Get Rid of the Bottle

A drink is a drink is a drink...whether it comes from a bottle or a sippy cup or a glass. She can have what ever you want her to drink out of then brush her teeth.

We have a bath, snack time, then teeth brushing, then off to bed.

The night bottle is the hardest. I know there's mamas who disagree with me and will let their children keep having it so as not rock the boat and cause unhappiness in their child, but my bottom line was that since it's for health concerns (possible tooth decay) and can prolong their learning how to go to sleep on their own I did it for their own good. Some of what I read that convinced me was,
'You can start weaning your baby off his bedtime bottle between the ages of 6 and 9 months. "Six months is when many babies stop needing that before-bed feeding. Certainly by 9 months it's not a necessity," says Bradley Bradford, a pediatrician in Delray Beach, Florida, and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. Babies are good at self-regulating their feedings, so your baby may "tell" you when he's ready to drop that last bottle of the day by turning his head away or consistently not finishing it. (I have to agree, I did see cues earlier and ignored them.)
'If the bedtime bottle seems harmless to you, consider that prolonging this habit can affect your baby's ability to learn to fall asleep on his own. The longer you offer the bedtime bottle, the more attached your baby will become to it, and he won't be able to fall asleep without it.
'And once your baby has teeth, bedtime bottles of milk can also lead to tooth decay. Milk tends to pool in the mouths of sleeping babies, creating ample time for the natural sugars in the milk to attack your baby's teeth.
'It can be a tough habit to break, but rest easy knowing your baby doesn't need the calories in the milk. By 12 months your child should be getting all his nutritional needs met with his daytime meals. Try giving your baby other comfort objects at night, such as a favorite blanket or stuffed toy.'

What I did was throw all the bottles away so as not to tempt myself to give in. Bath, brush the teeth, book and cuddles with a sippy of some water, then down with their lovey. At first the sippy stayed but I realized I was simply providing a substitute crutch so that had to go. 3 days is the longest any of them cried or fussed, and when they asked I simply (well, no, it was hard for me) said, "There's no more bottles, they're all gone!"

Yes, they cried, I gave some extra hugs, none had tantrums, and after no longer than 3 days they all had adjusted to their new routines. If your daughter does throw a tantrum you just have to stay focused on what's best for her, not give in, and remind her there's no more bottles. Giving in is what continues the tantrums, kids are smarter than we give them credit for and will use our actions against us! 3 days is not that long at all, and in talking to other parents that seems to be the norm for getting them off bottles and binkys.

I know my youngest still held a fondness for bottles, because I would see him sometimes looking at a younger child sucking on his bottle with a remembering look in his eyes, and I'd say, "Oh, look at the baby drinking his bottle! You used to drink a bottle when you were a baby, too" and smile. He would move on...and now it's time for toilet training!

You have to fill the tummy with something when weening from a bottle. I took my sons to the kitchen in their pajamas and put them in the high chair and gave them cheerios or fruit or some other snack with a sippy CUP of milk/formula. I did not take it to their bed. We did all our routine stuff..... brushing teeth, reading a book, rocking a little and singing to them. Eventually it just becomes part of the routine but do not let her see any bottles in your house. They have to disappear or you will be starting at square one again. Good Luck! The longer you wait the harder it is because their memories only get longer and better. I weened the pacifier at 9 and 10 months. I hate seeing a 3 or 4 yr old still with one. It will be hard the first few nights but you'll see change in a week. It only took about 3 days with the pacifiers.

I THINK (it's kind of sad that I've already forgotten... mine's only just over 2 yrs) I switched to the NUK starter cup

http://www.amazon.com/NUK-Learner-Latex-Single-Colors/dp/...

It has a latex top so it's similar to the bottle but isn't one. After a while I switched her to a harder-top NUK and with whole milk as opposed to formula.

http://www.amazon.com/NUK-Gerber-Starter-Vertical-Colors/...

After that, she was using Playtex twist-and-lock sippies, and sometime in there I just stopped giving it to her at bedtime. If she was/is (still do this) thirsty at bedtime, I'll give her one of the playtex cups with some water in it, but nothing other than water.

She still got something to drink at bedtime for quite some time (I even let her have it in her crib, probably a no-no), and I really couldn't tell you how long the whole process was. Sorry I can't be more specific, but I hope this helps some!

There is no rule that bottles need to be taken away from babies at a certain age. And a sippy cup is no better than a bottle. My daughter had a bottle before bed every night until she was three years old. Babies do need that comforting tool. Why create tantrums for no reason? Before my daughter's third birthday, she and I agreed that three year-olds didn't need bottles, and there was no tantrum or crying.

You don't want to put her to bed with a sippy of milk but as part of the transition give her a sippy of warm milk rather than the bottle. No reason to go cold turkey and have bedtime turn into a scream fest. She's a year old and taking a bottle which is comforting to her. She's not doing crack lol.

This is one of the reasons the AAP recommended that pediatricians start telling parents to ditch the bottle for the sippy cup completely by 9 months so those attachments are there.

I let my son take a bottle to bed for years - after teeth started coming in he only got water in it. It was his comfy item. He got to the point where he would just hold it as he fell asleep. I only put about an ounce or two of water in it so it would not leak all over the crib.

He also had a stuffed Pluto dog that slept with him and over time he "let go" of the security bottle and just needed Pluto. (Oh, gosh, that thing went everywhere with us for years !!!)

Along way around the bushes to say, there are really no hard and fast rules about bottles. Oh, this organization recommends one thing, and another recommends something else. If taking the bed bottle away is going to cause undue stress to your child - why do it? Give her a cup of milk before bedtime, brush teeth, etc. then give her an ounce of water in her fav bottle and let her sleep. Introduce an extra comfy item that will eventually replace the bottle. It will work out. If she is having tantrums now, she maybe is not ready to give it up.

My son is 15 now and doesn't sleep with a bottle anymore. LOL Nor is he scarred from having one for longer than recommended at bad time.

Good Luck
God Bless

For both of our children we decreased the amount of milk in the bottle by two ounces every few nights until the next decrease was zero ounces. We do offer a little bed time snack now so they will sleep a little longer instead of the bottle. Then after we read and they eat their snack we offer a solo cup of water to wash everything down. Our daughter who is 15 months looks forward to drinking out of the solo cup since it's the small version of a big girl cup. She drops everything and gets ready when my husband or I leave the room to get the water.

Also the recommendation of putting the milk in a sippy cup is a great recommendation also.

Good Luck

We let our son have his pre-bed bottle until he was 18 mo-then we said-you can't have the bottle, but you can have a sippy. That was all it took-I think he was at a point to understand the option and as long as he got something he was ok.

Our daughter is 16 mo still loves the bottle and i'm ok with it-I STRESSED over it w my son, but like everything else it was like a light bulb went off for him and he was just done. Sometimes I think that waiting is better until they are older and understand more then making them (and you) miserable for nights w screaming fits and tears.

She will cry, of course.....

Give lots of cuddles, maybe a little extra cuddle time before you go to bed..

Maybe try to change the routine a bit, so the bottle isn't what she is expecting.

Does she know where the bottles are stored? Make sure they are OUT of the cupboard... open the door and show her "no bottles left, sorry" .....

our twins will be one year old on June 23, and they have at least 3 a day, so when is a good time to break it as they're not crazy about too many foods...ummmmm...

We ended our son's naptime and bedtime bottles when he was about 2. He would drink it in my arms and then he would lay down to go to bed so he was not sucking on it and having milk sit on his teeth throughout the night. He did have a stuffed animal "lovey" that was his comfort item after that. I don't think you have to just stop at age 1. When he was 2 we could reason with him more and we told him he was too big for bottles and now we had to give all his bottles to a baby. He helped deliver them all to a friend with a baby so we didn't even have a bottle in the house. He was sad about it for a few days but he understood and got over it. I think really it's the same thing as letting them have a sippy cup of milk or breastfeeding before bedtime...it's something they like to suck on for comfort.

.