Sippy Cup in Bed, Bad for Teeth??

This is a very bad habit! Water is the only thing she should get in bed.
However this can be bad too. My DD used to lay on the sippy and wake up to a wet bed.
We now give her a sip of water in a special cup, from the dollar store, it has a star and says princess. She only gets 2 drinks then it is time for bed.
One and a half is old enough to use a big girl cup all the time, just get rid of the sippy's. I have 2 of the platex sipsters we use for in the car. They are like mom's coffee travel mug, but spill proof.
Good luck.

It is very bad for the teeth. Both my kids had to have their teeth capped because of bottle rot. If you don't wash the milk out of her mouth, it eats away at the teeth. I speak from experience. Try just a little juice in the water to start with. Like two ounces of juice and four ounces of water. She if she likes that better.

As for how you stop the behavior, my oldest got tired of drinking just water and held the cup to go to sleep until he was almost three. Then, I let him have a toy, a matchbox car, or for a girl you could try a barbie, to hold while he put himself back to sleep. My youngest never needed any help going to sleep by himself.

That's bad for their teeth, only because they fall asleep with the milk pooled in their mouth on their teeth, where as when they are awake, they are able to swallow it almost immediatly, they fall asleep and it's not necessarily swallowed...does that make any sense? This is a major pet peeve of my son's pediatrician, so she's very adamant about no bottles or sippies with milk in bed.

It's definitely bad for teeth, I would dilute it as other mothers have suggested. Have you researched the soymilk thing as well? It is pretty controversial. I know its soymilk you are giving here, but here is some info about soy formula that should be pretty similar
Birth Control Pills For Babies

But it was the isoflavones in infant formula that gave the Jameses the most cause for concern. In 1998, investigators reported that the daily exposure of infants to isoflavones in soy infant formula is 6 to11 times higher on a body-weight basis than the dose that has hormonal effects in adults consuming soy foods. Circulating concentrations of isoflavones in infants fed soy-based formula were 13,000 to 22,000 times higher than plasma estradiol concentrations in infants on cow's milk formula.57

Approximately 25 per cent of bottle-fed children in the US receive soy-based formula - a much higher percentage than in other parts of the Western world. Fitzpatrick estimated that an infant exclusively fed soy formula receives the estrogenic equivalent (based on body weight) of at least five birth control pills per day.58 By contrast, almost no phytoestrogens have been detected in dairy-based infant formula or in human milk, even when the mother consumes soy products.

Scientists have known for years that soy-based formula can cause thyroid problems in babies. But what are the effects of soy products on the hormonal development of the infant, both male and female?

Male infants undergo a "testosterone surge" during the first few months of life, when testosterone levels may be as high as those of an adult male. During this period, the infant is programmed to express male characteristics after puberty, not only in the development of his sexual organs and other masculine physical traits, but also in setting patterns in the brain characteristic of male behavior. In monkeys, deficiency of male hormones impairs the development of spatial perception (which, in humans, is normally more acute in men than in women), of learning ability and of visual discrimination tasks (such as would be required for reading).59 It goes without saying that future patterns of sexual orientation may also be influenced by the early hormonal environment. Male children exposed during gestation to diethylstilbestrol (DES), a synthetic estrogen that has effects on animals similar to those of phytoestrogens from soy, had testes smaller than normal on manturation.60

Learning disabilities, especially in male children, have reached epidemic proportions. Soy infant feeding - which began in earnest in the early 1970s - cannot be ignored as a probable cause for these tragic developments.

As for girls, an alarming number are entering puberty much earlier than normal, according to a recent study reported in the journal Pediatrics.61 Investigators found that one per cent of all girls now show signs of puberty, such as breast development or pubic hair, before the age of three; by age eight, 14.7 per cent of white girls and almost 50 per cent of African-American girls have one or both of these characteristics.

New data indicate that environmental estrogens such as PCBs and DDE (a breakdown product of DDT) may cause early sexual development in girls.62 In the 1986 Puerto Rico Premature Thelarche study, the most significant dietary association with premature sexual development was not chicken - as reported in the press - but soy infant formula.63

The consequences of this truncated childhood are tragic. Young girls with mature bodies must cope with feelings and urges that most children are not well-equipped to handle. And early maturation in girls is frequently a harbinger for problems with the reproductive system later in life, including failure to menstruate, infertility and breast cancer.

Parents who have contacted the Jameses recount other problems associated with children of both sexes who were fed soy-based formula, including extreme emotional behavior, asthma, immune system problems, pituitary insufficiency, thyroid disorders and irritable bowel syndrome - the same endocrine and digestive havoc that afflicted the Jameses' parrots.

It's taken from http://www.mercola.com/2000/apr/9/soy_research_update.htm

I would research it if I were you.

I know you have made up your mind about soy, but here is some info I came acrossed that I found interesting. BTW I do agree with you about cow's milk too, at least when it is not organic or raw. http://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/food/soy_...

We did this with our first son- now 10. He went to bed so nicely with a sippy of milk! However, gradually, he did develop "baby bottle" teeth, where they slowly decay along the top. One tooth developed a cavity on the FRONT, which at age 10, is still slightly visible after paying for 2 "caps" that have fallen off. My advice is to deal with the fit now, switch to water, and know that she will be over this in a week instead of still regretting doing this when she is 10. If you need any more motivation, my son was asked by the other preschoolers- why do you have a brown tooth? ugh. Breaks my heart! Good luck- remember- you are the mommy and you do know best!

Hi A.,
It is bad for her teeth. I agree with one of the other moms that said start diluting the milk. Both of my boys have water for bed. My 4 year old has a cup and my almost 2 year has a sippy cup in his crib. If you could slowly dilute it so that eventually it is all water that would probably be the best. I don't think it is a problem to have a sippy cup (as long as it doesn't leak) with her in bed. It's the milk that is the problem. Good luck.
Chris

Don't make her cry babies don't cry for no reason...crying is their only language (and yes she's a baby until you have another one LOL) :-) She's looking for comfort, you can try giving her comfort in other ways than the sippy cup. Hold her, rock her, cuddle her until she's drowsy. If she's insistent on a drink give her a small amount of soymilk just enough to get a couple of sips. Or replace it with water and tell her that she can have water but no milk in bed.

I've been where you are, my 3 yr old still takes a cup of water to bed with him (bag over head)

A dentist once told me that it isn't really how much food a person eats, but if the food stays on the teeth for more then 20 minutes is when the cavities, etc. start to form.

I would say yes, anything but water is bad. YOu cane reduce the milk by adding water. For example, mix 14/c. water in 3/4 c. milk, continue decreasing the milk until it is only water.

R.

I don't know if you've heard this already, but I would slowly dilute the milk. Eventually your child will only have a sippy cup with water:)

I have a couple questions first. Did you get the okay to give your daughter soymilk instead of formula or whole milk? I will assume so. My pediatrician advised no sippy cups or bottles in bed at all. It definitely contributes to rotton teeth. Next, your baby is waking up because as you said, "it is a well established habit". So...try the Ferber method of sleep. It involves soothing your baby, but letting them cry (that is the hardest part!) and going out of the room. After 10 minutes of crying, come back to soothe her, but don't pick her up, and don't hang around for more than a minute. Leave, let her cry, and increase the time increments by 5 minutes each time. If you do this, in 2 nights she will be broken of the habit. Good luck!

My kids have bad baby teeth, but healthy adult teeth, here is what my dentis told me, that so long as the sippy cup/ bottle isn't being held in the mouth all night, meaning they drink it and go back to sleep, and the teeth are being brushed shortly after they wake up it really isn't an issue, there is also a flouride mouth rinse, that can be bought in most store, that should be applied with either your finger or a q-tip, gently rub it over the gums. I am not one for taking my infants/toddlers bottles or cups away, but do find that around 2 they are more then ready to have them permantly taken away. I took my know 6 year olds cup away around 1 1/2 and he still ended up having to have his baby teeth reconstructed, my dentist said a lot of it is hereditary.

I would have to say that the milk in the cup is bad stick to water only. Also since i am going through the whole potty training at night now because he is all potty treained during the daytime that the whole cup thing was a bad habit to start because now he wants the cup to go to bed with so i have to struggle for him to go to bed without so he doesnt pee the bed. So i think start now by taking it away little by little but until then no more milk in the cup.