How to get my nearly 1year old to sleep without a bottle.

[MotherBarr]

Today I took my son, for his 11month health review. He's on chart for all his developments which is great.

The health visitor has advised that I stop giving him his bottle when I put him down for bed, but I believe it's his comforter.

She said to give him a a cup of milk as a super during he's evening/bedtime routine that we currently have.

Does anyone know of the best way I could wean him off the bottle?

Or if I should wait as when I had my older son, we didn't wean him off his bottle until he was in a toddler bed and was nearly 18month (wanted to get him off bottles before his baby brother arrived) And I can't remember how we did it.

TIA.

Gosh no need to wean him off the bottle. He's still a baby. As long as you are cleaning his teeth. (that's why they suggest you move on to beakers. As bottles can be bad for their teeth due to not cleaning teeth after giving a bottle)

My DS is almost 2 and he still has his night bottle. It's his comfort and part of his routine. It gets a huge amount of milk in him every day and that's good for him.

Ignore the HV and trust your own instincts. If you were breastfeeding would she give you the same advice? It's totally naturally for babies to fall asleep while feeding; breast milk is literally designed that way! No reason why it should be different for a bottle fed baby. Just try and get a toothbrush in there a couple of times a day to protect his teeth too.

Agree with above. I will give DD2 milk before bed until she no longer wants it, it's a comfort, fills her up to sleep all night and gets her milk intake up. Sometimes I think HVs talk too much textbook without applying real life. Give a sippy cup or one with a straw if you're worried but at under 1 I wouldn't be worried at all, there's no rush.

Thank you all, I just need that reassurance that I wasn't doing wrong by leaving it. Hopefully I will know when he's ready, he's bound to do something to let me know he no longer needs it. Thanks again.

@MotherBarr you're probably right. My eldest just asked for a cup one night instead of a bottle - job done! I think he was 2 and a bit!