Bedtime milk

[mckenzie]

At what age did your child/children give up their milk at bedtime?
Ds is nearly 3 and still has a small beaker of milk at bedtime but we're about to get rid of the bedtime nappy so i wonder if now is when we should also stop the bedtime milk.
We cant really give it to him earlier as our normal routine is dinner at 5.45/6pm, bath at 6.30/6.45 and bed at 7.15ish.

What have others done please?

Dd is almost 7 and still has a glass of milk before bed. When we were getting her out of night time nappies, we gave her her milk a bit earlier, then she always goes to the loo immediately before bed. We only ever had 2 wet beds, way down the line which was completely unrelated to her evening drink.
HTH

Ds1 is almost 4 and has been dry at night for just 3 months. We stopped his bedtime milk when he was 2.5 but he still had wet nappies (!) Now he is dry at night, he is allowed a drink of water in small amounts if he asks for it before bed as he always goes to the toilet right before bed and is has been good at getting up at any time in the night to go.

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Ds is 10 and likes horlicks or similar before bed - he stopped really wanting/needing it around age 2.5/3 yrs old

DS1 nearly 3 has just stopped - he lost his lidded beaker and I refused to get him a new one. He moaned for a couple of nights (I do let him still have water, but he bearly touches it) but seems to have got over it. He still has wet nappies at night though - I think i'll keep those a while yet.

I don't know if this is true... but I heard that it's best, if possible, to try to not limit bed-time drinks if you want them to go overnight. The logic is that they never get a chance to find their own balance between bed-time thirst and holding it in later, and the task of going dry overnight will take longer to achieve if you always try to limit the fluids. They need to "learn" to hold that much fluid in for that long. The logic seems to work for us, we let the kids have almost as much as they want (we do limit it sometimes); both were dry or close to it most nights from 2y+4months.
They may just have "good" bladders, though!
DD (2yo) doesn't usually get bedtime milk unless she finishes her tea, but DS (4yo, champ eater) is hungry again, and often gets both 2-4oz of milk and a banana.

My kids are 6, 4 and 1 and the eldest two have hot chocolate before bed and ds has his milk. Don't think i would consider giving it up unless they wet the bed alot.

Mckenzie, my DS1 at the same stage at the same age and has been asking to have a wee at midnight recently (9oz milk and a nappy that he knows he doesn't 'need' anymore)
We are thinking of lifting him, hopefully half asleep, on to the potty at midnight before we go to bed, so he can wee without wakingup properly
Has this worked with anyone else or is it fostering a bad habit?

Noooooo - you don't want them to learn to wee when alseep, it's what you're trying to stop!

Good point
It's just that my mum was visiting today and she said that's what they did in her day, so you have to check.
So the trick is to get them to cut down on bedtime fluid once thirst has been quenched and then hold bladder till morning is it?

My elder dd still has a half beaker - never lifted her onto the loo/potty and she just wet the bed twice - our bed, stopped for a wee on the way to the bathroom - and peed all over h's side of the bed - good girl - and only had one more accident later on. Hope it's as easy with dd2, somewhow doubt it.

Mine gave up when the dentist told me that because milk has natural sugar in it, it shouldn't be given after the children have brushed their teeth.

But they can still brush their teeth after, suppose it depends when you give it.

thanks for all the replies. We have been lifting him about 11pm to wee but I can see the arguement for not doing that. We'd had dry nappies at night for the last couple of weeks and were just about to stop using them when suddenly the last 2 nights they have been wet in the morning so I guess we'll have to wait a bit longer. DS never gets out of bed though unless we go into his room so unless we hear him when he first calls out in the morning, perhaps urgently needing a wee, we cant really blame him if he does it in his nappy, can we?
I shall leave the potty in his roomrtonight perhaps and see what happens in the morning.

ds just gave up milk last week. Just like that. Won't touch it any more. He's only 14 months! I really miss our beautiful milky cuddles, but he is still as happy as ever to settle down and sleep through. Anyone else have a baby just give up on milk?

fisil, my DD stopped drinking milk altogether at 18 months. She is now 2.4 yrs and has recently started drinking milk again before bed. This has coincided with her pretending to be a little baby and wanting me to treat her like a baby! I would offer milk to your ds now and again - maybe he will go back to it like my DD has done.

My DD is nearly 4 and always goes to bed with a big beaker of milk which she drinks all or most of. We haven't had any accidents for about a year and I don't think night time drinking has much bearing on bed wetting. If she needs a wee in the night she gets up and has one, just as we do, so it's learning to wake up if you do need a wee that they have to get used to, irrespective of fliud intake. I don't want to stop giving it to her as it's the only milk she drinks (apart from on cereal which isn't much) and I think it's still a good thing for her to be getting lots of calcium at her age.

I think it depends on the maturity of the bladder to recognise it is full, rather than the fact they had milk at bedtime. Ds1 is 5 and been dry for ages and ages at night, and he still takes a cup of milk to bed with him. Only now is he starting not to drink it, but "save" it for the night (it's more of a comfort/routine thing now). Otoh, dd1 aged almost 12 still wets herself every night, and never has a drink before bedtime, or after a certain time at night, and dd2 aged 7, is 50/50 on the wetting front atm. Ds2 aged 3 is still in nappies at night.