18mth old bedtime milk dilemma

[Jacksmybaby]

Have switched DS's bedtime bottle to a beaker a couple of nights ago and he won't take it. He was having a bottle (only at bedtime) as part of his bedtime routine, and loved it, he would cuddle up to me and have his milk and get all nice and sleepy, then we would sing some songs, read a book and he would go to sleep ok. For last couple of nights with the beaker he has got very cross, screamed with disgust and then been really hard to settle. He has never really taken to drinking milk from his beaker at other times of day either (although he drinks water/juice fine from a beaker / cup with straw). But I was never really bothered about that because I knew he always gulped down his bedtime milk.
So now I don't know whether to
a) just cave in and go back to the bottle. He loves it, I love it (the cuddling I mean!) and frankly, if the only reason to give up the bottle is for his teeth, then I think his dummy addiction is more of a problem than the 2 minutes sucking it takes him to drink his bottle!
b) keep trying with the beaker at bedtime and hope he gets used to it.
c) start trying different types of beaker (although I went down this route when we dropped his daytime bottles and it didn't really seem to make any difference)
d) give up the bedtime milk altogether and just focus on giving him more cheese, cream, yogurt etc during the day.
Any opinions?

give him the milk in a bottle

my DS is 2.1 and has his bedtime milk like this

no big deal and i make sure he brushes his teeth after

Give it to him in a bottle. I dont think it matters too much what it is in as long as he drinks it. You were both happy with it, so why change it?

My DS wouldnt take his milk from a cup so I use one of the avent ones although I do use the valve otherwise he gets caked in milk. LOL.

I asked our dentist about this as DD1 would only drink milk out of a bottle, so the only milk she got as she got older was her bedtime bottle. He said he would rather she had the milk and not to worry (but I do realise this constitutes a survey of precisely one dentist). When we eventually stopped her bottle so she could stay dry at night (she was nearly 3) it was the last milk she drank. I think it is the bottle some children want rather than the milk and I took the view that I would rather she had the milk. With DD2 who is less fussy in many ways, she still has milk from a bottle at 18months and I am thinking about trying beakers now. However if it doesnt work I will go to aged 2 with bottles,and then try with the beaker and if not just leave it altogether as she eats her own body weight in cheese and yoghurt anyway. So in short (wittering sorry), I would go back to the bottle, enjoy the time and try again later.

Well Cathpot, your survey can now include 2 dentists as ours said exactly the same thing. She said that the benefit of the milk was greater than any potential damage of 5-10 mins of the bottle. DD still has hers at 2.5, and with DD2 due in the next few weeks no plans to change it in the forseeable!

Ds1 didn't stop having his milk in a bottle before he went to bed until 3.5 and that was only because he accidentally threw his bottle away so we decided to take the leap and say we didn't have any more. We tried to get him to have milk in a cup which he wouldn't so we just left him without and lo and behold this week he has randomly started slurping a cup of milk before he goes to bed through a straw!!! Shoot me down but sometimes I just think they go overboard with guidelines for this and guidelines for that. They aren't this age for long and his reaction suggests he's not ready for giving up the bottle yet so let him be the guide on this. Ds1's teeth are fab and he has no misshaping or over excessive erosion. Regular brushing - especially before he goes to bed will help.

thanks all for replies, unanimous vote for back to bottle then, hurrah!

My ds had bottle for bed until he was gone 4. His teeth are lovely and straight and strong and white. Dentist said they are fine, every time we have seen her. In the end he gave it up really easily, and has water just before bed now. I was wanting to stop it for a while, because he was occasionally wet at night, which meant a lot of laundry. Go back to bottle is my advice too, for a while anyway!!