Bottles of milk at bedtime?

polaroid

i spoke to my health advisor about this, my daughter loves her milk and she is 3. the HA said its really important for kids under 5 to drink milk and if shes still in the habit of it then it a good thing. i give it to her in a cup and take it out of her room once she is still asleep. i think the tooth decay is caused when they keep it in their mouth in the night.
aw, its making me all misty eyed now, i miss feeding my baby her bottle at night

amandada

hamstercheeks wrote: »

when they stop asking for it. but I would say definitely by about the age of 24 months

Oops! My dd (now 11) was about 4, and ds (now 6) was about the same!
Both have good teeth, but that could well be down to genetics as well as good care.

Like others have said, the problem is with juice in a bottle-my 2 only ever had milk or water from a bottle. If I see children with juice in bottles I have to hold myself back from pulling it out of their hands!:o

jacksons_mum

my son is 3 and still has a bedtime bottle, the reason being that if he had a cup of milk he would drink 1-2 oz wheras with a bottle he will drink 9oz, i cant get milk down him during the day so its important that he has his bottle as the milk is so good for him. i know i will have to stop when he is toilet training at night but im not going to worry about that yet.
im not worried about tooth decay as he only drinks water during the day not juice.

joannasmum

My dd stopped her bottle of her own accord at just before 3. It was the only way she would drink milk so that I was reluctent to stop it. I used to brush her teeth after she had finished just before bed. In my dd case I have learned to go with the flow and let her give up things when she was ready

RoxieW

Keep the milk up but bottles should defo be stopped by 1 year, shouldnt they? Mine moves onto a sippy cup and now just have a normal cup.

Ishtar

We still offer milk before bedtime, usually with a snack, but after her teeth are cleaned DD has the option of water or nothing. We're concerned about leaving anything on her teeth overnight - even milk contains sugars and this, coupled with the reduced flow of saliva whilst she is sleeping, has the potential to cause some problems. Although, having said that, I'm probably being a bit overcautious due to my own experience when I was small - I had bad tooth decay and had loads of fillings in my milk teeth.

She's quite happy with just water now, but it took some persuasion before she accepted it! I guess we stopped leaving milk in her room with her when she was around 18 months or so. The bottle disappeared at around 12 months and we moved her onto a sippy cup. She's using normal cups now.

Smurggle

Hiya, my little one is nearly 23 months and still has a bottle before bed. I think it is a comfort thing and as long as there is teeth brushing going on then I can't see the problem. I think you should do what is best for you and your toddler.

doraexplorer

well my ds was 4 1/2 and going to nursery when i finally got him off the bottle at night. and his teeth are perfect. he just got so upset when i tryed to take it off him . on the other hand my dd was 10 months when she came off the bottle and on to a cup.

as said before as long as they are look after there teeth i dont see a problem with a bedtime bottle. both my children have good teeth no fillings.

xx

nothavingfun..

i used a reward chart to get ds off his bottle at bedtime - he's 3.5 and have just achieved it within 4 days . also got him a special big boy cup (ceramic mug with pretty pics on) in place of his bottle, and told him that his bottles have gone to all the lil babies now

worked a treat

Lynn11

My daughter gets cows milk in her sippy cup when she wakes up, get dressed at 7am and also milk in her cup before bed. We changed from bottle to cup at 13mths and it did take a few attempts but we got there. My daughter is 19mths at the moment.