HELP PLEASE. When (and how) to stop bottle-to-bed?

My 15mth old loves his bottle at bed-time. He has 2 a day and settles beautifully in his bed with bottle and goes to sleep readily after it's finished. At my 12mth Maternal Health Nurse check-up I was told to stop all bottles at 12mths. I have found this hard to do and thought 18mths seemed more reasonable, but as 18mths approaches I am wondering how this is going to pan out. He would scream if I put him in his bed without his bottle. What do you think about age to stop bottle and how to go abou it?


Not sure if it's worth mentioning or not but my DS was initally breastfed only starting bottles at about 8mths of age. He used to be quite difficut to settle to sleep as I never used feeding to sleep in the first 12 months (did patting ect). The bottle has made it a joy to put him to bed and he doesn't wake overnight or anything. I am just worried that he is getting too old for it.

perhaps you can cut it gradually...

ie give the bottle sitting on your lap in a chair then putting to bed afterward... try for a few weeks so he stops the association of a bottle in bed?

then i guess the next step would be to not give it?

DD has a sipper cup of milk b4 bed but not in bed... it is her associate with nighttime and i am well aware of that but she wont take a bottle before her day nap.. lol so no idea what she is thinking

i breast fed sophie before her night sleep up until 18 months, yes it was tough, very tough for the first few night, she cried, needed more cuddles extra, but we introduced sing twinkle twinkle little star as her new bedtime thing and afte a few weeks she got the hang of teh change and now runs to her bed after singing!! id start something now such as reading a book then slowly cut back teh bottle until hopefully you only need to read a book ,and see how that goes

Is there any reason why 12 months? I tend to agree with you on the 18months....

I wouldn't want to mess up the routine of a good sleeper for anything!

I don't think I'd be worried what the nurse told me, but if you really do want to stop, coiuld you maybe replace the comfort of his bottle with another, like a blankie or teddy? My DD (15mths) has her bottle cuddling with me on the lounge and then I rock her for 10 mins with her blankie and then to bed. She's usually asleep by then, but if not she often goes off herself, if not I rock again for 10 mins, to bed atc until she's asleep. Or as someone else suggested give him his bottle sitting up and maybe read a story together and then put him to bed. I think anyway you do it, it will be hard for him to change routines for a few days, up to a week or so. Good luck.

Thanks so much for your replies. Now that I think about it I used to give him his bottle on my lap, then put him to bed awake, which worked ok, however, I changed it to in his bed as he would then hold the bottle himself rather than want me to hold it (which was what happened when on my lap). Maybe I should go back to doing bottle on my lap (him holding it this time now that I know he can!) with a book then to bed awake as a method/plan to stopping it in the future? He almost falls asleep having his bottle in the bed so maybe I should change that part of it. Using a book would be relaxing but encouarge him to stay awake with the bottle. Thoughts?

Another thing though, how much milk do they need at this age as there is no way I could get him to drink anywhere near what he currently has from bottle if/when we switch to cup (he has about 350mls a day at present)? He drinks minimal water from sippy cup throughout the day and has refused to drink milk from sippy cup thus far.

The other girls had some really good suggestions and I too wouldn't worry about the age too much - I meant it's only milk and if it helps - well hey do it!

My only conern is that I have read many times that you shouldn't put babies to bed with their bottles because it is bad for their teeth - I think the milk lingers for longer and there may also be a health hazzard (drwoning which I know seems extremely unlikely but still...). I like the idea of giving bottle in chair or on couch - maybe with some quiet music or story.

Good luck!:)

Yeah, that sounds good. Give him bottle on your lap, read a book and get him sleepy - then off to bed all groggy. It could set him up for a great bedtime routine for the future.

There is still no hurry though - and I have no idea how much milk to give :redface:!

Hey Jac, is it really that big a deal if he has it longer than 18months?
The Dragon is over 2 and about 2 months ago started not to ask for her bottle. She rarely has one in the mornings as she always has (since stopping bf at 17months) and only occasionally at night. She just stopped asking, so we don't offer. That way it hasn't been missed

The reason they tell you to cut out bottles at 12 months is to prevent kids filling up on milk when they should be getting more of their nutrients from actual food. Once they hit 12 months milk should no longer be such a major part of their diet. Kids tend to take in greater volumes of milk from a bottle than they do from a sippy cup.

I certainly noticed that when my DS drinks a lot of milk that his appetite for food decreases very noticeably. This makes sense. Could you eat a full dinner after having big drinks of milk all day long?

I actually found it very easy to get rid of the bottle - lucky me! I did it in stages. We changed his bedtime routine so that he had a bottle in the lounge room with us after bath and then went to bed. Then when he got used to that I bought him a very special new cup (don't know about your kids but my DS looooves trying different cups) and gave him his formula in the new cup. This was such a novelty that he took to it straight away. There were a couple of nights when he was a bit cranky and overtired so we gave him a bottle those nights but it took less than a week to get rid of it. Then we gradually changed his formula to cows milk by gradually adding cows milk to his formula. Over a couple of weeks the ratio of cows milk to formula increased until he was on cows milk completely.

This is still our routine now at 21 months. Bath, cup of warm milk in the loungeroom with a story, off to bed with Dad.

As for the amount - they tell you approx 600mls of milk per day provides them with the calcium they need but that amount should not be on top of whatever dairy is in the diet. Their calcium can be obtained via dairy foods from yoghurt, cheese, in cooking etc plus smaller amounts of milk to drink. My DS has 180mls of warm milk morning and evening and sometimes a small cup or 2 of cold milk during the day. He eats plenty of cheese etc. Some days he doesn't drink so much but it all evens out over the course of a week.

You shouldn't freak out if some days your kid has hardly any milk - it won't kill them, and they will undoubtedly make up for it over the next couple of days. This is the time to really encourage their appetite for food before they start to get too fussy about what is dished up to them. Toddlers will often eat less than they used to, simply because they don't need the same amount of food because they aren't growing as quickly in their second year. This is where the marketers of toddler formula are very clever - they capitalise on our worries that our kids aren't eating enough and that we are so used to giving them lots of milk to drink.

My goddaughter is 4 innovember and has just last week started not having her bedtime bottle. She didnt drink it in bed, but always everynight before bedtime, wouldnt go to sleep wthout it. Then the other night she didnt get given it and she didnt ask for it and just went to bed. So are you more concerned with the bottle itself, or the milk or the bottle in bed aspect?

My mum told me a finny story about how she got my brother off the bottle in bed...lol
My parents went out for dinner one night and left my brother with our neighbours who were dairy farmers. He was about 2. The lady put him to bed and gave him a bottle as he always had, wouldnt sleep without it, and she went out. About 15 mins later she went back into the room after my brother started screaming hysterically. There was vomit everywhere, he was fine but really shaken up from al the vomit. She was beside herself!! Couldnt figure it out. Then she told mum that she hadnt given him formula, she had given him fresh cows milk because thats what all her kids had ben raised on (dairy farm lol)!!
My brother never took a bottle again after that.