Advice please on bottle weaning and toothbrushing routine

[WingingItOverHere]

Hello wise mums,

I wondered if I could ask you how you’ve dealt with weaning your baby off her bottle, and how you brilliantly brought toothbrushing into the bedtime routine.

My daughter is now one year old and I’ve read that it’s time we start phasing out the bottle. During the day she drinks water from an open cup (she never took to a sippy cup but grabbed an open cup and just started drinking from it!!). But she has formula in the morning and just before bed in her bottle. Did you just make a switch to a cup, cold turkey? How did that go with bedtime? Or is there a smarter and smoother way to do this?

We have the a very successful bedtime routine at the moment with book and bottle, then bed...but I understand now that that’s awful for her teeth, which would typically be brushed before the book. Oops!

What does/did your bedtime routine look like with your one year old, when it came to brushing teeth and giving her milk?

One final question - did you all flip over to cow’s milk when s/he turned one? How did that go?

Thank you very, very much for any hints and tips you have for this!

Poppy

Slightly different as we changed to soya milk at 11 months under medical guidance. We did a straight swap no problem. I would drop the morning bottle definitely straight away and give her a cup. We also stopped offering a bottle before bedtime but DD had no more than a few sips of it anyway. She still woke for milk during the night in a bottle for a couple of months.

We do dinner, bath, bottle, teeth, book, bed in that order with 15 mo DS. Adding in the toothbrushing after the bottle was never an issue tbh.

We started switching him to cows milk just after a year but he wasn't keen so it's been a very gradual process of mixing cows milk in with formula, putting less formuka in over time. Finally got to full cows milk a couple of weeks ago.

Going to try switching over to a cup next, he happily drinks water from a sippy cup in the daytime but screams if we try to replace his bedtime bottle with a cup. Might have to go cold turkey.

We switched to cow’s milk at about eleven months and I doubt DS even noticed. Formula is a lot more likely to cause cavities than cow’s milk so maybe try swapping that first?

We still have a bit of a battle over toothbrushing, but we tried to make it fun initially. DH and I usually do this bit with him together. I bought teddy bear toothbrushes and flavoured toothpaste. We make silly noises and faces in the mirror. It’s still a chore though, even at 2.5.

Our routine at a year was the same as it is now - brush teeth, then read a story with a bottle and a dummy. Then read another story. And another story. And another story. Then turn out the light and lie in the dark for an hour while he sings and flops around like a dolphin trying to stay awake. Then, eventually, slip out of bed and tiptoe across the room like a ninja.

I should not be giving advice on this tbh

I really wouldn't stress about it as long as you take the bottle away immediately after. The worry is about them sucking on the bottle all night long, not having a drink before bed. My dd had a cup of milk before bed until she was 5. We always brushed her teeth before. Her teeth are perfect. But she also doesn't drink fruit juice or have sugary snacks except as a treat.

I changed to cows milk pretty much as soon as DD turned one. I then started giving her milk about half an hour before bed then teeth and story in her room; a couple of times she had an inch or so of milk after teeth and story as she struggled to adjust to the routine but was fine after a week or so.
It’s taken until DD was 2 to remove the bottle tho as she was so attached so with a future child I’d probably switch from bottle to cup at the time I moved the milk to before teeth

Thank you so much!! This has really helped.