3 year old with bottle

[Yourmysunshine2]

My 3 year old still has a bottle. He will drink from other things like cups. Sport bottles/ straws. But he's getting quite upset when I hide his bottle. As long as it's just water is there a reason I should take the bottle away? I'm thinking it might cause his teeth to become crooked?

He is having assments for SN but no diagnoises yet.

How often does he have it?

If it’s just at bedtime or when he wants a drink I wouldn’t worry too much. If it’s constantly in his mouth then I’d worry a little about teeth.

He won’t be drinking from it when he’s 15 and will naturally grow out of it.

Has he been to dentist? They can usually tell if something is causing an issue.

My nearly four year old has a bottle of milk a day. I make sure he drinks it fast (he would love to take ages over it) and brush his teeth twice a day every day. Ten minutes of sucking a bottle is not going to make his teeth become crooked.

It's just when he wants a drink and for comfort when he wants to sleep.

I forgot he rips the teat with his teeth..so think I will have to take it away some how.

Maybe give him a chewy band instead, so he doesn't choke on rubber bits

With my dd1 we just told her it was gone and went cold turkey with it. She had the mother of all tantrums screaming at us for about 40 minutes. But then gave in and never asked again. We did have cups we knew she could and would drink from before trying this though, sounds like you have a similar set up.

It was hideous and it is still our landmark for epic tantrums, I Nearly gave in after 30 minutes, but realised that would be a bad precedent to set and kept going!

Good luck!

Any dentist would tell you that you should ditch bottles at 12 months.

Yes. I think I'm going to try and wean him off it. I will hide it in the day. Let him have it at bed time.