Bottles.. When and how to stop?

[girlsyearapart]

DD1 22 mo has a bottle of cows milk morning and evening. She never liked bf or formula so I thought the 12 month transition to a cup would be easy. Not so. She refused to drink milk from a cup. Ok with any other drink though. She has recently been poorly and refused her bottles so I've managed to keep her off it most mornings but she still wants one before bed. She cleans her teeth (toddler style) afterwards. Is there really any harm in her continuing? DD2 is 10 mo and will be on hypoallergenic formula till at the very least 18 mo so she'll still have bottles. Is it mean to stop dd1 and sit her next to dd2 who is having one?

I am pretty sure I had my son off bottle of milk by then but a dental hygeniest friend of mine definately was still giving her son a bottle of milk, morning and night WAY after his third birthday. I think he was nearer four when he stopped that. He had a dummy for a long time, too. I honestly wouldn't worry about it, as long as she drinks it quickly and doesn't have in lingering round in her mouth for ages.

my dd is the same age, 22 months and still has a bottle of cows milk. she wakes up and has some in the night too, and obviously no teeth brushing then. I checked this with a dentist who assured me that the concern is formula milk hanging around in the child's mouth as cows milk, just like breast milk, has no abnormal teeth-rotting sugars in it, and he reminded me that extended breast feeding is actively encouragd in most european countries, and given that most of those children would have a drink in the night with no teeth brushing, they have just as healthy teeth as us.

HTH

Lovely thanks for that. Have so far managed to keep her off the morning one though I'm fairly sure DH will crack on that one when it's his turn!
My problem will be dd2 then as she is on hypoallgemic formula. Will prob have to make it in a bottle and pour it into a cup..

i wouldn't stress too much, dd was also on nutramigen as she had a dairy allegy. When she got to 12 months i used to put 1oz of cows milk in her bottles, then upped it to 2oz after a week etc. she now has full cows milk with no problems (except a small patch of mild eczema). The gut has to learn to deal with lactose, and it can only do that by slight exposure.

Obviosuly I may be well off the mark, as your dd2's allergy may be worse than my dd's. Just letting you know my experience

My 22 month old ds is still having a bottle at night and he does have lovely teeth too. I'm not too worried as we're going through a bit of an upheaval at the moment (moving, new baby on the way etc) so I think it's probably not the time to try and withdraw it from him... I'm going to wait until the baby's here and we're settled in our new home to see if he's up for a bit of cup action at bedtime instead of the bottle. I'll be on mat leave so I'm hoping the fact that I'll be around every night will help.

Throw them away. Easy.

She can't drive down to the shops and buy herself some more can she?

Think both of mine were close to 3 when they gave up their evening bottle. They were certainly old enough to have a discussion about it and go shopping to chose a special cup to drink their evening milk from .

Don't have any problem with her having it if it isn't bad for her really. She chewed a hole in the teat that fits properly and the only other one doesn't fit properly so leaks. I'm not buying a new one and I doubt she'll keep up with the leaky one for long!

Re the milk allergy dd2 isn't anaphylactic for milk as far as we know. She has only had a little cows milk in cooking pre allergy tests. They will do a milk challenge then a milk re introduction programme which sounds a bit like what you said childcare.

My ds carried on with bottle of milk until age 3.

There is the most amazing, well behaved, healthy wonderful girl in my dds class who still has a night time bottle age 5!

My dd is 25months and still has a bottle of cows milk before bed and she loves it so I have no immediate plans to take it away from her. She/I brush teeth afterwards. She has milk first thing on a morning too but out of a spouted cup which she's taken to only recently.

Maybe by Christmas we'll throw out the bottles, but I'll get her to do it and hopefully that will lessen the shock. Like someone said earlier, when you decide, chuck them out in reality the objections will stop before you have chance to really give in get you coat on and get to a 24hr supermarket, or worse still, rummage in the wheelie bin .

My two DSs both gave up at 12 months. I did a fortyplus and just threw them away. They took to it no problems even though I thought they would throw massive wobblies as they both loved their bottles. What I tried to do was change their routine slightly so they didn't expect the bottle at a certain point IYKWIM. So for instance, DS1 used to have morning bottle in bed with us so changed this to going in to get him and taking straight downstairs for breakfast so the bed/bottle association was gone. It worked on both of them.

Well she has now given up the morning one but still refuses milk in a cup-though asks for it then won't drink. Annoying milk waster!!
Still going with the bedtime one though not all that interested anymore.