LO is almost 2 and I feel like it's probably time to cut out her bedtime milk. She drinks around 16oz during the day so I know she's getting plenty. It's just that it's always been a big part of her bedtime routine, sitting with a cup of milk reading her books and I'm sure she'd miss it.
Should I replace it with water? Or gradually offer less?
grapefruit / 4321 posts
As long as it's not in a bottle and you aren't leaving the cup with her, I actually don't see a problem with this. My LO is 2.75 and still sometimes asks for some milk before bed, and I let her drink from her sippy cup while I read to her. She really only asks for it on nights she didn't eat a good dinner so I assume her belly isn't totally full. I brush her teeth really quickly when she's done before she goes in her bed.
nectarine / 2466 posts
I tried cutting it with part water and tried to wean her off that way, but then that stopped. ( don't remember why.) I tried a few nights of letting her cry but gave in. ( I had a newborn and was too tired to fight it.) then about 3 months ago she started having massive tantrums when she went to bed. The first thing she would do was throw her bottle out of the crib. So I stopped giving it to her. These tantrums lasted about a week. Then she just never took a bottle again. And she started sleeping through the night again. ( she was just under 2 when this happened, maybe 20 months) so no real suggestion aside from just take it away if you have a chance
wonderful grape / 20453 posts
Our LO just naturally dropped her bedtime cup of milk. I think she started eating more food, not wanting the milk, and we would take it away after we brushed her teeth and she didn't seem to really care. Now we give it to her if she asks for it, but she doesn't get it otherwise. But we had also stopped giving her milk all the time during the day, and offering it only with meals and offering water, too.
pomegranate / 3565 posts
DS1 is almost 3 and he still gets milk in a sippy cup before bed sometimes. I don't think it's a big deal. I think the big issue is not brushing your teeth after drinking the milk. Which we sometimes forget.
nectarine / 2987 posts
I would gradually offer less, then maybe offer a sip of water. You probably don't want to replace it with a full glass of water because eventually you will want her dry through the night?
honeydew / 7235 posts
@illumina: we replaced with water, but we were still on bottles so it was also to wean from that. And now he still has some water in a cup when reading books.
blogger / nectarine / 2043 posts
We dropped it shortly after her 1st birthday but only because she was soaking through her diapers at night. We generally try to avoid having her drink more than a few sips of water after dinnertime (about 2 hours before bedtime). Hopefully it'll help with nighttime potty training down the line as well, but those were the only reasons we stopped. I don't see the harm if it's part of her routine and she's not using a bottle.
GOLD / watermelon / 14076 posts
We cut it shortly after one. We basically did it cold-turkey. We offered water instead for a few days but she was never interested so we stopped offering that as well. Now she gets milk with dinner and that's it.
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
DS is 2 and we still give him a cup of milk before bed. He asks for it and throws a massive tantrum (till the coughs and throws up) if we deny him. Regardless of how well or not well he ate at dinner, he always has room for milk. The pedi told us long ago we can stop giving him milk before bed, but I just don't know how unless he's willing to give it up himself!
apricot / 388 posts
We didn't drop it with DD 1 until we started trying to nighttime potty train. By then she was old enough (3) for us to explain why she couldn't have it. She wanted to stay dry at night, so she accepted it. For DD2 (1.5 yrs) we are just starting to replace the nighttime bottle with a sippy
cup.
pomelo / 5469 posts
@MrsSRS: @Mrs. Carrot: I totally forgot about eventually needing her to be dry throughout the night! Maybe I'll skip the water then!
@lawbee11: I'm glad cold turkey worked well for you. We're cold turkey kind of people for most things so that's probably what we'll end up doing! I like the idea of offering milk during dinner.
@Alivoo01: My LO is the same...it doesn't seem to matter how well she eats at dinner she still finishes her bedtime milk!
She stopped having bottles when she turned one and we do brush her teeth after milk so I guess it's not so bad...maybe we will have to revisit this before we potty train!
coconut / 8472 posts
We stopped at 9 months, lol. We were having a lot of trouble doing dinner and then trying to feed him a bottle because he just wasn't hungry. The ped told me we could skip it because he was getting plenty of formula. So we dropped the evening bottle first, and we offered formula with dinner and nothing after dinner.
nectarine / 2217 posts
so sweet that she sips it while reading bedtime books! we cut it out early, before 1 yr old, because I didn't want them to fall asleep with bottle/boob.
maybe just try to cut down on the amt for a few nights and also make it a bit earlier? or just go cold turkey and see how it goes for a few days :).
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
Haha, my almost 5 year old still likes his milk in the morning and bedtime, but he gets his teeth brushed after, so it's not an issue for us wrt to his teeth.
As for night time bathroom using, you don't want them to remain dry, you want them to wake up when they need to use the bathroom. It is also nothing you can train, they either can or can not wake up when they need to use the bathroom.
pomelo / 5628 posts
We moved the milk a little earlier and have water if needed at bedtime. We did it when we made brushing teeth a bigger part of his routine and he seemed to understand there is no milk after brushing teeth.
nectarine / 2521 posts
We moved ours to the start of the bedtime routine to earlier so it came before brushing teeth and book reading. So we do bath , snuggle up with a short Daniel Tiger clip with a cup of milk, then head upstairs to do teeth, books/pray and in bed for the night. He goes to bed 2.5 hours after dinner, so I figure it doesn't hurt at this age to help him go to bed with a full belly!
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