Baby Bottle

Question: Does anyone have any resources about whether or not sleeping with a baby bottle of water?

(Posted by: dmg on 2010-03-04 11:02:33)

Is bad for a toddler& #039;s teeth? My son doesn& #039;t have bottles during the day and he never gets milk or juice in a bottle. He still gets one bottle of water at his nap and at bedtime and falls asleep with it. At our last pediatrician appointment the doc said that that & quot;wasn& #039;t such a big deal& quot; but that we ought to & quot;work on it.& quot; We weaned our son off milk bottles primarily by replacing them with water bottles and that, at least, worked very well. Now we have a & quot;water bottle& quot; attachment issue. So today I put my son down with a sippy cup of water. He cried for ten minutes, which made me very upset, (I explained to him that he was getting a sippy cup for this nap and I have no doubt that he understood and was NOT HAPPY about it) and then fell asleep. Discussing it with my husband over IM, my husband asked & quot;Do we really HAVE to do this? Is there a medical reason?& quot; I went looking online and could not find one. I am aware of the risks of letting a baby fall asleep with a bottle in their mouth of juice or milk, but I can& #039;t seem to find anything about the risks of letting them sleep with one filled with water. I guess I would like him off the bottle mostly because he& #039;s 20 months old and it& #039;s sort of & quot;high time& quot;, but that& #039;s not necessarily the best reason. I mean, if that& #039;s the only reason, I will gladly deal with whatever parental shaming comes with having a toddler still take a bottle for sleeping, you know? Can anyone point me to a resource that talks about baby bottles with water in them? (I know that many people abruptly take all bottles away from their children at one year - we chose not to do this on purpose. So comments about how he should have been off a bottle for ages now aren& #039;t helpful. Cheers.)

Posted by: jen on 2010-03-04, 11:06:50

I will try to find a link but I think the only issue I 've seen has to do with changing the alignment of teeth, which doesn 't seem likely with him using it for such a short period of time.

Posted by: Johnny's Mommy on 2010-03-04, 11:07:37

The only thing I could find is that going to bed with water will cause them to pee more during the night, which in turn messes up potty training, but I 'm thinking since he 's only 20 months, you haven 't started potty training yet. I heard milk was bad because it did something to your teeth if it sat in your mouth over night, but nothing about water. And don 't feel bad - My son had a bedtime bottle up until he was 25 months old. Yep, I 'm a terrible parent. Sue me. LOL

Posted by: ♥ Kyleigh's Momma ♥ ((Heather)) on 2010-03-04, 11:28:28

Milk or juice is bad because most babies fall asleep while drinking from the bottle, and it just sits, pooled in their mouths. Water obviously won 't cause a problem like that. The only problem I can see is that it becomes some what of a crutch. It really just comes down to your style of parenting and what works for you and your child. My 17 month old goes down with nothing, no sippy cup or bottle. My daughter pretty much gave her 's up on her own. My brother 's children on the other hand both at 2.5 and 3.5 go down with a sippy cup every night. And the only problem I have with that is that they fill it with juice, but even then it 's not my place to say anything. Anyways, after babbling, I don 't have any source, but common sense says there isn 't any "medical " issue that will result from it.

Posted by: Ari's Mommy on 2010-03-04, 14:22:23

My daughter has never had a bottle or sippy or anything to sleep with. Yes, milk or juice is the worst due to the possiblity of rotting the teeth, but even with a bottle of water there is still the risk of disrupting the alignment of teeth if he sucks on it all night and the risk of choking/ aspiration when falling asleep with liquids in the mouth. The risk may not be great, but it is there. As far as resources, search journal databases to find the best information based on actual research studies and look for articles that are "peer reviewed ". I can access all the databases free through my college library with my ID card, but i think you also can from a public library without having to pay for any of the articles. That goes for researching any information, really, if you want the most recent research and information. Mainly, sending them to bed or nap with a bottle or even a sippy becomes a difficult habit to break, as you have seen evidence of when trying to give him a sippy instead. The longer it goes on, the harder it will be to break. When you start potty training, it may make it much harder for him also to stay dry through the night and naps if he is drinking very much right before going to sleep.

Posted by: Carrie on 2010-03-04, 15:17:49

My 43 year old husband takes water to bed. I fail to see why that 's an issue. There is an obsession with making babies "independent " in this culture (which is bizarre seeing the way we allow teenagers to be infantile). It 's ok to need a crutch to fall asleep. I am sick to death of parenting gurus claiming that it 's essential to a child 's self esteem to know that he can fall asleep independently. How many adults need to read to fall asleep? Or watch TV? Or have trouble sleeping when their spouse isn 't there? All those adults must have low self esteem to know that you can 't fall asleep without the assistance of David Letterman. The argument is absurd when applied to adults but unquestioned when applied to children. Give him his bottle and just don 't tell the pediatrician about it. The vast majority of kids supposedly need braces anyway, you may as well let him enjoy his water bottle. And as for night time toilet training, that 's primarily a developmental milestone. You can dehydrate your child into not peeing at night just like you can put them on the potty every 15 minutes and statistically improve your odds of "potty training " but what it really comes down to is when a child 's sleep patterns change to the point where they wake up when they feel the urge to pee. This is why bed wetting isn 't even considered to be a problem until at least age 6.