Milk in a bottle for a two year old at bedtime

Q:

Via email Monday January 18, 2010
My two year old son loves his bottle of milk at bedtime, but he only will drink it to settle him to sleep. I have tried giving it to him before bedtime then brushing his teeth and putting him to sleep but he wants his bottle. Should I stop this habit, how? Gina

A:

Great question Gina! Basically we want a completely clean mouth to go to sleep with. Any kind of food (especially carbohydrates) have the potential to cause decay of the teeth, this applies to both children and adults. If you are putting your son to bed and the last thing to coat his teeth is milk (not toothpaste) you are risking your son developing decay. This happens because the bacteria in the mouth digest the carbohydrates which are coating the tooth structure, when this happens the acidity level rises in mouth and sets up an environment for tooth decay to occur.

I commend you trying to brush after giving him the bottle, optimally this is what you need to be doing. I think breaking the habit may be a hard one but one that definitely needs to occur, possibly slowly as to not upset your son.

A recommendation I may make is to go slowly and try the following. Try diluting the amount of milk with water over a period of a few nights. Once you get to completely water that is fine as water washes the mouth and obviously does not have any carbohydrate content. What I may also be inclined to do is switch your son over to either a sippy cup or a water bottle if he does need a drink before bed or at night. Long term use of a bottle is not ideal for growth of the mouth and eruption of the teeth (this is not true in all cases, but some).

Overall, do not stress the process and do it slowly as to not to disturb the household and it should go smoothly.