How do I drop the evening bottle?

Any tips on dropping the bottle of milk before bed? My girls are 13 months and we want to wean them off of that.

 

I would love to know too!

 

Our Ped isn't insistent about dropping bedtime bottle.... so at 18 months we are finally getting around to it. They have dinner, baths, and we give them a sippy cup of milk. Then stories and bedtime. They don't always drink it all (especially Sam), but I know they are getting enough nutrition thruout the day, so I don't stress about it. Basically we replaced the bottle w/ a sippy cup. Maybe not ideal, but working well enough for the moment.

 

I just gave my two a sippy before bed until they just seemed like they could go without them.....it wasn't long only a week or so. Good luck.

 

I switched my girls (14 months) to sippy cups at about 12 months of age.....they still act like they "need" that sippy cup of milk.....They have dinner at 5pm or so; then some playtime; then bath; then they have their sippies while we read them bedtime stories....

What I am worried about now is their teeth! I want to eliminate the sippy cup of milk completely, but don't know how to!!

 

I gave them some milk in a sippy instead of a bottle one night. I only had to give them the milk before bed for 3 nights, then just went to their last milk being with dinner around 6:15pm. If they act thirsty before bed we give them some water.

 

I just decided when I was going to do it and gave mine a sippy of milk instead. And just stuck with the sippy. It took a few days to get used to the sippy before bed, but they did.

I still give mine a sippy of milk around 7pm. They go to bed at 7:30pm. I do not plan to drop this. Even my almost 7 year old has a small snack and a small cup of milk before bed every night.

 

I was bfing and the nighttime feeding was the last one I dropped right around 14 mo. I was so nervous to do it, because I felt it helped them wind down before bed. We just started offering a sippy right before bath/bedtime. It was the easiest thing we ever did. They didn't care at all! Good luck!

 

We eat dinner around 5-5:30 so I like to make sure my son has something in his stomach before bed so we give a yogurt and a sippy of milk. I also will give a stage 2 or 3 of fruit if he had yogurt for lunch. My son is on regular food all day but I think it's an easy snack that doesn't make a big mess before bed since we feed it to him and don't let him feed himself before bed.

 

I'm pretty stressed about this as well. It looks like the sippy would be the best bet...did you guys that did that get a lot of protest, or wast it a smooth transition?

Our pedi isn't giving me any grief over the fact that they are 13 mos and still having a night time bottle, I would love to reclaim cabinet space in the house and I'm sure it's not all that great for them any longer to have a bottle...thanks!

Alexis

 

I remember at our 12 mos appt the pedi mentioning that we should start weaning off of bottles, but then at our 15 mos checkup he didn't ask about it. They're 16 mos now, and I've been wanting to drop that last bottle & I think they'd be fine with it.....right now, it's kind of more for me!

I think what I'll do is switch to a sippy cup & see how that goes. We don't give them the bottles in bed anyway, so I'm not worried about teeth (they always get the bedtime bottle before & then we brush teeth). And there've been a few times that I gave them the evening bottle an hour or 2 before bedtime & they were fine, so I think I'll try to move it up even earlier & do it with dinner.

My thing is, my kids seem to have very little appetite at dinner; they usually won't eat much. I've asked the pedi about it & he said it was fine (they eat fine with breakfast & lunch) ..... but I think the evening bottle made me feel a little more reassured that they weren't hungry. I just gotta step up & do it, though.

 

great question! Thanks for asking and all the advice!

 

I simply thew mine out, and said bye byes!!! No more botts..your big kids now!! They struggled for a couple of days, but after that, they seem to forget them!! The earlier in age the better...it does not get easier as they get older!!

I simply thew mine out, and said bye byes!!! No more botts..your big kids now!! They struggled for a couple of days, but after that, they seem to forget them!! The earlier in age the better...it does not get easier as they get older!!

 

HI,

I just weaned my son off of EBM -- I started mixing water into his bottles (more and more diluted) - first at naps and then at bedtime. Hepretty much decided that he didn't want much bottle anymore -- and has practically given them up. Ihave had to give him a snack at bedtime, though so that he doesn't wakeup hungry.

Teri D

 

My girls were a little older - 18 months - when we dropped the bedtime bottle. We handled the hunger issue by splitting a cup of yogurt between them. Then I would offer them just a couple of ounces of formula, which I gradually watered down more and more. I think it took about a week before they decided it wasn't worth it. I think the yogurt made a big difference; we continued that for probably another 6 months.

 

We gradually moved down the amount of milk we put in the bottles until they were down to one ounce (about a week). we then switched to one ounce of water. It took about 2 days of water and then one of them threw their bottle. The next night we didn't give them anything. Did our normal routine, gave hugs and kisses and laid them in bed. They did fantastic.

 

When we went for our 12 month WBV, the bedtime bottle was the only one the girls were still getting. We asked our pedi how to wean them from it and she suggested filling it with water and offering it to them just like always. She said if they drink it, then they are wanting the sucking from the bottle and/or they are thirsty. If they don't want it, then they are probably just wanting the "cuddle time" with us. The first night, they drank a little bit of the water. The second night, they both threw the bottle down, and that was the end of bottles for us. We don't usually give them anything right before bed (7:30pm). They have dinner between 5:30 and 6:30 and we give them sippy cups of water with dinner. Their water is always available and they can have it anytime between dinner and bedtime. We don't usually give them milk with dinner or before bed because they have had plenty through out the day (their day care center gives them milk with meals and snacks - they also drink about 10oz of milk when they get up before we go to day care).