Taking Away the Bottle at Bed Time

Fisrt its awesome he drinks from a real cup some of the time. Next giving him a bottle to sleep with, with anything in it including water is not a good idea. Its not so much the liqiud that can be bad but the sucking motion causes you to salivate more and the acid in the saliva can actually cause his teeth to rot. My suggestion is if he can't do without the bottle give it to him right before bed and then put him to sleep without it. He might not like it but a few nights of screaming is much better than having all his baby teeth rotting out and causing him pain.

K.,

These are good suggestions and I was in the same boat as you, with the bottle and the time they seem to want it. My little ones(4 of them) all used a bottle to fall asleep. Something I tried was adding water over time to their milk.

For example, I would put 7 oz milk to 1 oz water for a week or two. Then I would increase water and decrease milk. So Wk 2 or 3, 6 oz milk to 2 oz water. I did it gradually enough so they did not notice or throw fits, and eventually they were drinking water with a tiny bit of milk at night from their bottle.

Along with this, I stopped offering the bottle to them. If they remembered and asked for a bottle, I would give it to them, with the water/milk dilution. I would only offer a cup to them at night. It seemed that doing it this way was a much more natural transition for them to make.

Cherish and have fun with your little one and hopefully you find a good solution that works for you. Let us all know what you figure out and if it works.
A.

I have a friend who sent her kid to bed, sometimes with milk, most of the time with juice. His teeth rotted and he had caps on his teeth all his childhood until those baby teeth actually came out. You might try giving him warm milk in a cup before you put him in bed, then give him warm water in a bottle.If he has a favorite toy I would suggest sending him to bed with his toy instead to see if that will work. The bottle may just be a security thing. Good luck!

My personal take on bottles is that they should go away after one year, once the baby starts on cow's milk. Giving a bottle at night in particular promotes tooth decay, as the sugar from the milk pools around the baby's teeth and sits there. If he is willing to drink milk from a sippy cup, then I would get rid of the bottles altogether. Maybe change the bedtime routine to include bathtime, storytime, or some other distractor, and offer water before bed from a sippy.

I don't really know how to go about that, but I do know that my pediatrician back home said that if I continued to allow my son to have a bottle at night he would develop horrible teeth. I took him off the bottle on his first birthday, but my daughter is going to be a little harder, what I do with her is give her a sippy of warm milk before I put her to bed, then if she cries I rock her until she is asleep, that may be a bad idea but it works for me.

Dear K.,
Believe it or not that is one of the worst things you can do according to pediatrians. The reason being and I wish they had known this back when my babies were younger is that the milk will make a pool in their mouth and somehow it gets into the ear tubes. My poor son and my other children frequently got ear infections and now they know that this is what causes it. Your really not suppose to give them anything in a bottle when they lay down because even water can get bacteria in it if it sits in their mouth to long. I felt so bad years later as my youngest son almost had to have tubes put in his ears. One time both of his eardrums burst and this was after I had taken him to the Dr and received antibiotics. As much as you have a soft spot we have to be tuff when its for their own good and even though he may cry for a few nights before long he will live. It may be a bit of an inconveinience for us to listen to him cry but maybe try having a cd player with a christian tape or radio station with soft music. I know that helps. I just looked and saw again because I forgot that he is 2. He'll be fine and so will you.
If you would like to email back and forth my email is ____@____.com if you want to let me know how it goes. I don't know where you live but your welcome to call if you would like ###-###-####

Children learns things by habit. So if you break their habit, they will learn a new routine. I know it may sound harsh, but just don't give him that bottle at bed time. He is will cry and throw a temper tantrum, but you just don't give in. Once he realizes he isn't going to have a bedtime bottle anymore, he will quit asking for it.

Hi K., what we did with our kids is took the bottle away cold turkey. We let the particular child at that time pick out a new sippy cup and that's what they got at bedtime and all day too. We packed up the bottles so they were completely out of sight, use and access. The first night was hard but when they saw there were no other options it was smooth sailing from there. Gradually we lessend the temp of the milk to cold too so we didn't have to keep warming it up. Just keep up the patience, good luck!

C.

Hi K....
Take that bottle away now!!!
Your son's teeth are at stake.
Your pediatrician should have informed you that at age one- you should have all those bottles thrown all away.
Now that he's two it might be a little more difficult, but by all means throw those things away, donate them, or put them in a safe for your next child. Keep them out of your reach. Let's face it, at this point it's as much for your comfort as it is for your son's. Only problem... he could get bottle mouth if he doesn't have it already. That's a lot more painful than a week of an ornery two year old wanting his bottle. He will get used to it and so will you. Believe me, you don’t want all his wonderful little baby teeth silver capped though his first years of school. Depending on the severity of the ‘bottle mouth’ it could potentially affect his permanent teeth which haven’t grown in. Please look this information up, google it or just ask your pediatrician or dentist.
Good luck! You both can do it!

K.- What my son's pediatrician told me about this is that it is alright if he has a bottle at bedtime as long as he does not fall asleep with it in his mouth. The concern with this is if he does so, milk can pool in his mouth and cause tooth decay. So if I were you, I would let him have his bottle and then take it from him as soon as he falls asleep. Always remember, they are only little once, and he will give up his bottle when he's ready. It's not the end of the world. Good luck!