How to stop bottle feeding a 2 year old at night

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A: Ideally, babies will be completely off the bottle by the time they’re a year old, so it’s wise to start cutting down the number of bottle feedings beforehand. That bedtime bottle seems to be the hardest one to take away from babies, since they take it as much for comfort and relaxation as they do for nourishment.  By the age of six months, many babies don’t need the bedtime bottle for nourishment, and by the age of nine months, very few need the extra calories and nutrients offered by the bedtime bottle, since they’re typically eating and drinking plenty throughout the day. So by the time babies are around nine months old, the bedtime bottle is usually optional, although most babies don’t seem to think so! The longer you keep giving that bedtime bottle, the harder it seems to do away with it, for both you and your baby.

Parents have heard over and over about the potential health consequences of the bedtime bottle, even if they don’t allow their babies to take a bottle to bed.  It can promote erosion of tooth enamel and tooth decay, and it can contribute extra calories that lead to excess weight gain. Still, denying your baby a bedtime bottle can be incredibly challenging for moms and dads. It makes it far more difficult to get babies to sleep, and when babies don’t sleep, neither do their parents.

There are two ways to break the bedtime bottle habit. You can do it gradually, or you can do it cold turkey. With my youngest son, I knew how challenging weaning was going to be, since I’d already gone through it twice with my older children. I had gradually weaned my older sons from the bedtime bottle in a stepwise fashion. I started by serving the bedtime bottle chilled rather than warm, which made it much less enticing. Then I replaced the milk with water, which they liked even less. When I finally took the bedtime bottle away, they weren’t all that crazy about it anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal.

When it was time to wean my youngest son, my life was so hectic that I didn’t do the gradual weaning. I decided that we would go cold turkey. To make sure that I didn’t cave, I threw away all of his bottles so there would be no turning back. The first couple of nights were a little stressful for both of us, and it took my son about an hour longer than usual to get to sleep, and I felt pretty guilty about upsetting him.

Looking back, I think it’s better to gradually wean babies from the bedtime bottle. Make sure your baby has had enough to eat and drink a couple of hours before bedtime. It’s helpful if you have established a nice bedtime ritual to comfort and soothe your baby, so that you’re not 100 percent dependent on the bottle. A nice warm bath, rocking while reading a story, and snuggling with a lovey can be great sources of comfort, security, and relaxation before bedtime, even when the bedtime bottle is no longer a part of the routine.

Answered by RallieMcAllister

Many toddlers become attached to their bottles. Besides providing nourishment, bottles also mean comfort and security.

It's important for parents to start weaning babies from bottles around the end of the first year and start getting them comfortable drinking from cups. The longer parents wait to start the transition, the more attached kids become to their bottles and the harder it can be to break the bottle habit. Longer bottle use may lead to cavities or cause your child to drink more milk than he or she needs.

Switching from bottle to cup can be challenging, but these tips can make the change easier for parents and kids.

How Should I Start the Switch?

Most doctors recommend introducing a cup around the time a baby is 6 months old. In the beginning, much of what you serve in a cup will end up on the floor or on your baby. But by 12 months of age, most babies have the coordination and hand skills needed to hold a cup and drink from it.

Age 1 is also when doctors recommend switching from formula to cow's milk. It can be a natural transition to offer milk in a cup rather than a bottle.

If you're still breastfeeding, you can continue feeding your baby breast milk, but you may want to do so by offering it in a cup.

Tips to Try

Instead of cutting out bottles all at once, try dropping them from the feeding schedule over time.

For example, if your baby usually drinks three bottles each day, start by eliminating the morning bottle. Instead of giving a bottle right away, bring your baby to the table and after the feeding has started, offer milk from a cup. You might encourage your baby by saying something like "you're a big boy now and can use a cup like mommy."

As you try to stop the morning bottle, keep offering the afternoon and evening bottles for about a week. That way, if your child asks for the bottle you can say that one is coming later.

The next week, stop another bottle feeding and provide milk in a cup instead. Try to do this when your baby is sitting at the table in a high chair.

Generally, the last bottle to stop should be the nighttime bottle. That bottle tends to be a part of the bedtime routine and is the one that most provides comfort to babies. Instead of the bottle, try offering a cup of milk with your child's dinner and continue with the rest of your nighttime tasks, like a bath, bedtime story, or teeth brushing.

Other tips to keep in mind:

• Spill-proof cups that have spouts designed just for babies ("sippy cups") can help ease the move from the bottle. Dentists recommend sippy cups with a hard spout or a straw, rather than ones with soft spouts.
• When your child does use the cup, offer plenty of praise. If grandma is around, for example, you might say, "See, Emma is such a big girl she drinks milk in a cup!"
• If you keep getting asked for a bottle, find out what your child really needs or wants and offer that instead. If your baby is thirsty or hungry, provide nourishment in a cup or on a plate. If it's comfort, offer hugs, and if your little one is bored, sit down and play!
• As you wean your baby from the bottle, try diluting the milk in the bottle with water. For the first few days, fill half of it with water and half of it with milk. Then slowly add more water until the entire bottle is water. By that time, it's likely that your child will lose interest and be asking for the yummy milk that comes in a cup!
• Get rid of the bottles or put them out of sight.

If you have problems or concerns about stopping the bottle, talk with your child's doctor.

Maggie is a psychologist and mom of five kids who successfully weaned her children from their bottles.

Those Precious Milk Bottles

Weaning Your Child off the Milk Bottle

It is common advice to stop your baby's milk bottle suddenly, at the age of one. At least, that is what many pediatricians and well-meaning friends and family often advise. This is also the commonly-held view espoused in many parenting books.

The problem is that taking away the baby's bottle all at once is cruel and unnecessary. Babies and toddlers learn how to soothe themselves by sucking on their bottles, and this is a good thing. Many moms report that once they took the bottle away, their child never drank milk again.

A Humane Approach

However, do not be in a big hurry to rid your home of milk bottles. There is no evidence that they increase dental or other problems. In fact, allowing your young one to self-soothe has many long-term benefits. (Please note that I am not advocating for allowing your child to doze off while continuing to nurse on the bottle for a prolonged period.)

Three of my youngest children took quite a while to let go of their "nighttime friend." I am happy to report that despite the slowness of this process, none of them ever wanted to bring their bottle to school or on playdates or sleepovers. They have excellent dental records with zero cavities and no orthodontic work! They also have no "oral fixations"—one doesn't think much at all about food and drink, one likes to eat, and the last one is in the middle of the other two.

How I Successfully Weaned My Children From Their Bottles

1. Beginning at the age of one, do not take the bottle away but do begin to decrease the number of daily bottles. For example, each month drop one of the daytime bottles (e.g., the mid-morning one).

Most toddlers (I am defining toddler as age 1) will not really notice or care too much about this, especially if they are busy doing an interesting activity, or if they are having a snack.

Provide a sippy cup of water, juice or milk in place of daytime bottles. A small cup I really like is the two-handled NUK Winnie the Pooh 5-ounce cup that is sold in stores and on Amazon.

Continue this for a couple of months, then drop a second bottle (e.g., the afternoon bottle). Follow the same technique above: Give a sippy cup, distract with activities and snacks, etc. Be prepared: This entire stage could go on for 3-4 months.

At this time also, you should be increasing the amount of milk that your toddler drinks each day, via regular cups, milk boxes or sippy cups. Be sure to add a nice container of milk just before bedtime.

Introduce the Idea of "Wait for Sleep to Come"

2. When your toddler is down to having only his or her nighttime bottle, slowly decrease the amount of milk in the bottle each night. Decrease the amount very slowly; for example approximately an ounce per night, for a week or so. Continue decreasing the amount of milk in this manner. Begin keeping a sippy cup of water or a dixie cup of water next to your toddler's bed.

If your toddler has trouble falling asleep, tell him or her to "wait for sleep to come." My then two-year-old daughter discovered the concept of closing her eyes and waiting for sleep, and she has passed on this simple but remarkable (and true) phrase, "wait for sleep to come," to her other siblings!

Night Time Demands

3. Gentle Reminders: If your toddler wakes up at night and demands a bottle, gently tell him or her that there are no middle of the night bottles. Offer to lie down with him or her, and offer a sip of water from the cup. This step could take a few months, but it may work faster than that.

Bedtime Routines Help Kids Sleep

4. Make sure to establish soothing night routines to ease your child into sleep more quickly: A pre-sleep snack, a dimly-lighted room, some calming music and of course a bedtime story with a cuddly stuffed animal are all ways to encourage drowsiness. Don't forget to keep the small glass of water next to the bed!

5. Reward your child for a job well done! It is a good idea to reward your toddler along the way with a small treat, privilege or other goody for decreasing their nighttime milk bottle. Do this also when your child finally lets go of their nighttime water bottle, if those have been necessary. Children are just like adults in that they respond well to this type of positive reinforcement.

If You Need Additional Help

6. Here is a great read that can assist you at bedtime: In her excellent book, "The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night," author Elizabeth Pantly explains how to humanely get your young one to end his or her reliance on the milk bottle.

The information in Pantly's book is wonderful, regardless of your child's age—the techniques still work. This book helped my family, with all kinds of sleep issues.

A Final Note on the Importance of Patience

Please have patience: Children do not remain attached to their bottles for very long (in the long run). Your child may have some trouble letting go of the bottle, but in the end they will recall with happiness their bottle-drinking days!

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

Comments

Lisa Musser from Kansa, USA on September 16, 2014:

I liked how you gradually replaced the daytime milk bottles with cups, rather than just taking the bottles altogether. Much better for the child and no long tearful pleas for bottles at bedtime.

Jodie Fisher on January 02, 2014:

Thanks for this. My 11month old still has about three bottles of formula a day and has 7oz at bedtime (falls asleep with bottle then dummy) then wakes twice in the night and has a couple of ounces each time. Not sure how to break the habit :(