From a very early age, my 8 month old has used his bottle to fall to sleep. When he was a couple months old, we started noticing this. We use Dr. Brown bottles and one evening my grandmother put an empty bottle in his mouth and he went right to sleep. He refuses to take a paci or anything. We asked the dr if that was ok (concerns for air causing belly aches) and our dr said that she didnt see a problem with is, as long as he wasnt doing it every day all day.
My concern is now, months down the road, this is the only way my fella can go to sleep. We have a routine at night that we started just a few weeks old and that was rocking him with a bottle and he would fall to sleep. We still do this. We currently have an EMPTY bottle in his crib and with this, he will sleep all night. You take it out and he wakes up, hes crying and screaming. I can pick him back up and give him a bottle and he goes right to sleep.
My concern is, did I do something bad by allowing him to use this empty bottle to help soothe himself for naps/night time?
When he gets on the sippy cup, will he eventually not need that night time feeding to put him to sleep, along with the empty bottle in the crib?
I'm not too sure on the Cry It Out method just yet, but I havent reached my "level of break down" just yet.
Any advice?
Thank you so much ladies! Once again, my mind has been eased with this parenting stuff from a set of wonderful women!
I think it's perfectly fine too, I mean he's not carrying it around with him everywhere. In some ways it seems better than a pacifier and will probably be easier to wean down the road. I bet a sippy cup with a soft spout (NUK brand I think) might work down the road. For now, let you and him get some rest.
That is ok. Don't sweat it. It comforts him. He is a baby. He is happy and he sleeps. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I guess I don't see any real issue.....maybe I missed it.
If a child has a milk bottle and they hold that bottle in their mouth all night with milk in it, where it has a steady stream of milk dripping on to the teeth then the teeth could develop milk rot. If he's not holding that bottle all night with milk dripping then he's not in any danger of anything.
That means there is no issue. This bottle has no ability to harm him so I'd let him have it as long as he needs it.
I let the kids decide when they were done with their bottles and my grandson took his the longest. He was about 2 1/2 when he walked up and handed it to me and asked for a tippy cup. That was the last time he took a bottle. I missed rocking him and having that special time.
The empty bottle is fine and the sippy cup won't be an issue because that is something he will have at the table, with meals, not in his crib.
I agree with all the others...not a big deal. In fact, most people probably don't do everything 'by the book'. Sometimes you just gotta do what works! Yes, the habit will have to be broken eventually, but he's still young. I would do what works for now.
Could also think about introducing another 'lovey' such as a taggie or stuffed animal...something else he can attach to that he doesn't have to suck on...that way when the time is right and you take away the nighttime bottle, he'll still have something for comfort.
I think that his is perfectly OK. Do what works. He's not sucking on the bottle all night or all day so it's not affecting his mouth. He'll outgrow the need for it with time.
Kind of already made the mistake. You didn't say that he actually sucks on it during the night. I take it that he just holds on to the bottle? That he doesn't treat it as a paci?
I would actually stop rocking him. Give him the bottle and put him to bed, groggily awake. Not asleep. Make sure he has burped. Leave the empty bottle in there. If you see him with it in his mouth while he's asleep, carefully pull it out. If he gets to the point that he forgets to put it in his mouth, but sees it "there" when he wakes, I think that's okay. It's a little like a lovey.
When you wean him off a day bottle and onto a sippy, put an empty sippy in the bottle's place. He may cry like the dickens, but NO BOTTLE. He'll get tired of the sippy and sleep all night if you DON'T go in and pick him up and let him know that you'll come in and BE the sippy/bottle substitute for him.
Good luck,
Dawn
