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Ask Another Mother: My 5-year-old still has a bottle of milk at bedtime

There are some parenting dilemmas you can't solve on your own, right? Because it takes a village to raise a child. So if you have an issue you need some help with, drop us a line at info@themotherish.com and we will put it out to the iVillage community.

Dear iVillagers,

My 5-year-old daughter still has a bottle of milk every night at bedtime. It's the easiest way get her to go to sleep and I just love the ritual.

I wasn't able to breastfeed her so I had to force myself to become comfortable with the idea of bottlefeeding her and I tried to make it as lovely and connected as possible.

Our bedtime ritual was always my favourite time of the day. I'd make her bottle, she'd lie down in bed and start drinking it and I'd stroke her head as she fell asleep. Then, I'd leave her too it.

In the morning I'd always find the bottle hiding under her bedsheets, next to her pillow and sometimes she's still holding it when she wakes up.

I know she's probably too old to do this but she's still my baby and I've never learned any other way to get her to sleep.

I did try to stop this routine once when she was 3-and-a-half but it was terrible. She cried and asked for her bottle and I just couldn't handle it. I gave in.

But now that she's about to start school I think it's time.

It's going to be so hard. What should I do?

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