Sippie before bed

I have a feeling I am going to get in trouble for this, but I need some advice on how to stop doing it. Good first sentence, huh? LOL

Ok, my boys are 13 mos. We eat dinner at 5pm. At 6pm, we do bath and books and bed. We used to give them a bottle before bed, but now we're on sippies. I was, still am, afraid to not give them something to drink before bed because that's been their routine. So after bath, brushing of teeth and putting pj's on, we give them sippies of milk in the crib for them to drink on their own. NOW...they usually drain it and go off to sleep. If they happen not to drain it right away and fall asleep with a half full sippie, we take it out of the crib so they aren't drinking them throughout the night. I understand the tooth decay thing. They never wake up in the morning with a sippie in their bed. Period.

But my question is, how do I stop the sippie in the crib? If I give it to them too soon after dinner they won't drink it - still full. So should I give it to them at 6pm, then bath, read and go down?

Eek! That makes me nervous just to think about!

Thanks in advance!

 

You'd be surprised how resilient kids are. I would just do cold turkey. They may or may not notice it, but it's best to just take the plunge. They might cry for it for a few days and if they do I would just let them cry. They will forget about it before you know it. Why not give it to them with dinner? That way they still have it technically before bedtime, but not right at it. Good luck!!

 

I'm with the PP; just give it a shot and see how it goes! I was really dreading getting rid of the last night-time bottle when my boys were 13 months, but we just introduced a sippy of warmed milk during story-time, brushed their teeth afterward, and they never looked back!

 

i'd offer the sippy at dinner or at storytime as PPs suggested. then brush teeth. then bed. i'd also just bite the bullet & do it. they'll be fine. we give our girls sippies of water to keep in their rooms overnight - that saves us having to get up & get them something if they do wake & are thirsty. GL!

 

If they are getting dinner close to bedtime I don't think they need anything right before bed. If you do give them milk before bed, brush their teeth and then that should be it for the rest of the night. You could offer water if they wake up thirsty.

 

We eat an early dinner here, so I do the milk sippy around 5:30-6:00 and they get ready for bed around 7. I would just try switching up the time of the last milk sippy. Good luck!

 

We did this with our oldest - sippy in bed with books. Yes - it's probably not best, but it helped him sleep. We switched the routine around when he was 3 (yep!) to milk with story on couch, brush teeth, then in bed with 1 more book (no sippy). This is of course better, but don't stress out about it if it doesn't work. I explained to my son that milk was better before teeth and he just went along with it - no questions.
Good luck!