Silly question about bottles and teeth

[SoBlessedMama]

This may be in the wrong section, and if so, I'm sorry!!! Please close or move if so. : )

We have an almost 16 month old who has been exclusively formula fed. He quit drinking formula right around his birthday. The problem is, he still wants to comfort suck to go to sleep, and he will NOT take a pacifier (never has.)

So, we have been giving him a bottle of water at bedtime and nap time. Is it the BOTTLE that is bad for teeth, or is it the MILK? I know as kids get older, pacifiers can cause problems with teeth, so I assume bottles would be the same. But surely not this early?

I feel ridiculous asking this! Our oldest quit his bottle at a year old and never looked back. But he was also a great sleeper from 8 weeks. Little guy has slept through the night once in his entire life, and it was two days ago lol.

Any input on whether the bottle of water is ok for teeth, or if we should kick it would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance! : )

 

[MindUtopia]

It's drinking anything sugary from a bottle that is bad for their teeth. So juice and formula are both high in sugar and sucking on a bottle with something sugary in it constantly is bad for them. Now if it was just at bedtime (for like 15 minutes) with formula or milk in it, that would be one thing, but I think the concern is leaving them with a bottle containing sugary drink to comfort suck for long periods of time (so say, you left it overnight, or offered a bottle of juice that was sucked on for hours throughout the day). But just a bottle of water would be absolutely fine. Obviously, like anything (including a dummy) if your LO still had it at 6, it might cause some dental problems, but that's a long way off and highly unlikely. If you do want to cut down on the bottle use, have you tried a straw cup? We switched to a straw cup for bedtime milk at around 15 months and that worked great. My 3 year old still has a cup of milk in her straw cup before bed (she also just saw the dentist this week and he said her teeth are perfect).

 

[SoBlessedMama]

Thank you so much for the response!! He does great with all sorts of cups during the day (sippee and straw) but when he's tired, he wants a bottle. He signs "milk" and what he means is "give me the bottle or I'm not going to lay down." Lol. I'm just glad he is taking it with water only so we don't have to worry about that at least. Hopefully once he starts sleeping through the night consistently it will get a little easier to start taking it away a bit at a time.

Your response was very reassuring--I appreciate it!! : )

 

[sillysapling]

Pacifiers are a different shape and put different pressures on the mouth. You do have to be careful, but it's not unfixable and sleep is very important to growth.

It is the sugar that's the big problem. Sugar sitting on teeth all night is not good! So if it's just water, that's a good sign.

It may be worth giving him a bottle about half an hour before his usual nap/bed times, so he gets the comfort, then putting him down without it. This depends on how concerned you are about him sleeping with it and how you feel about letting him cry if it comes to it.

I do suggest you find a way to break this habit if only because it can start causing problems with night wetting. As he gets bigger, his bladder gets bigger, and diapers can't always keep up. We had really big problems with kiddo, we not only had to night wean but we also have to limit his late drinking because he was leaking through his diaper at night.

 

[SoBlessedMama]

Thank you for the response!! That makes sense that pacifiers provide different pressure. He doesn't sleep with it--he just drinks one as he's drifting off, and as soon as he's out, we take it away. He's gotten so much better about sleep--he currently wakes up around 2:00 and then resettles until 6:30 when we are up for the day. I really hope that this means we are getting close to the point of STTN, and then we will see how we can go about getting rid of the bottle altogether. : )

He definitely has full diapers in the morning lol--but so far overnights are doing the job. : )