Milk before bed?

[LittlemissMama67]

My daughter is 2 and 2 months old. Maybe I'm just stupid but I just saw a post of a mum whincing in embarrassment that her child roughly the same age has milk before bed. I have a 7 year old son and obviously stopped giving him bottles a long time ago but I had actually not even considered or had it cross my mind to stop giving her bottles. When was I supposed to stop. I feel a right idiot 😂

As long as teeth are cleaned before bed and no milk after it doesn't matter.

My daughter is the same age and still has milk before bed, I've never thought about stopping it while she still enjoys it, to be fair it's only recently she's stopped asking for milk when she wakes up.

Glad I'm not alone, it hasn't even crossed my mind it's just part of the routine. I saw that post and thought omg have I dropped the ball on that one? I'll maybe start trying to wean her off slowly as long as it's not drastic and she should have stopped she's ago.

I stopped around 18 months when stopped breastfeeding. Didn’t add any other milk at bedtime

I think it’s helped tbh. Ds is now 2 years 2 months. I potty trained daytime and he’s seems to now be completely dry nights as well which might help as he has no large drink every night.

He has water next to bed of thirsty so can get up any time to have a drink

My 4 year old still has milk before bed but in a small cup not a bottle.

I think the bottle is the issue isn’t it? With teeth, rather than the milk itself.

DS is 4 and loves his milk before bed. He moved to a sippy cup at 1 and has used a mug for about 2 years now. We brush teeth after.

The milk will turn to sugar if left on the teeth, so it's important that there's no milk after teeth cleaning.

My 6 year old and 2 year old both have a cup of milk before going up for their bath and bed. They always have their teeth cleaned last thing before getting into bed so as long as that happens it's all fine. Milk is really good for children and more should have it.

I don't think it's particularly good for them, it's high in calories and has sugar too. So I stopped giving bottles around 18 months. A small cup with breakfast and that's it. But that's just me and everyone's diets are different. If she is taking the bottle to bed that isn't ideal. If she is drinking it and then brushing her teeth I dont suppose it's a big deal.

No bottles after12m, and no milk after teeth brushed as soon as they have teeth, is the general wisdom.

I'm not even going to share how long ds had a bottle for 🤣

My daughter is 4 and still has milk almost every night before bed. Very occasionally she will refuse if she's really full/ill/doesn't fancy it. Obviously she has it in an open cup. We stopped her bottles at about 13 or 14 months when we started giving it to her in a straw or sippy bottle instead, gradually moving to sippy cup and then eventually an open cup.

You’re ‘supposed’ to stop bottles at 12m I think - we didn’t quite manage that but think we were around 14 months or so. DD will be 2 in a few weeks. She has milk on her cereal/ porridge and a bit in a cup before bed still, it’s quite entrenched in her routine but she doesn’t actually drink that much of it - probably only has about a quarter of one of those little basic sippy cups if that (uses an open cup any other time but again, this particular cup is a comfort/ routine thing).

Very occasionally she’ll ask for a drink of milk in the day, but probably not even once a week.

I know loads of people who still have/ gave a bottle for far longer, I think as long as you’re careful about tooth brushing and not letting her actually go to bed with it it’s fine!

My 17 and 15 year olds still drink milk at bedtime! Not from a bottle admittedly, but then they never had bottles.

DD had a bottle before bed (and before brushing teeth) until 4. She has a dairy allergy and point blank refused (and still does) to consume "milk" (alpro soya growing up milk in her case) in any other way - not from a cup, not in cereal etc. So it was basically out of desperation to get at least some milk into her. The dairy free alternatives are not fortified so didn't give her enough fat&minerals required.

My 11 and 6 year olds still like a cup of milk before bed- cold in summer and warm in winter. It's before they brush their teeth so can't think of any reason it would be a problem.

Oh gawd. My 14mo has a bottle of formula before bed, I can't get her to stop 😭 she doesn't like cows milk and won't drink anything but water out a cup.
Heeeeelp

As long as you're brushing her teeth before she goes to sleep I wouldn't worry about it.

My DD is 2 years and 2 months too - still has a bottle of milk before bed too 🙈 Hadn’t considered it a big problem as I brush her teeth afterwards but suppose I better start the fight to get rid of the bottle soon…

A bottle is recommended to be stopped at 12months, it's to do with the sucking on the bottle and the teeth, (it's different to breastfeeding)

Milk is not the problem (providing teeth are brushed after) it's the bottle that's the problem, just move to a cup.

That’s fine. It’s very healthy for her. Why get her to stop? 12 months is far too young to stop formula and/or breast milk.

This simply isn't true, there's no need for formula past 12m.

So does my 20mo! I can't imagine doing bedtime without it. Never switched to cows milk in a cup like the guidelines say as I thought 'if it ain't broke why fix it?' We do teeth cleaning.
How do people leave water at the bedside for baby if they're in a cot? Are they not supposed to be in a cot at this age?

@MolliciousIntent there's no need for formula but there's no harm either. Can't follow every baby guideline to the letter.

@qpmz - water was always beside bed here. When in cot with bars he would just wake and shout and we would have to go help him get it. Mine climbed out by 20 ish months then over the stair gate and was off, so had to remove all cot bars and stair gates as wasn’t safe.
Hence now at 26 month he can can now help himself to water. He also needs cot side off now anyway to access toilet