Taking 16 mth old off the bottle - how best to do it?

[kiwisbird]

I'll try not go on too much
DD was breastfed til 15 months, with occasional follow on top ups from 11 mths, she has low weight gain due to genetic condition, this is aided by keeping her on follow on for the foreseeable future- no probs
Thing is she doesn't drink as much from a cup as a bottle, I am wanting to take her off the bottle for her teeth etc, she isn't a sucky baby, was not a comfort sucker on the breast, always ate and then ditched the boob, she is the same with a bottle. She has no association with bottles and bedtime so no issue there.
Do I just chuck the bottles out? And she'll learn if she needs it? Cut down one at a time?
My first never had a bottle so not dealt with this before?
Any tips or similar experiences?

[ClearWater]

How many bottles a day does she have Kiwisbird?

[kiwisbird]

she has lots of little feeds say 5 x 4 oz
each day, she cannnot drink anymore at one sitting as she is very little!

[Galaxy]

message withdrawn

[Trifle]

My ds who is 2.7 still has quite a few bottles of milk during the day and I would be very concerned about cutting it out of your daughters diet considering she is so small and would be inclined to give her breakfast milk (twice usual fat content of normal milk). My ds regularly cleans his teeth so do not worry about tooth decay but he doesnt have one prior to bed as it shoots milk up behind the top teeth so that is the one that I would be inclined to cut out.

[kiwisbird]

I do not want to cut her milk out, just not have her take it out of a bottle. I want to know the best way to get her from a bottle to cup in two months so that at 18 mths she will be off bottles.

[Freddiecat]

Well I left DS until he was about 20 months to cut out bottles. The I just refused to give him one at all. I expected a few sleepless nights but it was fine. Bottles to trainer cups in 1 day.

I would suggest that if she is a fast feeder then it's not really too much of a problem. You could always keep brushing her teeth. We sometimes keep a toothbrush and toothpaste in the downstairs loo and DS will often run in there straight after meals and brush his teeth.

Incidentally as soon as we took DS off bottles we started hearing that trainer cups are bad for their teeth! I asked the dentist (who said DS had lovely clean teeth) and he says its those cups with small spouts which require hard sucking as this can cause pressure on the teeth. From what I've seen the only one approved by the BDA is the Tommee Tippee easy flow cup as it requires them to bite on the spout to cause the flow. It's a different action from the bottles though but if you are really worried then try this. I have found it to be the most leaky though (apart from useless Avent cup)

[kiwisbird]

thats the cup I have ready and waiting...
Thanks
xx J

[ClearWater]

I would agree the best cups are either the Tommee Tippee one or the Avent Toddler Sportster cup (which is also approved by the British Dental Health Foundation).

With ds1 we decided when he was about 16 months-ish to start him on a cup instead of bottles, and like Freddiecat, went cold turkey. He was used to drinking water from a cup already though, since he was about 9 months, so it wasn't a new thing for him having a cup.

[kiwisbird]

Same here, Ems drinks water out of a cup spouted or normal cup, no problems
Gave her milk from cup today she drunk about half in fits and starts, so guess I can do it gradually enough not to worry her!