my son is 19 months old and he still needs a bottle to go to sleep. i know he should be off the bottle by now but i can't figure out how i am supposed to get him to stop without some major drama. part of the problem is we live w/ my mother and stepfather so bedtime is diffucult b/c they try to go to bed early and my son fights going to sleep, guess he's afraid he is going to miss something, but he can fight for hours, he's cranky as all get out but he fights till he can't fight it no more. B4 we moved in w/ my mother i was starting to put him in his crib and let him fight it out in there which was begining to work but i can't do that here b/c he screams bloody murder and my parents get mad.
so what am i supposed to do? i finally got him back on a sortof schedule since moving here and i don't know if taking the bottle away will be too much for him right now. i have tried those sipping cups with the rubber tops thinking it might work cuz it will seem like the bottle but nope he wasn't having that.soo i dont know what to do.
the other thing is thats aggravating me is my parents think he should be going to bed around 7 pm, that i should be waking him up at like 5AM not letting him take any naps(yeah right) and by 7PM it'l be easy as pie just for him to go to sleep and stay asleep all night RIGHT!
my stepfather i can kind of understand him thinking that way(he has no actual kids of his own, we were all grown or 1/2 grown when they got married) but my mom??? she's had 3 kids so she should have some kind of clue , iwould think? that everything doesn't work out the easyway all the time, kids, especiall young ones are very unpredictable
ANYWAY - i'm babbling, just felt like saying all that outside my head

JM,
Don't sweat the bottle unless it is milk or juice your giving him at bedtime. Evie did not get completely off the bottle until she was 2 1/2. she was down to only one in the morning and was very passionate about it. Everything else she did early.. crawl, walk, teeth, weening, pacifier, potty training, and the sippy cup during the day ..... but, the bottle was important to her.
What broke her? I went out of town and left her with her normal daytime sitter. She had not given her a bottle in months and they both forgot until she was packing her things to leave and found her bottle. She told me about it when I went to get Evie. When we got home all the bottles had "been given to the little babies" because apparently she did not need it.
If you are giving him water.. let him have it for a while longer. If not water, then switch to water because of the tooth decay problem. Right now it seems he needs it to calm himself. When he gets a bit older he can do that for himself... he can begin to rationalize. Evie could rationalize my giving her bottles to the babies because she was older. I had two mornings of reminding her that we "gave them away" with no fight.

yeah its water. he has done everything else early,teething at 3months, walking at 9 months, he has a few words already, he is getting interested inthe potty but i'm not pushing that issue either. thanks for the relief thougfh. a few of my relatives are telling me he is too big for the bottle

Well, Just tell those relatives, "thank you for the suggestion (or advice). I will take that into consideration." Then leave it alone. Go by what your son needs. When he get to the point he is really thinking and figuring out things, then it is time. Hey if he is interested in the potty, don't push it but, take advantage of it. Evie started potty training at 18 months. The only reason at that time was she wanted to do the same as the older kids (2 months older). She only had one accident after then but, it took 3 more years for night time potty training because this kid sleeps like a rock.

It is unfortunate because your mom and stepdad are probably the only reason there is difficulty getting him to sleep. If you could just get through some time letting him fight it out I'm sure all would be fine.... it will take a bit longer the second go around. Maybe if it is bothering you too, that he uses it to go to sleep, you just have a sit down with them and explain that if they want things to be peaceful they have to walk in the fire for a bit and deal with it while you get him in the swing of things.

Does he use the bottle for drinks throughout the day or is it just that nighttime thing for comfort?

he only uses the bottle to go to sleep, during the day he drinks out of a cup
yeh, i've tried to talk to them about it, they just say i should get him up earlier in the morning
i'm just being a whiner, its all just part of living w/ other people i guess, having to adjust

Hey JM..
I wouldnt worry about it too much, and stop listening to people who say "he should be off the bottle by now".. all children develop at different stages.. I know that both my nephews still had a bottle to sleep with at 2 1/2.. eventually they get sick of it and dont want/need it anymore.. just listen to ur son and he'll tell u when he is ready.. put it this way.. would u take his favorite toy/blanket off him cos someone told u he was "too old" for it? probably not..
good luck

No not a big whiner at all. I'd find it all extremely annoying! I don't see it as any big deal, although I still think it is the people who are complaining who seem to be the ones aggrevating the very thing they complain about!

From what everyone has said you have a lot of good suggestions. From what I have noticed, children have a tendency to make their own schedule based on yours. I don't get off work until about 6 pm and it has always been that way so my son doesn't go to bed until about 9 and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. By that time he is tired and he lays right down and goes to sleep. When he way the age your son is right now I had to lay with him and rub or pat his back until he fell asleep. When I did that he didn't want the bottle anymore because he had me there as a comfort. Just a thought. One thing that you have to keep in mind though is that you are living with your parents and from what I caught this is a new situation. This may be scary for your son and his bottle may be his form of comfort. Don't try to take it from him until he is comfortable with his surroundings and ready to give it up on his own. Take care and good luck with everything.
-Lyndsie

Just a little note to your parents, making a child over tired during the day does not make them sleep at night in fact it is more likely to result in a child who can�t settle. For my little boy he slept best when he had good long naps during the day and at the end of the day we did heaps of physical exercise, then a quiet hot bath and book. I was also staying with my parents at that time and my mother was ill so I used to lie in bed with him and read my book (ignoring him totally) until he drifted off, normally about 15 minutes, I did not want to disturb my parents. I did that until he was 3. I actually like having that quiet time to myself to read a book! He now goes off happily by himself. Oh the other thing I found was I used to give him his dinner really early before 5 pm because he needed to burn off some of the energy after dinner and I found it much easier to settle him if he didn�t eat too late

As for the bottle I don�t think it is any different from having a favourite toy to sleep with and is his self comforter. Given his teeth are not being damaged I would not stop him having it. My son at 4 still like to have a �sucky bottle� when he goes to bed. When someone asked me about it I answered �well if it was a teddy bear would you take that off him - it is his comfort and that is OK with me�.

that is exactly what happens when he hasn't had his nap during the day, he stays up even later and he is extremely hyper
thanks for all the kind words its a relief one less thing i have whirling around inside my head.

for the most part, i think, aside from what my parents think, i think my son i doing pretty good i mean we've been here for going on 4 months and it has been a little hard to adjust, my son and i now share a room whereas b4 he had his own. he is kind of back on a schedule but he goes to sleep around 930 or 10 and last few weeks he's been sleeping thru the night and taking his nap during the day providing my stepfather isn't home cuz then he deliberatly makes noises so he won't stay asleep. On sundays he spends the day with his father which kind of gets him off his shedule cuz his father is a moron and gives him bottles all day long and doesn't let him take naps so he fall asleep in the car ride home so then hes up for awhile when we get bak home to my parents
But really i know that it all really isn't a big deal, it just kind of irritates me, my parents make these smart comments and delibertly trying to keep him awake and stuff but thanks for all the advice and listening

I always felt the better they slept during the day the better they sleep at night. Once they become overtired sleep isn't as easy to come by!