Bottle to Bed?

[Inspired by Reggio]

Late weighing in here and so much great advice already.

I thought I was queen of the anal policy manual for my business but I am another one who does not have a 'formal written policy' around bottles IN bed because there is so much public health education both online and in Dr offices, dentist offices, parenting magazines and well so many other venues that this is not a SAFE practice ... my own policy is that parents have to supply any bottles and bottle contents be it breastmilk, formula or normal milk ... cause I find that helps for them to be more 'on board' to moving to a cup soon after a year cause I provide the cup contents and as others said I find in group care kids 'wean off' things much faster cause they want to be big like the older kids .... I had a child last year join the group at 10 months still sending 4 eight ounce bottles a day - within 2 months he was eating our full menu save the 'standard do not offer til over a year' foods and consuming all liquids via a sipper cup every few weeks i would just send home one more 'untouched' bottle and explain to clients 'he was not showing interest in this one' until we were down to 1 bottle which kept going home for a few days cause mom would send it 'just in case he wanted it' but eventually she stopped cause he honestly did not ASK for a bottle here, was happy to take a sipper cup and preferred FOOD dude had a serious appetite for solids and I think had a milk allergy cause he got way happier on 'less milk'

If I have wee infants still on bottles in care they get their bottle 'before' being transferred to bed either holding it on their own sitting up or if they are too tiny to hold it or if i can offer the 'comfort time' I will snuggle them with it but so they are on the angle to protect it from running into ears and if they start to fall asleep with it I pull it away which usually wakes them up a bit to ensure they swallow everything before transferring them into their crib for sleep.

Once children are old enough to be eating solid foods and getting their calories and nutrients from that I help parents to see the 'benefit' of weaning off the daytime bottles onto a 'cup' and learning to self soothe to sleep without the bottle.

If I had a parent who was 'insisting' on their child having a bottle IN bed I would have to tell them that unfortunately that request is a DEAL BREAKER because it is a liability issue and I am not willing to put myself in a position of liability to meet a parents 'practice at home' ... the bottom line is that this is YOUR BUSINESS and while these are the clients children and they have total say in what they WANT you have the FINAL SAY in what SERVICE YOU OFFER and if they do not like that they keep looking until they find someone willing to offer everything they want .... so refusing to do this for them is not you BAILING on them it is them CHOOSING to accept what you offer or keep looking instead