When did you wean the bedtime bottle/feed?

[Canadian_Mom]

Hi all, DS is a few weeks over 1 year angel baby and we have recently weaned his midday bottle leaving his morning and bedtime ones.  I would like to keep the morning one for a bit longer as he is hungry when he gets up and it gives me more time to get breakfast ready.  As for his bedtime bottle I am pretty sure that he couldn't care less if I weaned him off of it (as I said he is an angel baby) and just had cuddle time for a few minutes instead.  He does drink 8-9oz as long as we didn't eat supper too late (in which case he only has 2-4oz).  Does anyone know if there is any reason to keep him on his bottles?  As well did you introduce a bedtime snack when you weaned the bedtime feed?

[Seona1973]

Could you not just offer the milk from a cup i.e. keep the feed but swap to a cup instead of a bottle.

[Canadian_Mom]

I certainly could do a cup, but he still has way over the recommended amount of milk products.  And he doesn't eat much in terms of the other food groups (except maybe grains), so I don't want him to fill up on milk products.  He drinks really well from a regular/open mouth cup, drinking 2-4oz each meal and snack (which increased when I dropped the midday bottle, so assuming the same would happen with the other bottles).  And I offer him a few gulps of water inbetween meals when he looks thirsty.  So I guess the problem is more that whether or not the bedtime milk feed is necessary or if it could be changed to a snack this early?  Has anyone else done it this early?  Or am I just crazy?

[firsttimemummy]

DS stopped his breastfeed at bedtime around age 1, reducing his intake until at 13.5 months he wasn't interested at all.  I got DH to take DS to bed for a few nights and to change the milk part of the bedtime routine to blowing out the light instead .... once that was established I then joined in and DS never once looked for the milk. 

DS has his dinner then goes straight for his bath then bed so we don't have time for extra food even if he wanted it.  We just stopped the bedtime milk and felt that he had enough to eat during the day so didn't worry.  It's also good for their teeth not to give a milk feed at night as they can't brush their teeth after (if like DS they have it immediately just before going into the cot).  I was also recommended not to use bottles after age 1 and to put any drinks in a cup instead (dentist said not to put anything other than water in cups with a valve as it means the liquid sits on their teeth for longer ....)

[*Liz*]

I switched to a cup at 22 mths. He had dropped his intake from 7oz to about 3 by then anyway as ge was too busy to want to sit and drink milk.

I have started a bedtime snack more recently as he has been teething so his daytime calories have been very variable. Sometimes he eats it, other times not.

[Roseii]

This is interesting. DD has had a sippy cup since she was 15m for morning and bedtime milk but both are still going strong now, 10m later...She asks for milk as soon as she wakes up and always asks for her bedtime milk...Think she might still be having it when she's 12 She does eat well though so I'm not worried about the milk taking up calories. x

[*Liz*]

Yes Jacob always asks for his bedtime milk - and then hardly drinks any  . He always asks for his breakfast snack as well - but would refuse milk for some reason. I don't know why these toddlers get these ideas into their little heads  .

[*Jo*]

Im interested in this as well, Caleb still has a bedtime milk before bed, from a sippy cup. If i offer it to him in a cup he will drink about half. also some nights he refuses it altogether, but doesnt wake up hungry at all so im not too worried. Hes just dairy intolerant so this is one of the main ways we get his formula into him. Not sure when to stop it though. Would be great to do it before we go overseas next month so i dont have to lug the formula with me though

[Tweakster]

Finn still has a bedtime bottle, the one time we actually see this kid relax.  So we'll keep it until he's done, he's great about just deciding when he's had enough of something.  One perk to a Spirited kid with definite opinions!

He takes 8 oz still at bedtime and hardly anything from a cup all day long, he's too busy to drink.

He hardly ever asks for milk or a drink, he will ask for food though.  He doesn't ask for his bottle, but if he sees it, look out.  I do think we could get away with just phasing it out ourselves but we aren't really ready yet lol

[Canadian_Mom]

Thanks everyone for their thoughts and experiences.  I really do appreciate it!

I just have this feeling that DS won't drop the bottles on his own (not spirited at all, so just goes with whatever his crazy parents throw at him!).  He was over 10 months when I had to drop from 4 to 3 feeds because he wasn't eating more than a few tbsp of solids every meal, and then I dropped him to 2 feeds because even though he was starting to eat a bit more solids his milk was certainly a major source of his caloric intake.  He was showing no signs of dropping them on his own so our doctor and the public health nurse encouraged us to wean them.  He had no problems with dropping either of the bottles, and when I mentioned this to the public health nurse she said that if I wanted to drop the rest of the bottles it would be totally fine because he drinks so well (both milk and water) from a regular cup and can communicate that he is thirsty that I should not have any problems keeping him hydrated and meeting his calcium needs.

I was all for it, but got some weird feedback from my friends (and DH) with people saying that I was crazy and that LOs at least need that bedtime feed for a lot longer.  I started to think that I was crazy for thinking it and thought that I would ask the BW family for their opinions 

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

DS has his dinner then goes straight for his bath then bed so we don't have time for extra food even if he wanted it.

This is how our nights run too - we never do a bedtime snack because bedtime is only 1.5h after supper, I think we stopped doing a sippy for Spencer during story time at about 12 months, when she was finally eating alot of table food and had some milk with supper.  We did the same with Masyn and I've never had either of them wake and ask for food or milk.  They each get a sippy of water to take to bed now.