bedtime bottle

our LOs take a bath, and they drink their bottles in our arms before bed. they dont fall asleep in our arms bc they get their teeth brushed on the couch and what not.
im curious as to when i should drop this bedtime bottle?

 

I am dreading dropping the bedtime bottle. It's the only one we still do. I know it's a big no-no, but my boys actually go to bed with their bottles. They don't fall asleep with them, which makes it slightly better. I am on my own with 4 kids most nights and my life got so much easier when the boys started going to bed this way. I put them in, put the girls to bed, and then go grab the bottles out of the boys cribs.

 

I dropped the bedtime bottle at 15 months, when we dropped all of their bottles. I did it gradually, I started with the bottle they would miss the least (afternoon one), then the morning one and then the bedtime one. My mother and DH were doubtful of the plan but the kids did really well overall and I thought dropping the bedtime one would be hard but they did fine with it. Mine will get a sippy of milk after dinner but about an hour before bed.

 

We took the boys away around 11m cold turkey They are HUGE and don't need it anymore but I do give them a little bed time snack

 

11 months when we got rid of all the bottles...and mine are on the small side. I just offered them a sippy of milk after their bath and before bed...they took a couple sips so we stopped offering it. They still slept their 12-13hrs at night Now that they can talk they will sometimes ask for it after bath but very very rarely.

 

We dropped ours at 15 months. I probably could have done it sooner but it was like letting go of the baby stage with them. LOL They were completely fine with it. The week before I started reducing the amount of milk in the bottle and then just offer them a sippy cup of water now.

 

We dropped it at 13 months, and replaced it with a sippy of milk (after nursing).

 

We dropped all bottles at 1 year, 1 day. It worked really well for us. They were taking three, 8 oz. bottles a day the day they turned one and then the next day we just switched to sippies and whole milk cold turkey. I think it really is a personal choice and you have to do what feels right for you and your lo's. It doesn't sound like they associate bottles with sleep so it may not be that big of a change to slip in a sippy instead of a bottle. Like someone on here told me when I was worried about making the change, you can still keep your bedtime routine the same with a sippy and you can still cuddle while your lo's hold their own sippies. GL!

 

OK! When does the nighttime sippy stop then? I am unsure if they 'need' that milk before they go to bed or not.

 

That's a really good question, because I'm still giving my guys a warmed nighttime sippy of milk! I'm 99% sure they don't need it. I've found that throughout the second year they really ramp up on solids, which keep them full longer than milk/formula. For us it's just a nice treat before bed. I'll probably stop sometime after they turn 2.

 

We did bedtime bottles for ages, but I know we're the odd ones out here. Alyssa and Bryony had their bottle until they were just over 3, Naomi and Luke were about 2 1/2, they all switched to sippies of milk after the bottles stopped, Eleanor and Ethan still have bedtime milk in bottles.

Naomi and Luke had the sippy of milk for almost a year after stopping bottles, after that they didn't want it anymore. Alyssa and Bryony still have a drink of warm milk (in a normal cup now!) before bed. Of course they don't need to have it, but as they enjoy it as part of their bedtime routine there's no reason to stop giving it. I would say continue the sippy until they don't want it anymore.

 

do you think i should drop the bottle now and put their warmed milk in their sippies instead?

 

I would try doing that. I found that my kids weren't really interested in sippies for comfort; they only drink from them when thirsty. So they won't take a bedtime sippy, they are offered one after dinnner time, about 45 minutes before bed and they either take it or leave it. More often than not, they leave it.

 

We switched from bottle to sippy cup around 14 months, but it wasn't too long after that they were no long draining their sippy cups. Now, at 17 months, they like a few sips of milk before bed but have no interest in draining their cup. Follow their cues, if they continue to drain it, then they enjoy it and it's no big deal. If it's affecting their eating habits though, then you may have to decrease their intake.

 

I think it's totally up to you. I tend to have an 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' mentality. My understanding is that from a dentistry point of veiw most sippys are no better for teeth than bottles (I think the exception is straw sippys). I didn't find bottles any more annoying to clean that sippy cups (they all went in the dishwasher!). The children were happy with bottles. As they used sippies for their daytime drinks they were progressing to using normal cups anyway, we didn't feel we were delaying their development. In short for us there really was no reason/incentive to switch the bedtime drink from bottles to sippies, so we didn't.
If you feel that there's a reason you want to switch (even if it's 'I don't want to have 16 month olds who still use bottles') then drop the bottle. If you're only questioning it because you think they "should" be off bottles but you have no real desire or reason to then wait a while.

 

When mine were about 15 months, we just gave them a sippy cup one night instead of the bottle, and they barely blinked. I was so stressed about it, and it was a complete non-issue. They didn't have their bottle last thing at night -- they had it while we read stories, and then we brushed their teeth and did bedtime songs -- so maybe their comfort associations with it weren't as strong...?

We still do it. We have dinner around 6, and half the time they barely eat, and they go to bed around 7:30 or 8. So I figure they might be hungry, but our bedtime routine is so long already, I'm d@mned if I'm going to introduce a snack as well. So, if they're hungry, they can fill up on milk and I don't have to worry about it.

 

My girls are over 2 years old and still have a glass of milk before bed! We read our bedtime stories while they sit on our laps with their sippie of milk. I'm thinking when they are closer to getting Potty Trained that we'll cut back (finally) on the last bottle. I'm not sure they still need it, especially since they are not hungry 12-13 hours later for breakfast. But it's a hard habit to break (for ME) because I still live under the fear that they may become hungry in the night and wake up!