17 month old refusing BT bottle

[taylorsmummy]

My 17 month old DD has decided over the last 3 nights that she does not want a bedtime bottle. This is usually 200ml (and she has one other bottle about an hour after breakfast that is 150ml). She has outright refused and got quite upset. I have then put her straight into bed and she has then gone to sleep till morning. So it isnt affecting our nights im just wondering if she is starting to self wean this bottle. I was thinking that the bedtime bottle would be the last to go and we would get rid of the morning first (but she really likes this one).

Any ideas or thoughts??? I thought it could be teething, but she has never refused it before when teething. My only other thought is that she is quite obssessed with bed time stories and wanting more and more books before bed. When we try to give her the bottle she keeps signing for more books and reaching for them, yet goes to sleep when we put her straight into her cot.

Keen to hear what others think.

[Seona1973]

Maybe you could offer a cup of milk prior to bedtime and then it wouldnt interfere with the bedtime routine

[MommyMoulton]

Sure sounds like she wants to drop the BT bottle. Maybe you could try limiting the BT stories, but talk about it in advance with her.. But letting her ask for more and more books stories etc she is learing that if she fusses long enough that Mummy gives in a reads another... THis could be VERY bad AP by the time school comes. Sorry if thats rude, but thats my 2 cents.

[~*Nicole*~]

We had stopped the BT bottle by this time with my DD. We switched her to cow's milk at 12 months and she was already on sippy cups rather than bottles before then. After she turned one, rather than give her milk at BT we just started offering it after dinner downstairs and eventually WITH dinner as a beverage to complete her meal. She stopped needed it to go to bed at that point and we just did stories, etc. So long as your LO is taking milk in the morning and maybe with meals, there is no reason she needs a BT bottle if she doesn't want one. The advice where I live is to ditch bottles sooner rather than later once your LO is 12 months so that it doesn't become a habit to drink from one and affect their teeth. The requirements for the quantity of milk at this age drop considerably from when they were younger than one anyway and as they are usually eating foods with dairy (yogurt, cheese, etc.) at this point, they should be getting enough of what they need with just the milk they have during the day.

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=67569.0

Hope this helps!

[taylorsmummy]

Thanks for everyones comments, good food for thought.

She decided this morning also that she didnt want her morning bottle either so will be interesting tonight to she if she still refuses the BT bottle as well. I tried offering her the milk with morning tea and lunch but she didnt want it then either. She has been still drinking milk but not heaps more to make up for the lack of milk. She has milk on her cereal and a yoghurt with lunch (when shes not at daycare) but if she refuses all bottles and drinks of milk I am a little concerned about her lack of dairy???

MommyMoutlon - I know what you mean about the AP with books. Although she signs for more and more books she doesnt get them as I dont want to fall into that trap.

Fingers crossed everything settles and I guess time will tell as to what she is wanting to do.

Thanks

[Lemonthyme]

My son was breastfed and when I was starting to deliberately cut down the feeds at 13 months I cut the morning one first thinking I'd be prepared to keep the evening one till 18 months but it turned out later that he always took far more in the mornings so my supply dropped too much and he self weaned the evening feed.  That's the problem with booby feeding, it's difficult to know how much they take!

To be honest if it's not affecting night sleep I really wouldn't worry.  You could always give a cup of milk at another time of day like maybe as an afternoon snack?  Or just make sure there's some dairy with her solids.

It could be teething too.  I know my son went through a fussy stage with feeding whenever teeth were coming through but even if it is that it seems like more of an opportunity than a problem.

[~*Nicole*~]

Good point about the teething, that often puts them off any type of sucking whether from bottle or sippy cup or booby.

I have heard (though I am not an expert and at the present time can not recall where I heard, though I believe it was from another BWer on here) that if they never drank milk again, they'd likely be okay as what you need from dairy, particularly milk: calcium, vit. D., fat, etc. Can be gotten in enough other places that it is not as necessary as we might think.

Could be teeth, could be a phase where she isn't keen on the taste, could be a number of things. You just keep offering and try to up her intake of yogurt or cheese or other sources for those same nutritional needs.