breakfast and dinner only and I managed to phase out the bedtime bottle by giving him more milk at dinner and putting less in his bottle overtime and then bye bye bottle. I dropped the 11pm feed at 11 months as he wasn't interested anymore (lucky me). He did wake for a short while at 5am ish but that stopped fairly quickly.

I love the fact I don't have to faff with bottles at bedtime, as my kids share a room, it's so nice to just bath, story and bed together in their room and no bottle shenanigans.

It's tricky to phase out the bedtime bottle as it brings such comfort if they're tired. You have to decide for yourself what is best for you and your child at the end of the day. I always tell people you want to completely phase out bottles before they get to the stage of going to the fridge to get it themselves (so to speak) as then it gets rather more complicated and by that stage trying to get them off a bottle would be really really hard.

But I think every parent decides when is a good time to phase out bottles based on their child

We went cold turkey as DS's new year's resolution (22.5 months at the time) - he whinged a bit and now eats, enormous quantities of yoghurt (he won't drink milk from a cup for me, does at nursery gah!). To stop myself feeling too guilty I gave up chocolate at the same time (moan, whimper, even more whinging than DS did...) It's taken longer to settle him and a period of being cuddled to sleep on my bed - though tonight he cuddled, then voluntarily climbed into his own bed and went to sleep, so maybe we're finally going to get bedtimes working a bit more easily.

We switch to sippy cup before bed when dd1 was 2 but she would still have a bottle in the night until she was 2.5yrs.

I stopped giving her milk when she started only drinking an oz or 2. I decided if she wasn't going to drink all milk then she realy didn't need it and it was just a habit.

It only took a couple of nights for her to sleep through.

Although even now at nearly 6yrs she still wakes at 3am (always the same time, even when a baby)if she unwell or tired, esp when tired.

Tea & Cake
That seems very good idea to do milk at dinner, and reduce the amount in the bedtime bottle. I'll try that for a few weeks and see how it goes.
Thanks

my ds is 11 months and taking one morning bottle of formula and one evening. am eager to get him on cows milk because we are travelling to portugal in 4 weeks time....(yippeee) how? should i just change? i know it is meant to be 12 months for cows milk but surely a few weeks would be ok? i imagine it would be easier on hol using milk. am i wrong?? it ia all new and i ask a million questions. always.

We stopped the morning bottle with the twins (now 2.4) a few months ago because 1 of them started waking at midnight shouting for milk!

So just stopped it completely.
With regards to the night time bottle, well, I am scared to stop it to be honest because I am convinced that if they don't get the bottle then they won't sleep!

My dd1 is 3.5 and only recently gave up her morning bottle and still has one at night . It's my secret parenting shame but she likes it and it doesn't do her any harm.

My 2 year old has the same but, as he is a very bad eater and has bad reflux, we don't want to do anything that may lead to him not eating again. He has the toddler one still as we need to make sure he is having vitamins etc. The paeditrician said it was fine for him and her own 18 mh old still had bottles of formula. I wouldn't worry too much, they will grow out of it in time.

Me too Bumper...except we haven't given up the morning one either

No probs with dentist, speech, drinking from open cups or any other or disasters I was told would happen, so not all that bothered tbh!

My daughter is 3.6 and she has milk in the morning and at night, but in a beaker, she loves her milk!

Neither of my DDs like milk, they would only ever have it warm and in a bottle (tried lots of alternatives). Therefore I continued morning bottle until around 2yrs and the night bottle until 2.5yrs. After that I figured they'd get enough calcium from other dietary sources. The only way they'll have milk now is on their cereal and sometimes they'll insist on having that dry too.