Weaning off the bottle at almost two years

[tuttifritti]

I need your tips. I have a 22 month old who will very happily self settle with a bottle of non dairy milk.

But she will only settle in her own cot with a bottle which is not great for her teeth. I've tried sippy cups and other drink bottles to no avail. She is now chewing through the teats which is a huge worry in case she chews it off completely.

Any tips?

I’m guessing you don’t want to go down the route of just taking it away and accepting you will have three or four nights where she won’t easily go to sleep? If so, how about giving her the milk before she gets into her cot and gradually bringing it earlier and earlier so it stops being part of her bedtime routine before getting rid of it altogether? Or you could gradually decrease the amount of milk in the bottle by half an ounce at a time - you can replace this with water if you prefer.

Cold turkey.

Just go for it cold turkey and prepare for a few difficult days/nights. She's likely verbal enough for you to at least explain what's happening and understand. At that age, they don't need milk regularly, so you aren't taking away something she needs nutritionally, but you will need to be extra responsive while she adjusts. We took our dd's dummy away at that age. I explained for a few days before what was going to happen and then we just didn't give it to her at bedtime one night. She was upset, but we had lots of extra cuddles until she was ready to go to bed without it. She woke quite a bit during the night that first week, but lots of cuddles and being really responsive to her and eventually it all went back to normal. You'll figure out a new routine that works for you.

That said, there's no reason not to offer milk before bed though. Mine had milk in a cup before bed until she was 4.5. You just have to crack the bottle thing and the feeding to sleep thing and move milk earlier.