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Night Time Routine Without Bottle

Eitak82Eitak82 member
in Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
DS is just shy of 1 year, so we have been working for the past couple of weeks to wean from the bottle & formula. He was taking 4 small (4 oz, but he didn't always finish) bottles a day and over the past 2 weeks I cut out the 2 middle of the day bottles. I am cutting the AM bottle tomorrow and hoping that offering his straw cup with water and pushing up solid breakfast will do the trick, but I'm unsure of how to go about altering night time routine once we give up that bottle.

Currently we change diaper, moisturize, put on PJs, read a book, have a bottle, and go down for bed. The whole process takes about 20 minutes. Sometimes putting his PJs on gets him all worked up (because clearly putting on clothing is child abuse in his eyes), so right now the bottle calms him on those nights. Thoughts on how to change things up? Suggestions from parents who've made the transition?

Thank you in advance!
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Re: Night Time Routine Without Bottle

  • beckcourbeckcour member
    That was the last bottle we gave up. We dropped it at 13 months. Are you giving him milk instead? We simply switched the bottle for a sippy cup of milk. She balked a little at first but quickly got over the bottle. We're at a point now that she doesn't even ask for a drink before bed anymore. We do eat dinner between 6-7 pm so I know she's not hungry when she goes to bed at 8. She's also a hardcore pacifier user and gets a lot of comfort from that at bedtime.
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  • emberlee3emberlee3 member
    We waited until closer to 15 months to get rid of the nighttime bottle, mainly because DD could not have dairy and wouldn't drink her formula from a sippy.  I finally decided it was time.  I swapped the bottle for a sippy of water.  She loved it, and is now more attached to her water than she ever was to the bottle. 
    DS born 8/8/09 and DD born 6/12/12.
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  • maryxc1maryxc1 member
    I was nursing DS, so it wasn't exactly the same, but I just cut that step out of the routine completely. I think I offered him his sippy cup of milk a couple nights but he didn't care much about it so that didn't last long. Luckily, the nursing was in the middle of the routine so I feel like it was less obvious that we skipped over it. He was 13 months at the time. Our routine now is pretty quick...teeth, bath (every other night), lotion, pajamas, book, song, bed.
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  • shannmshannm member
    We do bath, pjs, teeth, put on sleep sack and cuddle with our bb (lovey blanket).  She also uses a pacifier (hope I can eliminate this soon).  Then we read books in the rocking chair and sing a couple of soft songs and I put her down.
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  • Eitak82Eitak82 member
    Thank you, ladies!

    He does not take a paci, and right now milk is a no-go as well (I've been offering it in his straw cup, which he drinks very well out of, for 2 weeks and every time he gets a sip, he spits it out and throws his cup). I was thinking about incorporating a bath, but am torn on that as he has VERY dry skin.

    I just took away the morning one this morning and he was not happy about it, but could be distracted (and I moved solid breakfast a tiny bit earlier). I'm hoping after a few days of that he'll just adjust to this new norm before we tackle night time!
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  • JessAnnJJessAnnJ member
    Are you cutting the bottle and switching to milk at the same time? I think doing both at the same time is a much bigger adjustment. We fed formula in the sippy and once we got rid of all bottles we switched from the formula. Right now it sounds like your LO may associate the cup with what he prefers not to drink. The first day we got rid of the night bottle we followed the same routine we just fed her from a cup instead.

    I honestly thought my LO would be on bottles forever. I posted on my BMB thinking we were way behind. We started at slightly over a year old and it seemed like DD didn't even know how to drink from a cup. But once we stopped giving a bottle when she initially refused the cup it only took about a week and we had cut out all bottles, including the night bottle. I think it just clicked and she realized that is what she drinks from now. We are still working on increasing her solid intake and decreasing her milk intake, but it definitely felt good to put the bottles away.

    Good luck!

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  • Eitak82Eitak82 member
    DS has pretty crazy solid intake, so I'm not worried about calories. The thing is he LOVES his water in his straw cup... he easily finishes 2-3 cups of water (it's a 10 oz cup) per day. So far he HATES milk (spits it out and throws his cup) and I've tried formula in a cup and he won't do that either (formula out of a bottle he's fine with). 

    I'm honestly not sure he will end up taking milk (I've been trying for 3 weeks with the same response each time), which is a whole other issue. Since cutting out the morning bottle this weekend, I've noticed he gets grumpy unless he gets breakfast early (which makes perfect sense), so I'm trying to incorporate more substantial snacks and hopefully push dinner a touch closer to bed time.
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  • fusionbridefusionbride member
    we replaced the bedtime bottle with a sippy of milk and gave it before the bedtime routine.  If dinner is late one night, we skip the milk altogether and it hasn't been a problem.  The new order is:  Sippy of milk, bath (every-other day- otherwise just wash face/hands), Brush teeth, offer sip of water from regular cup, PJs/diaper, story, bed.


    I don't have answers about the not drinking milk issue other than to keep offering it.  Mine refused it for a few weeks. Have you tried it warm?  That did help us...




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  • mommaoftripsmommaoftrips member
    When we first transitioned from formula to WCM we mixed in a little milk instead of formula. Example - usual bottle was 200 ml, we did 180 of formula and 20 of WCM. Our LOS were quick to refuse the bottle if we did it too fast (at one point we did a jump of 50ml in only 2 days and that was too much). So it may have took longer but we never had an issue with milk and now they LOVE it.
    I agree with PPs, don't do both at once. Either the transition from formula to milk or the dropping the bottle. GL this is a tricky stage. We still have our night bottle to drop.
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