To allow my baby to have a bedtime bottle a little longer than 12 months?

[MrsMaker83]

My baby is almost a year old (next week!) and she has been formula fed from birth.

She absolutely will not accept a cup, apart from very occasional sips of water. She gets quite distressed if milk is offered in a cup.

While we are still working on this, a bedtime bottle won't do any harm will it? I intend to offer only cups in the daytime from a year old, as food will become main nutrition, therefore she can take or leave the milk, but i think a bedtime bottle is a great comfort to her and don't want to distress her when she is tired. She is brilliant sleeper too and i worry that suddenly taking the bottle away will unsettle her.

My partner thinks we should cut all bottle use out at 1 year, and have her go cold turkey. I think there is no harm in taking a little longer (maybe a month or so?) to keep trying to crack it after all 1 year is advice and guidance, not law!

So what do you guys think? And any tips or advice for a stubborn little cup refuser?!

MrsMaker - HVs will drive you to the point of self-destruction if you let them! Your daughter will drink from a sippy cup when she's ready. Don't fret about it.

Thanks everyone.

Im not particularly worried about not using a cup, i just wondered if it was common to continue bottle use, which it appears it is!!

I know about HVs... There are a few in my area who have reputations for being a little over bearing! This is just something that came up at the 8-12 month check recently!

My nearly 2 year old has a bedtime bottle and a nap time bottle, he loves his bottle and I am in no rush to give it up if he finds it comforting.

When my children were very little, we had a cup made by (I think) Maw Maw. Haven't seen one for a very long time, but it was brilliant. It was a two-handled cup with a lid that had the opportunity to change the drinking preference, so you could have either a teat, or a soft or hard drinking tip and even a straw option. There's probably something similar on the market now, but I wouldn't worry about any of this at just one yr old, though!

All my 4 DCs loved their milk and they all had follow on milk in a bottle and dummies until around the age of 3 except for DC4 who only recently gave it up at the age of 4.

None of them have had cavities/wonky teeth (eldest 18), speech problems, food issues, weight problems or any of the other possibilities that could be linked with it and they all drink from cups/glasses perfectly and could from about 18 months old.

Let her enjoy her comfort as long as she wants it/you want to faff around making it up!

My dd is 4. Dd2 is 2. Both drink fine from cups. Just like s bottle.

In the scheme of stuff I don't sweat this.

Hi, just to share my experience. My DS stopped the bed time bottle at around 2 yrs and 9 months. He used to take it for comfort and would wake several times at night for it - not due to being hungry, just for the comfort.

He was only taking it twice a day, at nap and bedtime but when we stopped giving completely, he no longer woke for it at night and even better, his appetite improved greatly. Where before he would ask for milk, he'll ask for food... Hooray! Although of course that might bit be an issue for younger kids, like OP's.

Trust your instincts. Mine had her bottle till 3 and stopped of own accord when she had chewed the teats and they no longer worked!

DD wouldn't accept formula from a cup (even though she was drinking water from a cup with no problems from 6 months) and I despaired that we might never get her off the bottle. Then I tried giving her cows milk (straight from the fridge, she doesn't like it warm) in a cup and she guzzled it down. All the bottles were thrown out and that was that. I know every child is different but worth a try.

My DS is 1 and he has a bottle of milk at night, one in the morning and also one for naps when at home doesn't bloody need at nursery to get to sleep though does he

He sleeps really well occasionally going 14 hours straight through at night so I'm really reluctant to stop it either. He doesn't actually feed to sleep and is awake when I put him down, but the milk is certainly a trigger for him to go to sleep. I'm sure this isn't a great thing but when he sleeps so well I'm hesitant to do anything which might unsettle that. He gets so much comfort from his bottle because we have always snuggled him really close whilst he has the milk. BF didn't work out for me so I wanted FF to be as snuggly as possible. He has never held a bottle of milk himself, it has always been given to him as you would a young baby so I think it is about so much more than the milk to him.

I have worried about it sometimes but I try to remember what I read on MN sometimes about various things, 'he won't still be doing it when he's 15 so I wouldn't worry.' I also try to think, well some people breastfeed until 2 or 3, partly for comfort for the child, so if DS gets his comfort from a bottle and a lovely cuddle with Mum/Dad then what does it matter.

I should add that DS is 18 months and him having milk doesn't affect his eating of proper food. He eats like a horse! Friends have actually laughed and asked if he ever actually stops eating once he has started. Even with all that food and the milk, he is exactly on the line he was born - 75th centile.

It's more the bottle than the milk that's a problem. I switched ds to a beaker with a soft spot for his bedtime milk. He was grumpy for a couple of days as he refused it but after that he's taken it no problems.

DD1 had one until she went to school, DS until 2.5 and DD2 until 3.

Not at all.

With DS we dropped them gradually, beginning with just morning, afternoon and night bottles, then morning and night, then eventually just dropping to night which we are still keeping up and he is now 22 months old. I was also concerned as have read all the parenting books and riddled my way through the crap to work out what really works for us and our child, but ALL the books seemed to say get rid of bottle! I spoke to my Health Visitor and she said as long as baby is brushing his teeth after the bottle (so no tooth decay), then it isn't really a problem, and that actually my baby is probably enjoying the bottle more for the bonding and cuddle time (which an active 22 m.o doesn't seem to want most of the time!) as much as for the milk itself.

Do what's right for you and don't let anybody make you feel bad for it.

My ds nearly 3 has a bed time and nap bottle (shhhhh don't tell the hv)

My son is 2.8 and still usually has a bottle during his bedtime story. I have no issue with it. He'll move on in his own time.

My 18 month old has a morning and a bedtime bottle, with teeth brushed afterwards. We gave tried several times to get her to switch, but despite her drinking water from a cup since 6 months old, she refuses to drink milk from a cup.

My 3 year old still has a bed time bottle, has drink milk from a sippy cup from about 11 months but will she give up her bedtime bottle of milk no flipping way!

I'm not worried as my doctor told me his 5 year old still has one when she's poorly it's a comfort thing.

I have got her a new bed time cup which when this bottle gives up I will be introducing it

My DSes all had bedtime bottles until they were at least 3. I wouldn't admit that in RL (!), but they are all teenagers now and only one of them has needed one filling so far, so tooth wise it hasnt been a problem.

I'll admit I don't have children but 2:5, 3 is still so very little to me.

I remember my little sisters having bottles and dummy's till they were about 4:5, 5. Mum had a horror of thumb suckers, cousin was still thumb sucking as an adult. Anyway…

Both of the have lovely teeth, and giving up thee bottle & dummy was easy, took about 36 hours. Because they were old enough to be reasoned with.

I think tbh that it can he easier to take away from a baby than a toddler who can argue and get out of bed etc.

It's not always the case that they give it up in their own. It can become a habit that's much harder to break the longer not goes on and there are loads of people here with 3/4+ year olds who still have bottles.

just something to think. about.

1 is still young though.

DS was about 14-16 months I think. I remember moving onto a sippy cup at that point and I don't remember him having a bedtime drink from it. He's only 4 but it seems like ages ago! Going onto a proper cup was more difficult. He would just tip it back all over himself. He was about 2 and the OXO cup worked great and he quickly moved on to a proper plastic cup. He moved onto cow's milk as soon as he was 1.

I stopped sterilising bottles at about 10 months I think, maybe earlier! I didn't sterilise his plates and cutlery and anything else he happened to come across and shove in his mouth so sterilising by that point seemed a bit pointless.

My ds1 was 3 in November and has a bottle in the morning and at night. He likes lying down so it makes sense.