My daughter has just turned one & has 4 teeth. I read somewhere that they should stop using bottles as soon as they have teeth. I was thinking more around the age of one that you should start weaning them off?? And if thats the case how? I mean they still need that same amount of milk right? She has a sippy cup but I can't see her sitting there to finish off a whole cup of milk. Any ideas or advice? She currently has 200mls at 2pm & 250mls before bed at night.

hi.
the way i understand it is,
up until 12 mths the formula or breastmilk is the most important part of a babies diet as it contains what they need for that intense first year of growth in a form that is digestible for an infant. from 6 mths bubs are introduced to other tastes and foods gradually the amounts of these other foods increase and so bubs starts to get all the nutrients from foods other than formula or breastmilk. so the need for formula decreases.

(although breastmilk does still provide nutrients and benefits, and there are toddler formula's that are advertised as similar )

i'm not a nutritionist, but i gather the milk is providing calcium. if she is having milk with cereal and cheese and yoghurt. she will recieve this without having to drink it all. all the 'healthy eating' guidlines will apply. the other nutrients will be provided in her diet. if you think she's not eating heaps of other foods, wean gradually. perhaps making an effort to provide a nutritionally balanced meal that will fill her up before offerring the bottle.

I read that too and also somewhere that they should be one. I breastfed until one. I had been giving her water in a cup from abotu 6 months, she didnt like it in the beginning but I gave it to her every meal then she loved it. Once she was one I just swapped milk feeds for sippy cup. I didnt think she would drink the whole thing but that milk desire is strong smile I was worried about it but it all went ok

Poppy didnt like milk and I had never been able to bottle feed her so I was worried but they said to me at worse I just had to keep her calcium up so she could have yoghurt, cheese, ice cream, milk on cereal etc and as long as she had the correct quantity each day and good food (she loves food) then it woudl all be fine. Anyway I stopped the breast feeding - one feed at a time and at every meal and when she was tired offered her milk warmed to tepid. Within 2 days she was holding out her hands and will polish off a whole cup of milk no problems at all.

When you are breastfeeding you dont measure milk obviously so I didnt have the problem of worrying about how many mls, thats something I think that just gets in your head because you have always had to think of it. Like I said I tried everything to get poppy on a bottle and there was no way she would take one so I thought more about what her total food intake was and made sure it was balanced. So just balance all the food groups out including fibre, offer lots of calcium rich foods like cheese, yoghurt, custard etc. Then Poppy has a sippy cup of milk when she first wakes up - I go in give her some warmed and then leave her with it and she usually goes back to sleep. I give her a cup with her afternoon meal or before her afternoon sleep then another with a story before bed.

At 13 months then I only give sippy cups in bed in the morning and last thing when shes tired. Rest of the time she has a cup with a straw.

It has really made my life easier - now if I want to go out I dont have to take anything with me I just buy some food in a cafe and a cup of warm milk with a straw.

Hope that helps
vivienne

DD is 15mths and I decided last week that I wanted to start cutting out bottles but she is Lactose Intolerant so I had to keep with the formula. My main reason for the sippy cup was nothing other than I personally don't like seeing little kids (2+ ish) with a bottle so thought it was high time to do something about it!!!

She was having 150ml before her morning sleep, 150ml before her arvo sleep & 200ml before bed. Last week I started giving her the arvo 'bottle' in a sippy cup and dropped it to 100ml. She thought it was great and sat on her lounge, drank the milk and went to bed! This week I will try dropping both to day bottles to 100mls with the sippy cup.

My understanding was that bottles became an issue when they were left to drink them in bed or drink at their own leisure? DD has her bottle laying on her lounge and she has to give it to me when she has had enough... Works for us!

hi my son is 15month and is still on 3 bottles a day on each sleep will not drink milk out of anything else tried the sipper cups ect and will only drink water out of them i wish i could get him onto sipper cup for milk i also have heard you should stop when they get teeth i think thats when they go to bed or somthing like that with them and i think thats more juice

Hi Carlie,
My daughter was an early starter with teeth so there was no way we could give up the bottle when she got teeth. I think the issue with the bottle and teeth is letting them go to bed with it as the lactose(milk sugar) stays in contact with their teeth and eventually causes decay.
My daughter never was comforted by the bottle so at 81/2 months we cahnged to cups. So much easier. You might be amazed - my little girl would never finish a bottle but would drink two cups of milk in quick succession.
Some of my friends kids still have bottles at two and they are fine. Its an individual choice so long as you don't let them go to bed or walk around all day with the bottle, their teeth should be fine!
Carly NSW mum to Alyssa 21mths

Bottles are only bad if your baby walks around with a bottle in there mouth all day sucking on it if she is only drinking her milk straight away then bottle taken off her theres no harm