Why bottle before sleep is bad for toddlers?

[Aringa]

Hi,
I have 1 year and 2 weeks old daughter, I was breasfeeding her for 1 year. For the last two weeks I introduce a bottle and she takes it 3 times per day - in the morning, before her nap and at bedtime. This is the only way she takes milk. She completely refuses to take liquids from a cup, although sometimes I manage to give her a bit of juice from it. The reason I give her bottle in the morning is to increase an amount of fluids she is taking per day (we have serious issues with her constipation and the only fluid she is taking on these days is milk from a bottle ), before sleep it also increase an amount of fluid she is taking and it helps her to relax, othervise she cries a lot if I just put her to bed, cause she has to wind down before sleep and nothing else helps. She doesn't fall asleep with a bottle in her mouth though, she goes to cot awake and falls asleep by herself. I don't brush her teeth, cause she totally refuses to open her mouth and cries, I don't know how to encourage her.. My question is - is a bottle before sleep really bad for her, if she sleeps without it in her mouth? How much milk she should be taking at 1 year old? (She takes no more then 400 ml).  What do I do if she refuses to take any other liquids (even from a bottle), but it is essential to her, cause she has chronic constipation and is taking  long term medication for that condition? I feel so guilty that I give her a bottle, but it makes our bedtime routine so much easier and she falls asleep so much faster for her nap and in that way she consumes her liquids and milk, which I  guess is good for her. I would appreciate any advice, thank you.

[Roseii]

Bumping this for you x

[Buttonbobs]

First of all, don't feel guilty for giving your LO a bottle, you are doing what you feel is best for now given your LOs specific needs.

Ideally it is not a great idea to give LOs milk in bottles after they are 1 because of potential damage to their teeth. However, this damage can be lessened by not letting your LO fall asleep while sucking on the bottle, so maybe changing her nappy or something else after the bottle feed could be a good idea.

There are many of us here who do feed milk from a bottle even when LO is over one. Perhaps have a look here to see if there are any tips to help you if you still feel you'd like to move to a different cup or to reassure you if you continue the bottle feeding:

Do you want to chat about transitioning to a sippy cup??

I haven't been in a similar situation with my DD, as she has always drunk lots of water, as I'm sure you've already tried all of the obvious things, but are you able to add more liquid into her solid food diet - e.g. On cereals or adding water to stews etc? Also, fruit has a high water content and can often help with constipation. What other things are you trying?

[creations]

Just seeing this.
I had a thread about the BT bottle about a year ago.  I was brushing DS's teeth before the bottle.  I was concerned about the milk on his teeth all night and also didn't want to ruin our wind down routine.  From the posts on my thread regarding danger to teeth I decided I had to change our routine.  it scared me.  Some LOs have tooth decay before age 2
What I will say though is that often these changes to routines are far more scary for us mummies than they are bothersome to our LOs.  I was astounded by how easily my boy adapted and accepted the new routine.  I had felt sure his wind down would be destroyed and he wouldn't sleep.  Not the case at all.  He barely batted an eye at the change.

Yes many people do continue the bottle, that is your personal choice, but I would also encourage you to alter your routine to include teeth brushing after the bottle and use another method of soothing for sleep.  IMHO the milk for sleep habit will continue for as long as you allow it, so maybe ask yourself if you'd be happy for this to be happening at age 5 or 6 and your LOs teeth still not being brushed before sleep?

There are a variety of options to alter your routine, but one possibility would be to offer the milk prior to brushing teeth, brush well, then offer a water bottle for soothing prior to sleep (you could make this change over the course of a week: full bottle before teeth brushing, small milk bottle offered after teeth brushing, plus a second bottle on hand with just water in it for if she is requesting more prior to sleep, reduce the small bottle of milk down and down each night until you are only offering water).  I know you said your LO won't take water but if she wants the bottle then she'll adapt pretty quickly.
Also if she is refusing to have her teeth brushed at any time of day this (IMHO) really does need tackling.

hth xx

[Buttonbobs]

Thanks creations :-)

Just to clarify, I agree with everything creations has said re tooth damage & I too would recommend brushing teeth after the last bottle of the night. I suppose what I was trying to say is that if your LO is already on medication for constipation it must have become a reasonably serious problem and if it were me I would need to weigh up the potential risk of tooth decay against ensuring LO has enough fluids.

You have said in your post that your LO doesn't fall asleep with the bottle in her mouth so it should be possible to do some toothbrushing after the feed before sleep. What do you think?

Let us know how you get on. X

[*Kara*]

I don't brush her teeth, cause she totally refuses to open her mouth and cries, I don't know how to encourage her

Are you meaning that you don't brush her teeth at all?  If so, we can certainly give you some ideas to help her accept it.