Bottles, Milk and 13 Month Olds

[Anonymous]

My 13 month old will drink milk out of anything so I am not having a sippy cup issue. Since I have been trying to wean him from bottles he has gone on a sort of strike. He WILL NOT sleep unless I give him a bottle of milk. This has never been an issue but all of a sudden is.

He will not nap or go to bed w/out a bottle. And like the other poster he guzzles the milk and can easily drink two bottles at a time. He is eating plenty so I am not sure what to do. Should I throw them out, allow him a bedtime bottle (not in bed), not worry about it? How old were your toddlers when they were 100% bottle free? I am also concerned he is drinking too much milk. I think he is getting about 28 to 32 ounces a day.

[Anonymous]

That is a lot of milk. Our ped recommended about 16 ounces after they turn 1. As for the bottle, we are still bottle feeding, twice a day at 15 months. Our ped keeps pushing us to break this habit, but I would rather have my child sleep well than figure out the cup. So...as the mom, I decided to wait a few more months. I would try dropping the pre-bed quantity amount to a more reasonable amount and then worry about dropping the bottle habit.

[Anonymous]

I don't know why, but admitting this "startling fact" always makes me want to say it this way "Hi, my name is Shannon and my 2.5 year old daughter still gets a night time bottle"

Honestly, my daughter probably drank that much milk at 13 months, but she gradually cut back on the amounts on her own. She's on the smaller side and has never been a great eater, so to me, the more milk she drank, the better.

Eventually, you will want to break them of the bedtime bottle/drink habit for potty training reasons, but I see no reason to do it right now. We ARE trying to break her of a morning bottle - we're making her switch to the straw cups for that one. But the night time bottle can remain until she is 3 for all I care.

We've gotten funny looks from the doctor and the dentist at 2 for still using bottles occasionally, but we brush her teeth a couple times a day, so no bottle rot problems which is the main concern about bottles.

I just want her to FINALLY get the hang of an actual cup - until that day, she will be using cups with lids during the day.

Good luck to you, but don't feel TOO much pressure to get off the bottle - it is just a guideline...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why, but admitting this "startling fact" always makes me want to say it this way "Hi, my name is Shannon and my 2.5 year old daughter still gets a night time bottle"

Honestly, my daughter probably drank that much milk at 13 months, but she gradually cut back on the amounts on her own. She's on the smaller side and has never been a great eater, so to me, the more milk she drank, the better.

Eventually, you will want to break them of the bedtime bottle/drink habit for potty training reasons, but I see no reason to do it right now. We ARE trying to break her of a morning bottle - we're making her switch to the straw cups for that one. But the night time bottle can remain until she is 3 for all I care.

We've gotten funny looks from the doctor and the dentist at 2 for still using bottles occasionally, but we brush her teeth a couple times a day, so no bottle rot problems which is the main concern about bottles.

I just want her to FINALLY get the hang of an actual cup - until that day, she will be using cups with lids during the day.

Good luck to you, but don't feel TOO much pressure to get off the bottle - it is just a guideline...

Thank you PP. This is exactly how I feel. I feel like a criminal giving him a bottle at all. He gets a 6am bottle so he goes back to sleep and a bedtime bottle. Maybe 9 ounces each but something he gets a 3rd bottle. Now that I think about it he is not drinking 32 ounces, maybe closer to 24 or 28 ounces. I just hate that he now refuses to even think about sleeping unless I give him milk in the bottle. He was awake until 10pm the other night, once I pulled the bottle out his eyes rolled up into his head and closed once the nipple hit his lips. It was like a drug or something.

[Anonymous]

OP- I once got great advice from someone on this board about breaking the nighttime bottle habit. Since your current bedtime routine includes the bottle (as mine did), start to introduce something new into the routine, which you then continue to implement while phasing out the bottle. For example, here's what I did... In the past, after my son's bath and change into PJ's, he would get his bottle and then go to sleep. To change up the routine, we added storytime, so after his bath we read stories, then he got his bottle. Once this was established (about a week), I offered the bottle earlier in the evening-- right after dinner and before we go upstairs to start bedtime routine. Then after bathtime, we read stories, and he went right down to sleep. I think he might have been a little confused, but since he was probably full from guzzling a whole bottle just an hour or so earlier, there was no protesting. I implemented this right around 12 months old, as I was trying to find a way to feel better about not transitioning to sippy (my son refused milk in the sippy until 18 months old and I didn't feel the need to force it). I figured, he's having a bottle, but at least it's not right before he falls asleep.