My twins are 15 months old and the only bottle they still get is the nighttime one. They get whole milk in it and i don't let them fall asleep with it, they just get it before being put in their beds. They do take sippy cups during the day with either milk or water.
So i think we're at a point where we want to get rid of these bottles once and for all! I've heard that the longer you wait, the harder it is because they're older and wiser :). It wasn't hard at all to get rid of the daytime or morning bottles, and i don't think it's going to be too tough to phase this one out either. At the moment our nighttime routine is: they get washed up (with a wet washcloth or take a bath), put on pjs, read a book, turn on soft music, and then take a bottle.
Just looking for veteran mom experience. Did you cut the bedtime bottle cold turkey? Did you gradually reduce the amount of milk they got in the bottle? Did you swap it out for a sippy cup? That is the varying advice i've gotten from friends, and i know every child is different, but just wondering what has worked best for others.
Thanks so much for any advice!
Thanks for all the different thoughts! I think we might try a kind of cold turkey method... tapering it down does sound like a lot of steps, and the other bottles we just stopped and they were fine (although those were replaced by breakfast & snacktimes)... i might just make sure we offer a sippy cup of milk close to bedtime but before brushing teeth.
I should have said - they are 15 months, but since they were 3-month-early micropreemie we still kind of "correct" their age for where we expect them to be with size & development, that would make them at a 12 month old level. So hopefully this will go smoothly. Thanks again for the ideas!!
I dreaded this.
I let it go for way to long and it will get harder.
He had O. bottle with his snack before bed.
IF you warm the milk now, warm it for the sippy.
I have to say though, when my son had his before-bed-snack and I handed him a sippy cup to go with it--he NEVER flinched! Nada. Nothing.
I think it was harder on ME than him to ditch the bottle!
Just pick a day, put ALL bottles away & do the switcheroo.
We used the cold turkey method as well. But I did it at a year old. That might make a big difference.
All I did was just not give it to them. And they got water instead of milk before bed. I just handed them the sippy cup and didn't say anything about the bottle. Since they were used to drinking out of sippy cups they didn't seem to notice.
I also took away pacifiers for the 2 that used them at a year old. That was a lot harder!
Get rid of them. I wouldnt' gradually reduce the milk, then go to water, then do something else. Too many steps. If the idea is getting rid of a bottle feeding that they dont' need, just get rid of it. If they are thirsty before bed, give them a few sips in a cup.
I began to put less and less in the bottle until there was hardly anything. Then, I put water only. He drank a bit and then ditched it. Now, no more bottle!
Other moms dilute the milk down slowly until there's no milk. They aren't as interested if it's just water.
I gave mine a tapping dose of milk for weeks until she was down to two oz. Then one day told her no more bottle. As well warned her for weeks that the bottle was going away. The day we bit the bullet and finally took it away went down like we had never done anything different.
For me, cold turkey. My daughter is a teen now, so this was many years ago. But I do home childcare and whenever parents ask this same thing, for any of the bottle time frames, I say the same thing. Just stop. It will be a few rough episodes with most kids, but it WILL end.
Good Luck!
i put water in the bottle for my son. he kept it for a while longer, and then i switched to a sports bottle type thing with water.
Yup. Dilute it slowly with water. I'm about to start this with my second. Or you could switch to a sippy cup with milk and then gradually dilute the milk with water over time.
Just try and switch to a sippy of milk, and don't say anything.
There is nothing wrong with them having milk before bed.
But it is the apparatus, right?
Milk actually is calming before bed, because it contains calcium.
Also, have them rinse their mouths, after drinking the milk, before bed.
I gave my son a nighttime bottle a half hour before bed until he was two. Then we would brush his teeth and go up to bed. It wasn't rough to phase out at all. We just stopped serving milk in a bottle and that was it. My daughter drinks a little before bed but not much, she is 17 months old. Nothing wrong with it, but maybe just try less and less or change up the routine a little or give it to them an hour before bed and let them only have a little sippy cup of water after that.
I substituded the bottle with a sippy cup w/ straw. It was hard at first because he wouldn't drink anything except water and juice out of the sippy cup. I had to play a little psychology with my son. Lol. I took the top off of the sippy cup and put a crazy straw in it instead. After a few days of that, I put the top back on and he's been bottle free ever since. He's 14 months now. Its all about trial and error. You try one thing, if it doesn't work, try something else. It will all work out for you soon enough.
Cold Turkey in our house. We went from bottle to sippy. My daughter didn't care as long as milk came out. We also just went cold turkey from whole milk to skim milk and she didn't care either. We didn't have problems during the day, which I think led to us not having problems at night. I think what ever you decide to do, you have to be consistant.
Switch the bottle up with a new stuffed animal for them to sleep with. Stop the bottle cold turkey.
we did a bottle at night and what we did was give her the bottle right after the bath tub and her pjs were one but the cd was still playing their songs...after the cd was done, we sat her on our lap and to her (still had the bottle handy) but tried to get her used to the idea of book, then BED...it sometimes worked and once in awhile she wanted her bottle, while reading, but she never went to sleep with the bottle.
When I say bottle, I mean sippy cup...we dropped the baby bottle at 1 year during the DAY, (not bedtime) then at 13 months is when we started to just offer the sippy at bedtime after the bath..worked good for us, but we only have one.(so at 13 months, baby bottles were gone)
Also at 1 year old, we just gave whole milk...cold...never messed with warming it or formula.
For you, i would your routine and turn on some fun music (not dancing...we love Justin Roberts music) give the bottle while the music is playing and read the book before going to bed
