bedtime bottle and tooth brushing???

[huntersmummyinoz]

hiya,

not sure if this is a food or routine issue so not sure where to post, feel free to move if nec.

HV recommended i drop the bedtime bottle (he only has 3/4oz) as he isnt brushing his teeth after this. just wondering how you all do this?

currently hunter has dinner/dessert/5 oz milk in sippy at 6pm, finishes around 630pm, then brushes teeth, bath, pjs, bottle, 2 stories, bed.

hunter isnt a fan of getting his teeth brushed, loves doing it himself but it's always works him up a bit when we do it so brushing after bottle isnt an option. but i dont know if he'd last from 6pm dinner/milk (finishes around 630pm) until 730 breaky/milk in the morning. seems like a long time to wait...

Qs
- what does your dinner/bedtime milk and toothbrushing look like?
- when did you drop the bedtime bottle?
- is it too long to expect him to go from dinner time til breaky without the extra milk top up?

thanks
kirry

[hrk]

Hi!

We dropped a bottle at night not too long ago.  We finally were able to change dinner to a later time.
7:30 breakfast
10:30 lunch
11/11:30 nap begins for 2.5 hrs
2:00 sometimes I offer milk or water on waking with his prevacid
4:00 large snack; sometimes this is moved earlier if he seems hungry; usually he is fine with a long stretch here- not sure why???
5:30/6 Dinner w/5-6 oz milkl I really try to get dinner close to 6
6:50 offer milk, which he mostly refuses
7:00 brush teeth

We dropped the bedtime bottle about a month ago...

I offer the milk, but he doesn't take too much.  I had to rearrange the day to get it that way.  I had to go all the way to breakfast to work it out and move breakfast a half hr later.  I think it will take a bit of playing around to find what will work???

Hugs, I know this part is no fun.  It is nice that he isn't drinking as much at bedtime, less full diapers in the morning. 

A side note:  Heath has been boycotting the toothbrush, but it is related to him getting 3 eye teeth in one week.  Perhaps his gums are more sensitive now.  That is what I am deducing for Heath, since he used to love getting his own brush out.  Now he really doesn't like it...  Hopefully the refusal will die down after the teething :-(

[~Karen~]

Hi Kirry,

I've just got Ethan off bottles but he still has a cup of milk right before bed.  I used to get brushing teeth fighting at bedtime but have kept on and make sure I do before bedtime.  He's stopped fighting me now and accepts that it's going to happen.  I let him brush his teeth in the morning though.

[huntersmummyinoz]

thanks gals

where do you both fit bath in?

[hrk]

With Heath's skin, we only do a bath every other day. 

So bedtime routine starts roughly at 6:50/7.
Offer milk about 6:50/7 in kitchen from cup.  Usually refuses or has a few sips.
Potty
Bath
Diaper and pj
Books in chair until drowsy, can be less than 5 or 20 min depending on the night and if we are early/late in getting things started.
Crib awake with lovies.
Usually takes only a few minutes to drop off to sleep, unless he is ut. 

That is our routine here.  I love the new pic!  What a cutie!

[~Karen~]

Depends on what time I'm putting him to bed but if it's 7pm the usually about 620pm (2 takes much longer to do, lol!) then they have a play on the bed and book and bed.  I don't know how long he's awake for before he goes to sleep as he may chat to himself for a bit but never cries out now so leave him to it!

[huntersmummyinoz]

thanks girls

[charmie]

Kirry we are still doing a bottle just before bed.  Like you I am considering the weaning of it, but I have been procrastinating for ages.  I think when we wean it, we'll do a sippy with dinner at 5.30.  The rest will go in the bottle and be given at bedtime.  Eventually when she'll increase the sippy intake I will wean the bottle completely.  Not sure this is the right way to go, sowould appreciate any comments.  I thought I'd do it like that to up keep the milk intake.


xxx
charm

[huntersmummyinoz]

charmie, that's what i started doing when he was 12mths, he was having 8oz in bottle. so started milk in sippy with dinner and whatever left went in bottle. he has been on around 4/5oz at dinner and 3/4oz in bottle for over a month now... teething, colds, etc has prob why i have clung to keeping it at the moment tho...

i think he would get enuf total milk in the day if i dropped it (5 oz in sippy x 3 times, milk in cereal, cheese and yoghurt). guess i'm just scared he cant do the distance til breaky.

i'm trying to find one of those vanity unit thingies (has a sink/mirror) that hooks onto the edge of the bath. he cant reach the sink properly even on a stool so he would be able to stand easily in front of this. hoping that it will make tooth brushing more exciting . and then maybe bath, pjs, downstairs for story with mummy and rest of milk in cup, upstairs with daddy to brush teeth, stories, bed? or maybe i should see how he goes without the bottle first and look at that if it doesnt work? decisions decisions.

jean, did you cut out the bottle gradually?

[clazzat]

With dd1 I bf'ed until about 14 months and it was the last thing we did every night so I thought it would be a really big deal when we dropped it.  As it turned out, she didn't even seem to notice.  I replaced the feed with a short cuddle in the dark and she went down without a peep - you might find that your lo adapts really easily as well.

As for toothbrushing, I spoke to a dentist friend and he said that until second teeth come in, tooth brushing is about habit and getting flouride into their mouths.  He suggested that it is not that big a deal if they have something to eat/drink after brushing their teeth.  I guess the main thing is to make sure that they are not having loads of sugar/sweets/fizzy drinks anyway.
Cx

[babymunkey]

Hmmm we were pondering this a while ago - dropping the bedtime bottle, not so much teeth brushing. I've decided to keep it for now as he still takes 8 oz and would take more, but we don't do milk with dinner. I need to check with the childminder how much milk he's getting at snacktimes during the day.

But wasn't really doing a huge deal on teeth brushing just yet either - he "brushes" his own with me in the morning but haven't done it after milk at night for sure. But then I guess we only have 4 (and a bit) teeth still, so maybe not too big a deal?

Kirry, I think I would avoid coming back downstairs as part of bedtime routine - not sure why, I think I think when they'r older its another opportunity to want to stay downstairs..........so we've stuck with once we go up for bath he doesn't come down for any reason.....

H

Clazzat - you posted at the same time as me but that's made me feel better - all I was trying to do was get him used to the toothbrush and the idea of doing it and used to the taste, so he does his when I do mine - now he gets all stroppy if he sees us with toothbrushes and he doesn't have his!

[deckchariot]

We dropped our bedtime bottle ages ago...she weaned herself from bfing at bedtime around 1 yr, but I kept doing a sippy cup of milk til maybe 14 mos (when she weaned entirely) and we just moved the bedtime sippy to dinner.  Our nighttime routine has been the same since:

6pm - dinner (with 4 ozish of milk)
finishes around 6:30, then playtime with daddy
7:15 pm - start bedtime routine - upstairs to potty and bath, brush teeth in bath
7:45pm - into jammies, stories, prayers, sing, into bed
sttn (most of the time)
7:30 am- wake up and 6 oz milk

In terms of milk intake, she gets the 6 oz in the am, 4 oz midday, and 4 oz pm, then she has cheese at lunch and yogurt with breakfast.  We never had trouble with NWs due to hunger, but did for thirst, so she has a sippy cup of water in the crib with her now.

[hrk]

I cut out the sippy when he started to refuse his child sized regular cup at about 14 mo?  He boycotted using a sippy until he was after 12 mo!  I didn't want him to start doing that to his cup, which I had been offering in the morning with breakfast and he was doing well.  I would put a sip in at a time.  He would hold out the cup for more.  I know it was a kind of knee-jerk reaction, but I didn't want him to start to refuse the cup.  We never looked back at using the sippy but a few times at the restaurants.  I can fill the cup over half full now. 

Saying that, we still used the bottle before bed up to about a month ago.  When we switched dinner to at 6, we stopped offering the bottle before bed.  He had just finished eating about 20 min prior. We just started offering the cup again at 6:50.  Tooth brusing after bath or potty depending what we are doing and how resistant he is, lol. 

[vacamex]

I was just wondering about this today!
With DD I'd like to drop the bedtime bottle but I'm worried she'll have hunger-induced NWs... she usually drinks between 5 - 11oz.
She also has 5oz before her nap around noon. I've tried to get rid of that one, but then her naps are shorter and she ends up OT and hungry. So, I guess we'll keep it for a while.
Any suggestions are more than welcome,
CC

[Katet]

Both my boys went from Dinner at 6pm to breakfast at 7am from about 13 &15mo respectively.. they never had bedtime bottles (actually DS2 never had a bottle) & I dropped the evening BF around that time... I actually found conversly DS2 started sleeping later after he dropped the bedtime, not waking earlier as he consumed more filling (protien rich) food in the day.