Cutting bedtime bottle because of teeth?

[hm4912]

Hi! My 18m old still has a morning and bedtime bottle. She doesn’t fall asleep on the bottle, but it’s the last thing we do before we put her straight down and she can self settle from there. I read that I shouldn’t give be doing this as she needs her teeth brushed after milk. So the past 3 nights we have tried bottle, teeth and bed but she’s not been happy at all and when we put her in her crib she cries and needs settling which is unlike her . Anyone else gone through this, is there anything I can do to make it easier for her or is just change throwing her off? Should I try cutting the bottle completely so she isn’t confused by the order?

TIA

sorry, meant to say bottle, teeth, book and bed :)

Just clean her teeth after the bottle instead .

That's the very crux of the OP's problem

OP, you'll have to just get her used to the new routine. I'd give a sippy cup of milk rather than a bottle and let her drink it while she's getting a bedtime story. Then brush teeth, then one more bedtime story with nice cuddles before bed. She'll get used to the new routine soon enough. You have to just stick with it.

You need a 20 minute gap between food/drink other than water and teeth brushing as the enamel is soft after eating or drinking

I think just persevere. I don't remember when I switched it around, but it just gradually became bath, bottle, teeth and bed, with a story in there too.

A dummy might help when the bottle would once have been??

As pp has said perseverance is key, yes the change is what is throwing her off but she will get used to it eventually, just keep doing what you are doing, its been years since ive had to deal with weaning off bottles etc (although will be doing it all again soon) and i remember a few unsettled nights but all went back to normal relatively quickly, also yes maybe take bottle away completely and switch it for sippy cup, let her have cup/bottle downstairs with a story and snack, bath, teeth, story in bed, will help her disassociate bottle/cup with being in bed xx

My baby is also 18months and we do the same as you (teeth, bottle, book, eventually fall asleep).

For what it's worth I'll be keeping to our current routine and haven't got any plans on changing it at the moment.

She just needs to leans some new sleep cues. As long as you are consistent it shouldn’t take long.

I removed bottle at this age and gave milk in a cup downstairs before bath, then carried on with the same routine as before minus the bottle. It took a few days of staying consistent. I also took DS to the supermarket to pick the cup himself and make a big thing of putting his milk in it and picking some stories to read on sofa while he drank it.