Can anyone tell me what 14 month old should be drinking out of?! Been told I’m crazy

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she has a little beaker for water but still has milk from a Mam bottle? Someone said the other day that this was ‘crazy.’ Is it?! What should I be using?

Not crazy at all but we were on the Tommy Tippee free flow sippy cups around then, then switched to the Munchkin ones the following year.

FYI if you get the Munchkin you need to pull the rubber bit off before it goes in the dishwasher to clean it properly otherwise they can get black mould lurking in there.

That is not “crazy”! What about that is crazy?! The “official” advice is that they shouldn’t have bottles after 1 year. Something about it being bad for their teeth. That being said, at our 1 year check I told my HV my DS would not have his milk from anything other than a MAM bottle and I said we couldn’t wean him off them onto a sippy cup by 1. She wasn’t bothered as long as we were trying. We eventually managed get him to switch to a NUK sippy cup for his milk at about 16 months. He was screaming for his MAM bottle and I just shoved the NUK cup in his mouth and he realised he actually could drink from it and get his milk!

He’s always had his water from a Munchkin 360 cup (he’s scandalised if we put milk in his water cup or vice versa!). He’ll also drink water from an open cup if we’re sat at a table and supervised. Nursery he has just a normal sippy cup for his water. Recently he’s taken to a straw after he got a jazzy Christmas cup with one so he likes them now too. But milk he’s very particular and it was such a battle to get him off bottles and now he won’t have anything other than his NUK sippy cup for milk.

It’s advised that bottles aren't used after 12 months. My DD turned 1 during winter and has a string of viral illnesses so we kept using the bottle and phased it out at 14-15 months old.

Water/milk should be given in a free flow sippy cup or open cup. The non spill cups and 360 type cups aren’t recommended as they use an unnatural suck jaw movement.

A cup. They don't need a bottle at 14m.

Bottle teats are different to the breast. The teat is much firmer and bottles/dummies distort the upper palate of the mouth more than the breast does.

This affects the way your teeth grow and the whole anatomy of your jaw. This is why dentists want toddlers to move away from bottles as soon as they are physically able to drink safely from something else.

Bottles can also allow milk to pool around teeth. Milk contains quite a lot of natural sugar, and rates of teeth cavities are higher in bottle fed toddlers than breast.

Pretty sure ours was still having a bottle at least at night at that time. Her teeth are fine.

Different experience as I have different children - first one never used a bottle so straight to cups. Second one used cup from about 11 months. Hated a bottle too but used one as
and when.

My nearly 2 year old uses either an open cup or straw water bottle in the day and has a tommee tippee bottle at night still. Advice is to not use bottles after 1 years due to the teeth issue but practically that didn't/ hasnt worked for us. Sometimes its not as simple as just taking it away like people seem to think.

Advice from our dentist with our first was to get rid of bottles and dummies between 2 - 3 years. As long as you are brushing teeth twice a day (after having the bottle of milk) then its fine. Worked fine with my first so following the same this time - my youngest is 2 in 10 days so will start to remove the milk bottle after that.

They're supposed to move to a cup at a year, but most babies haven't read the manual and take a little longer IME. I wouldn't think anything of a 14mo using a bottle.

We swapped all of ours over to sippee cups at 9-12 months. Supposedly it was desirable for their teeth but no idea why now (mine are adults, so I can’t recall, but it made sense at the time).

Having said that we used a range that went from newborn to independent. At 9months you swapped the teat top/ring out for a sippee top. Then at 12months you swapped that sippee top for another top and put this contraption thing on with big helicopter wing handle things. Then at 15/18 months you swapped to another sippee top again and ‘proper’ handles, but all of this was on the baby bottle as the base component. The sippee tops were shaped differently, sort of transitioning them from a teat to drinking spout with different flow rates. Then not much difference going on to a normal open toddler cup from there.

I started introducing cups for water at 6 months and stopped the bottle dead at 12 months. Just about my only pass mark in “The Great Mothering Test”.

I fucking hated bottles and faffing with bottles. I am also forgetful and I am glad that it’s one less thing to think about. With my youngest, they also represented my perceived “failure” as a breast feeder.

That said, cups and bottles are not worth getting worked up about. I honestly cannot bloody understand how seriously people take it.

It's not crazy at all. My younger three were all finished with bottles by their first birthday and moved on to sippy cups, but my youngest has just turned 2 and she absolutely will not go to sleep at night without a baby bottle of milk. We've tried putting it in a cup and we're tried cutting out the milk altogether and it results in non stop screaming. I could of course persevere and put up with the screaming for an indefinite amount of time, but at this point I don't see the benefit. Each kid is different.

My three had bottle at night and sipping cup during the day until about 3 .All adults with perfect teeth !!Do whatever suits you and baby .

Free flow sippy cup before open cup, something about getting the drinking rather than sucking motion right.

At that age my daughter was boob and open cup. I don't know whether it's different because she was EBF so never had a bottle?

They say no bottle after 12 months but my little one would never entertain milk in anything but a bottle. She had no problem drinking water from a sippy cup.

Around 16 months she just went off milk completely so I ditched the bottles and made sure her food had lots of milk, yoghurt cheese etc and she just drank water.

Just follow their lead and they will give up the bottle eventually.

An open beaker is great most don't because it's harder work for parents. But if you're happy it's best.

The teeth thing is because a bottle / teat affects the teeth, jaw and palate as they grow.

Not to do with decay.

(and not about breastfeeding: a nipple does not affect growth in the same way)

It’s not crazy late but you do want to move on from the bottle now. They don’t need loads of milk during the day- eating plenty of dairy and drinking lots of water is a fine alternative if they don’t want to drink milk from a cup. You also need to be brushing their teeth before bed, which stops any bottle to sleep association, so really you don’t need the bottle at all.

I removed bottles from both of mine at 12mths. In my job role I've seen many cases of bottle mouth where children are using baby bottles to drink milk which then pools in the mouth and rots teeth. Chuck the bottles out then you can't give in.
I never really understand the 'my child won't' argument. As a parent you do what's best for them, I'm not awfully strict but some things are non negotiable such as dental care, vaccinations, anything health related.
Toddler age children really don't need to be drinking out of a bottle that is designed for a baby. A couple of months after 12mths...not a big deal, children age 18mths plus though?

At that age I think bottle and sippy cup is fine, but I’m old!

In the US bottle is not recommended after 12 months and the last 2 babies I had (I mind them!) it was literally taken away cold Turkey at 12 months. I thought it was awful, but they both did fine.

We like the munchkin 360 cups. In fact we even have some of the adult ones for us and DS now he’s 7 as we are so clumsy!

Well I will beat you all. My DD only gave up her nighttime bottle of milk when she was about 6 years old!!!

She had two younger siblings getting it and she cried for it. She got so much joy and comfort from that bottle of milk I didnt have the heart to stop.
The look on her little face when she saw the bottle coming :)

She is 16 now and, she did need braces but all my children do as did I and DH, very crooked teeth in both families but she has no fillings. Every other drink was from a cup but the bedtime bottle did go on for many years longer than I expected.

I breastfeed so at 12 months went to cows milk out of a sippy cup. Honestly I just could eat be bothered with the sterilising 🤣

My 20month old still has a mam bottle for bedtime milk! Im not overly worried about it. It’s probably a comfort thing. She knows how to use a cup though during the day. It’s messy to start with but they soon get used to it. Try a doidy cup- they are slanted so they can see the liquid inside clearly