How Do You Wean from the Final Bottle at Night?

My daughter is 17 months and like the other mother that responded, I still give her milk before bed as part of her nightly routine. I usually do so after her bath and then we brush her teeth just before bed. I think as long as you begin to establish a routine it will be fine. It may be hard the first few nights as changes in routine usually are but as long as you stick with the new routine it should be fine. My daughter drinks her milk in a sip cup, as long as your son is physically able to use the sip cup, which you said he is and uses it for water and juice, then milk shouldn't be a problem in it. He might not like it at first but if he is only getting milk that way he will eventually give in as long as you hold firm. Just remember that at one year children only need 16-24 oz of whole milk per day, I know it was hard for me to get my daughter use to drinking other liquids throughout the day at first but she got use to it after a while.

When I weaned my son from his last nursing session at night, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. When he seemed tired, I just put him in his crib and he chatted to himself for a little while and eventually passed out (within 5-20 minutes) I go up and get him if it's longer than that. I thought I'd always have to nurse him to sleep but they will go to sleep on their own when they're tired enough. I turn on his mobile and wait for him to fall asleep to go and tuck him in. Hope your's goes as smoothly. BTW-love what you said in parenthesis! LOL.

Hi Christina

I never really "weaned" the bottle. As soon as my son was able to drink from the sippy cup, that is what he got all of his formula, water, juice and then milk in. He was 8 or 9 months old when he no longer used the bottle. Since your little one already uses a sippy, try giving him his formula/milk in it and just see how it goes, if he takes it then stick with it. As for the transition from formula I did what you are doing at about 11 months I started to slowly incorporate milk into his diet by giving a mixture of formula and milk. I started with about 3/4 formula and 1/4 milk for a few days and slowly incerased the amount of milk and decreased the amount of formula and my guy tolerated this very well and never complained about it. Our bedtime routine has always been just like yours with some small variations as he has gotten older (he'll be 3 in 12 days) and he still gets a cup of milk while we read stories before bed. He usually does not finish it before it is time to get into bed and I take it out of the room with me, he has never had a bottle or cup in the bed with him. Good luck with you transition, I am sure you will both do just fine!

S.

I

What I did with my two children to wean them off was to start giving that night bottle with dinner and then eventually just switched it to a sippy cup during dinner. They were both off the bottle by 12mos. Maybe alomost thirteen mos, but that was the last bottle I dropped. We also do bath, books and a song. We just started doing it without the bottle.
But if he still needs something right before bed, try it in a sippy cup and see what happens.

The best way to start is cold turkey!

Get rid of all the bottles in the house and hand over the cup with the milk in it.

You might still continue with all the other great things you are doing with the bedtime routine. Better to introduce one change at a time.

Good luck.

C.
www.help4newmoms.com