Weaning off the Bottle Before Bed

My son is 6 years old and still insists on his cold water at bedtime. So we have those straw top (cup/bottle - actually a juice box style) that we got from probably Walmart. We put water in there and he has it by him as he goes to sleep. Sometimes I'll put it back in the fridge when I go to bed but usually it stays there all night with him.

Just dont want it to be milk or juice or anything with sugar - bad for teeth. Water is important for you anyhow.

I didn't night-wean my daughter until she was 18-19 months old. I had tried a couple of times before that, but she freaked out, so I knew she just wasn't ready. I was still breastfeeding, though, not bottle-feeding, but the concept of sucking to go to sleep is the same. She was nursing 3-4 times a night still, when we decided to give night-weaning a new try. At that age, she was old enough to understand that when you said, "night night" to something, it went to sleep, and you saw it in the morning. So, we changed her night-time routine, and instead of nursing her in bed, I would nurse her in the chair, and she would say, "night night" to the "moke". Then, if she woke up and asked for it, I would say it was sleeping. She would complain for a minute, then go back to sleep. She was sleeping through the night (mostly) in a week.
I think that the older they are, the more they understand. If your baby is still needing that extra comfort for bed right now, there is nothing wrong with that. When he gets older, you can explain that it's going "night night", and start letting him have the bottle earlier and earlier, until he's not having it at night time anymore, then doesn't need it to fall asleep. Of course, my daughter is almost 2, and I still give her her nighttime "moke" before bed. Though now (and for a while now), I don't let her fall asleep while nursing. I break her off and rock her to sleep, or have her daddy put her to sleep. So if you are determined to break him of his comfort sucking at night (which really isn't that important at one year), you can start by giving him the bottle, but taking it away before he's totally asleep, and putting him to sleep by walking or rocking him. As time goes by, you can take it away sooner and sooner, while he's more awake, and he'll readily go to sleep with the rocking or walking. My daughter is now weaning herself, even during the day, and only nurses maybe once either before or after a nap, and before bed. But she no longer needs the sucking to go to sleep. More often than not, she's can't sleep while nursing anymore, and likes having Daddy put her to sleep.
So if your baby isn't ready yet, don't worry, he won't need it forever.

Hi A.,
I agree with changing to a sippy. I did this with my son with milk, then changed it to water. Know we have milk in a cup with a straw, then bath than bed. It'll be hard, but hang in there what ever you decide to do. You can switch it to water if you want to hold on the the bottle longer at night, but it will only be harder to wean him:)

One of my kids really liked having a bottle at bed, but we always made sure it was water. When she was about 10 months old we started giving her a sippy at bedtime, again only with water. It really seemed to help a lot. When she started potty training then we took the sippy away. Good luck.

What's the rush? I have 4 children- 25 yrs, 21 yrs, 5 yrs and 23 months. I let all of them wean themselves. The 25 year old was 16 months ( she was also potty trained then), the 21 yr old was 22 months, the 5 yr old was 2 1/2 (he was 6 weeks premature) and the 23 month old is just starting to show signs of being ready to wean. None of my children used a pacifier though and they did not have bottles during the day past age 1 (except for the preemie). It has caused no problems for any of them. Good luck with your decision.

As humans, we *think* too much about the *proper age* of weaning, versus the need our children have to suckle. Though the following research information is based upon information regarding weaning a child from the breast, the same timing would hold true to bottle feeding when thinking in terms of the psychological advantages that suckling has for our young children.

1. In a group of 21 species of non-human primates (monkeys and apes) studied by Holly Smith, she found that the offspring were weaned at the same time they were getting their first permanent molars. In humans, that would be: 5.5-6.0 years.

2. It has been common for pediatricians to claim that length of gestation is approximately equal to length of nursing in many species, suggesting a weaning age of 9 months for humans. However, this relationship turns out to be affected by how large the adult animals are -- the larger the adults, the longer the length of breastfeeding relative to gestation. For chimpanzees and gorillas, the two primates closest in size to humans and also the most closely genetically related, the relationship is 6 to 1. That is to say, they nurse their offspring for SIX times the length of gestation (actually 6.1 for chimps and 6.4 for gorillas, with humans mid-way in size between these two). In humans, that would be: 4.5 years of nursing (six times the 9 months of gestation).

3. It has been common for pediatricians to claim that most mammals wean their offspring when they have tripled their birth weight, suggesting a weaning age of 1 year in humans. Again though, this is affected by body weight, with larger mammals nursing their offspring until they have quadrupled their birth weight. In humans, quadrupling of birth weight occurs between 2.5 and 3.5 years, usually.

4. One study of primates showed that the offspring were weaned when they had reached about 1/3 their adult weight. This happens in humans at about 5-7 years.

5. A comparison of weaning age and sexual maturity in non-human primates suggests a weaning age of 6-7 for humans (about half-way to reproductive maturity).

6. Studies have shown that a child's immune system doesn't completely mature until about 6 years of age, and it is well established that breast milk helps develop the immune system and augment it with maternal antibodies as long as breast milk is produced (up to two years, no studies have been done on breast milk composition after two years post partum).

And on and on. The minimum predicted age for a natural age of weaning in humans is 2.5 years, with a maximum of 7.0 years. So *truly* there is no rush and this allows you more time to respect the *need* of your child!

Kind regards,
Dr. Tamara

This is what we did and it sounds different from what you are doing so not sure if you can apply it. DOe he use a sippy? We started both of our boys on a sippy at 6 months so by 9 months they could get rid of the bottle. With doing that they are holding it themself. So, they would get their last sippy with their dinner then bath and then bed. They both use pacis to go to sleep so that helps soothe them in much of the way a bottle does. Maybe start by slowly decreasing how many ounces he gets. Say he normally has 6 ounces make it 4 tonight and then maybe 2 in a couple nights until you can get rid of it. Or have him drink some of the bottle and then quickly replace the bottle with a paci. It is going to be tough as with any change. I wish you the best of luck.