When to drop the last bottle

[hatshetsut]

Kate is 11 months, 1 week. She has been both BF and bottle fed for several months, and now for the most part she is weaned to a sippy cup for meals and snacks.

My question is, when should I drop the night time bottle? Right now she only takes 4 oz right before bed. She eats quite a bit of solids for meals and takes her sippy well, but I'm nervous about dropping the night time bottle. When do you know it is time to stop?

Thanks!

H

[~*Nicole*~]

We just started having a sippy cup of milk downstairs before bed as we neared the 12 month mark. DD was basically on sippy cups for the rest of the day at that point and I was nervous to change out the bedtime bottle as well. I wanted her to get some milk before bed in case she was hungry overnight so did give the sippy of milk a little bit after dinner so it was closer to bedtime but did so downstairs and in a cup. She was totally fine. Over time it got combined with dinner and was never an issue.

[hatshetsut]

Thanks Nichole, that is a great idea. Kate is a chunk and eats like a teenage boy, so I'm sure she won't be hungry over night, it is more of a mental thing on my part, KWIM?

I'm going to start giving her the sippy next week after we get back from our trip. I'm going to introduce cows milk then too I think. Knowing my little pudge she will love it :-)

Thanks!

[~*Nicole*~]

FWIW...DD didn't really like cow's milk at first. I mixed it with her formula little by little until she had full cow's milk which went fine until it was ALL cow's milk and then she wasn't too keen until I realized it was b/c it was SO COLD straight from the fridge and her formula and when she had BM were all room temp. I zapped the cow's milk in the microwave for about 10 secs. just to take the chill out and she was fine!

[hatshetsut]

Some kids are temperature sensitve that is for sure. I've been making formula in a sippy and leaving it in the refrigerator and giving it to her cold so cows milk shouldn't be too much of a shock.

I always get nervous that they aren't going to drink enough when they stop the nursing and the bottles, but as long as there are good potty diapers they are fine. Thank you!

[Lolly]

If you are happy for her to carry on having the bedtime bottle there is no need to drop it just yet. Most babies carry on having the bedtime bottle long after they turn 1 with no ill effects. You need to make sure they drink it quickly and clean teeth after though! My DD has swapped to a sippy in the last month and DS gave up his bedtime bottle around 2.5.

Laura

[hatshetsut]

Interesting perspective, thank you Laura!

[~*Nicole*~]

Laura-Out of curiosity, when you say "are happy to carry on with the bottle" do you mean that you enjoy it as part of bedtime routine/bonding/cuddling time, are afraid LO will be super upset to drop it or ?? I am just curious about what signs you'd look to in determining whether to leave it be and carry on with it and what signs you'd look for in deciding to drop it. I had been advised by DD's ped to not have her drink from any more bottles after she turned one which was the reason I chose to try switching to all cups and she did it so smoothly without any drama I never thought twice about it, but had she been upset I probably would have left it be and been posting on here stressing about LOL. Just wanted to know what drove your leaving it be until they sort of dropped them on their own I guess.

[Lolly]

For us it was part of the bedtime routine, and as both were/are refluxers on a reflux formula I wanted to make sure they had it before bed so it helped at night and yes, the extra snuggle time wa salways nice . Our pead didn't have any problem with them having a bottle at bedtime still, the advice is so different from country to country and Dr to Dr!

DS didn't want to give his bottle up, it was a comfort thing for him so we waited for him to be ready (tried a few times to get him on a cup at bedtime). In the end he had a nasty cough and the milk was making him cough more and be sick so we stopped it for a few days while he was ill and just didn't give it back aftewards. With DD I just switched for a cup one night and she was fine, but she still has a paci so gets sucking time but DS hadn't had a paci since he was 4.5 months so that may be the difference.

Really I think it's down to what you want. If you want to be rid of the bottles and they are eating well and drinking well out of cups then that's great. Equally there isn't a problem with carrying on with bottles for a bit longer but you need to be aware of their teeth, so they need to not be carrying a bottle around all day and have their teeth cleaned after especially at night. In my experience more babies/ toddlers carry on having one or two bottles for a while after they turn 1 than there are babies who are fully on cups by 1!

Laura

[~*Nicole*~]

Definitely good to know! I am going to try to BF this next LO for as long as possible but of course you never know what will happen and if I have to go to bottles or anything like that it's good to have the information since I ended up w/ bottles last time around.

[hatshetsut]

I've BF both my babies but always felt (probably incorrectly) that I didn't have enough milk at night. Plus, this LO NEVER took at DF so I did end up switching her to a bottle of acid reflux formula at night around 5 or 6 months. She was always BF for all of the other feedings.

But, last night I didn't give her a bottle, just a drink from her cup before bed. She went to bed better than she had in a month!! Slept fine and wasn't ravenous today. No more bottle cleaning for me! Woo Hoo!

[~*Nicole*~]

Woo hoo! Great news! (although the sippy cups I have are a bit of a pain to clean anyway )

[hatshetsut]

Sippy cups are nothing compared to Dr. Brown's bottles! Plus after a good rinse the dishwasher does the rest :-)

Thank you for all of your help and encouragement!

Holly

[~*Nicole*~]

You are right, I used the Dr. Browns, too...with that crazy tube!

No problem! Enjoy.