When to Stop Giving a Bottle at Bedtime?

My daughter stopped using a bottle just before her 1st birthday...her peditrician scared me with his no more bottles after 12 months old speech and she didn't have any trouble switching to a sippy cup (we'd been using both the bottle and the sippy cup since she was 7 months old) so I was lucky. Until very recently she would drink a cup of water with a splash of juice before bed as part of her night time routine. I stopped that only for potty training reasons. I hope this helped!

As soon as your baby has teeth, going to bed with anything but a pacifier or bottle of water can start to cause cavities.

Hi K.
You can start anytime. Try giving a sippie with her meals first. When that becomes successful, then try it at bedtime. Usually by the first birthday, doctors like to have children weaned from a bottle, but she may be ready before then. Try with water first and when that becomes successful, then do formula and then milk at her first birthday.

Good luck
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You are probably going to get so many different answers on this one, but I think you have to do what works best for you and your little girl. My son gave up all but 1 bottle a day when he was 1. He got a bottle of milk right before bedtime (he never took it to bed) as a nighttime routine to help calm him. At 2 - we forgot to give it to him one night because we were out later than usual. He never asked for it again after that night. Good luck!

Hi K.! I agree that the answers will vary depending on the mom and child. My daughter is almost 11 mos now and between 8-9 mos I stopped nursing her at bedtime. I know you are asking about bottles, but I thought this could still translate. My older two took a bottle and as best I can remember they stopped around the same time. Also, by 1 yo they were both using a sippy cup. Anyway, I wasn't sure about giving up the night time feeding at first (for my youngest) but she never missed it. I agree with the mom who said that she took cues from her children. Good luck! Hope it goes well!

The first question I would ask is how well does she drink out of her sippy cups? Can she tilt her head back to drink, and hold it by herself without trouble? By 8 months old my son was but some babies just aren't. I weaned my son, who is now 11 months old, off most of his bottles by the time he was 9 months old. We kept the bedtime bottle because he doesn't take a paci and he still has a sucking reflex, even sucking on fingers and thumbs if he doesn't get a bottle. I think, if my son took a pacifier I would have already taken him off the bottle but because he doesn't I'm letting him keep the bedtime bottle. However, since he will be a year old in April, we will start weaning the bedtime bottle sometime soon. He doesn't seem to mind not having bottles during the day but at night he expects it so it will be hard. I had my first son completely off bottles at 10 months and on sippy cups but he took the paci. I think you need to determine how well and how fast she will adjust to it. She still has sometime to give it up and I think doctors preach this as a rule of thumb but I wouldn't take a lot of stock in what they say. I mean some mothers breastfeed their children until they are much older so how much more harm can a bottle be. I mean my sister gave her kids the bottle until they were 18 months old. They were okay and are normal happy teenagers.

What I have read says that you can stop at around 9 months. We personally stopped at around 10 months during a week when he had an ear infection and started refusing them. As soon as he started doing that, we switched to having just a sippy cup of water in the crib with him at night. If he gets thirsty he finds it and drinks, but he doesn't need it to go to sleep.

You will get different answers. My fist son stopped taking the night time bottle at 13. My second son stopped taking the night time bottle at 11 months. My ped said as long as you try and fade the bottle out completely by 15 months...I just looked for cues from my sons. When they started eating more at dinner I noticed they started drinking less of their bottle. After 3 nights of not finishing the bottle I just stopped it. My hardest to get rid of is the one first thing in the morning! My youngest is 13 months and still wants it...it is the only time he takes a bottle. The rest of the time he uses a sippy cup. :-)

Depends on what you believe. For instance, if you were Katie Holms and married to Tom Cruise, your baby could be on a bottle until they are 10.

Hi, K.! For us, the bottle before bed was the last one to go. Our routine around 8 months was to give our daughter 3 small meals a day (at usual breakfast, lunch, & dinner times) to get her used to that, and we gave her a bottle in between breakfast & lunch and between lunch & dinner (at her nap times--9am & 1pm). Then, we also gave her a bottle at bedtime. Gradually, as she ate more table food at the meals, her appetite for the formula decreased, and she took less and less until eventually she didn't want the bottles during the day. Like I said, the bedtime bottle was the last to go, but it was probably phased out by 11 months. Pediatricians recommend formula/breastmilk for the first 12 months, so no need to rush her off the bottle until after that. Our daughter actually weaned herself--she just quit taking it!--around 11 months. She would turn her head away from it and refuse it, so it was easy for us. Take your cues from your baby. As long as she's at a healthy weight and you're offering her plenty of nutrients, she'll get what she needs. At 8 months, she most likely still gets a majority of her nutritional needs from formula/breastmilk.
So, to answer your specific question, I'd say to stop with that bedtime bottle around 12 months, give or take. Sounds like you have a good bedtime routine, so once the bottle is gone, just continue with what you've been doing and maybe add in storytime so you can still cuddle! Good luck!

Our little guy just turned one and he still gets a bottle at bedtime, usually an hour or so after dinner, even though it's actually part of his dinner. Try transitioning to sippy cups before you try to wean her off the bedtime bottle. Just make sure if she has any little teeth to use a finger brush and a tiny dot of tooth and gum cleanser to avoid sending her to bed with "milk mouth."

If she's not falling asleep in your arms don't worry about it. Around 1 she should drop the bottle but I'm guilty of letting my oldest have it tip she was 2 1/2. I will say one is alot easier than two when it comes to getting rid of the bottle. You know her best she won't go to college with a bottle so don't sweat it!

My name is K. Denise!!! We quit giving Christie a bottle when she was 10 months old, because the doctor asked me if I was giving her a bottle at night due to the fact she had a lot of ear infections. Turns out that when they lay flat and take a bottle the milk actually goes into their ear tubes because they are not slanted like an older persons tubes are. I had to admit that I had been giving her 4 bottles at night because she wouldn't sleep. We quit them, cold turkey, just stopped. She cried for three nights and then never cried again for the bottle.

When kids start drinking from sippy cups and glasses, bottles should go bye-bye. First during the day, then at night. My son was between one and two years old when I finally weaned him off the bottle at night. But I think each kid is different, so you just have to play it by ear. Like I said, generally when a child is old enough to master the sippy cup and can drink out of a plastic cup or glass, it's time to start weaning from the bottle, which you've already done. The only way you're going to know is to try to not give that last bottle. She'll let you know if she's ready to give it up or not.

We used to hold and cuddle are daughter while she drank the bottle then put her down. When she was about 8-9 months old we switched to a sippy cup. No bottles after 1 year old is what our peds recommended.

I think it just depends on the child. When my boys started eating 3 good meals a day and a couple of snacks, they cut back on their formula to only 3 bottles a day. That was probably around 9 months. I did give them a small snack at night if they ate an early dinner just to help them sleep longer. They both took a pacifier though so I'm sure that helped them go to sleep without the bottle. Ii would just take cues from your daughter and she'll let you know when she doesn't want or need it any longer.