weaning 2 yr old off bottle at night

[eefs]

My DS (28 months) goes to sleep with a bottle of milk every night, and I need to break this habit. I've gradually reduced the amount over a few weeks until he now has 4 oz's of milk, but if i reduce it anymore he cries for top up and ends up drinking more than usual (and waking up soaked!). My friends DD (same age) used to go to bed with juice and she's just found out her DD needs a filling already, so I do realises it's important to stop it. Does anyone have any ideas of the best method to adopt? or had a similar experience? I'll do CC if that's what it takes (my DP has disuaded me from that route so far as he hates to hear DS cry.) Or replace the milk with water? If i was sure the method I adopt is right, then I can be tough and carry it through. Please, any suggestions?

eefs we had the same problem .
Isn't it amazing the things, as parents we get into doing for the sake of a quiet life in the short term

Our son loved his last thing at night bottle and I was loathe to stop it because it was so strongly associated with going to sleep ten minutes or so after he drank it.

We decided to wait till he was a bit older and could understand ( nearer three I think) when we explained that he had to have his teeth brushed AFTER his last drink of milk and that he was allowed to stay up for a few more minutes and drink his milk sitting on the couch downstairs.
He loved this idea as he saw it as buying extra time to stay up.
We let him take a cup of water to bed with him so he still had something to hold onto and sip if he wanted.

If you follow all the rules of good oral hygiene and his diet is low in amount but especially frequency of sugar intake, a bottle of milk last thing at night is extremely unlikely to cause decay. So called baby bottle caries is nearly always due to a child having unrestricted access to JUICE in a bottle, throughout the day and night .
Of course it is impossible to study scientifically but if all the other rules of toothcare are in place his nighttime milk ( even allowing for reduced salivary flow at night ) is unlikely to cause decay.
Keep a close eye on his teeth. When you brush them look out for any sign of chalkiness on the bit of the tooth near the gum and also where two teeth meet as this is what early decay looks like.
Cow's milk is not particularly cariogenic (likely to cause decay) . Soya milk is significantly more so.
(Good old breastmilk is extremely NON cariogenic )

We had the same problem too only it was an Anyway Up Cup. He was going to bed with one of the large cups full of milk, drinking it and then he would have his teeth brushed.

I mentioned this to my HV who thought he was getting a bit old for this, he was three at the time. She made the suggestion that we cut down the amount of milk he is having in the cup over a few nights and then 'lose the lid' (I suppose you could lose the bottle). I explained to DS1 that we had lost the lid for the cup but he would have to be a big boy now and get his milk from the open cup (he was used to using this during the day anyway). The first couple of nights he complained about it, not the screaming match I had expected, but the Anyway Up Cup was soon forgotten about and in the end he didn't want the milk anyway.

This idea worked really well for us but I would imagine it would be best with a child of about three. All the best.

Thanks for the support, I'll wait a while and take the pressure off (poor child has become REALLY possessive about his last bottle, i think he knows something's up), and then tell him i lost the bottle maybe. He's so easy to settle at the moment, so i'm half-afraid that without his bottle he'll be a lot more work, but that's life I suppose. I brush his teeth before he goes to bed (before his bottle, kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it!) and I suppose at least it's not juice. I wish there was a manual for mothers who didn't do things the "right" way from birth, i.e. let him settle without any props and take all bottles away at the age of 1. Live and learn, my next child will be perfect