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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Trying to wean off the bottle, help!

14 replies

shoesies · 21/12/2010 14:57

Have been told by HV that we should be starting to come off bottles now as ds is 13months now. Although he has cows milk in the day he will only have small sips from his cup and mostly prefers water. He was having two bottles of formula a day - once mid morning and one at bedtime but so far he has refused both formula out of a cup or cows milk out of the bottle! I really want to swap his bottle feeds for cup feeds but am now really worried that he's not taking in enough milk (although he does have yoghurt, cheese etc).

How can I encourage him to have his cup at bedtime rather than bottle? I fear his willpower may be stronger then mine.... Blush

OP posts:
shirleyhyypia · 21/12/2010 15:05

Not experienced this yet, so sorry if this is a crazy suggestion - can you mix the two so he gradually gets used to the taste of formula coming from a cup??

Original poster
shoesies · 21/12/2010 15:12

no that sounds like a good idea! I'll give it a whirl

OP posts:
Longtinsellyjosie · 21/12/2010 15:52

My sister lent me her Nuby cup which is midway between a bottle and a sippy cup.

DH did the first non-bottle feed - there were tears when she saw it but it's very easy to work out and looks more or less like a bottle, so we were away.

I moved from that to a sippy cup a couple of nights ago and she didn't bat an eyelid.

olivo · 21/12/2010 20:31

my DD is 16mo and I am trying to do the same. I have just started giving her the bedtime milk from an avent cup but left the teat on it, then i will swap to the spout without the valve. i still give her formula at night, but she drinks cows' milk from a sippy or doidy during the day.

Cant rememebr what I did with dd1, annoyingly!

sleeplessinderbyshire · 21/12/2010 20:33

perhaps I am just lazy but I figure DD will grow out of wanting a bottle soon (she's 16 months) we have a nuby cup which she loves and she drinks water brilliantly from a tommee tipee but at bedtime she wants snuggles and comfort (still feel guilty about stopping breastfeeding at 14 months some days) so bottles are staying for now. I think the risk to teeth is more from going to sleep actually sucking the bottle and from juice in a bottle which we never do just bedtime and early morning milk

Original poster
shoesies · 21/12/2010 21:27

Thanks all, tried cup again tonight - he flatly refused to put it in his mouth, I gave in and offered a bottle with warm cows milk, he gulped it straight away and then spat it straight out (even though he was happily drinking cows milk from a cup a couple of hours earlier!).
Maybe I don't need to worry so much, he doesn't fall asleep sucking on it and nor does he have juice in it so perhaps we can wait for him to grow out of it too. What really drives me crazy is my sodding hv telling me we have to change something and then having absolutely NO constructive advice on how to do it (but that's a whole different thread....Sad

OP posts:
littlemisslozza · 21/12/2010 21:34

I wouldn't worry about it to be honest. It's for about five minutes twice a day I presume, and if you clean his teeth before bed but after milk then that's the main thing. The hv's do have a thing about it, I just wouldn't mention it. DS1 still had milk morning and night in one until almost 3 (which would not have been my intention) but he also refused to drink enough milk from a variety of cups so I thought it was better he continued to drink a decent amount, albeit from a bottle.
My friend's parents are dentists and they are far more concerned about thumb-sucking childrens' teeth than a few minutes a day using a bottle.

MumNWLondon · 21/12/2010 22:31

I was determined to ditch the bottle at one, but I couldn't get DS1 to drink his milk from a cup. He was done to 2 milk feeds a day morning and evening and he was happy to drink cows milk.

I let him have the bottles (although brushed teeth afterwards) until 18 months. At that point HV said no need, and doesn't matter if he doesn't drink it as getting enough nutrition from his diet.

My GP friend said also by 18-21 months best to cut down amount of milk as she sees lots of malnurished toddlers being stuffed full of bottles of milk so no space for their food. Hence no need at that age for bedtime bottle.

blackeyedsusan · 21/12/2010 23:53

dd will not drink milk from a cup. she had a bottle til she was nearly 3 for that reason Blush

She has cereal swimming in milk, cheese and yogurt to make up the calcium. the health visitor gave us a little booklet with all the portion sizes in it. Unfortunately it is in the car, 2 flights of stairs down and across the carpark and in the garage, but I do know that the Asda/Tesco yogurts (adult size) are about 1 1/4 portion and about a small matchbox sized piece of cheese is a portion.

olivo · 23/12/2010 20:54

oh no littlemissloza, we're stuffed, as my DD is an avid thumb sucker as well as still using a bottle Wink!!

MumNWLondon · 23/12/2010 21:16

Olivo when my DD was about 5 the dentist told her that if she kept on sucking once her baby teeth fell out her big teeth would grow in crooked and she wouldn't look beautiful anymore!

I didn't mention it again other than say that when she did stop sucking I'd buy her a pair of lelly kelly shoes (she kept on asking for them). Her top baby teeth started to wobble the week DS2 was born and I thought that it would be best if I didn't say anything as it was a terrible time for her to stop.....

Anyway about a week after that she said I had to buy her lelly kellys as she'd stopped sucking, and even though I peeked into her room several times in the night over the next couple of weeks, she had in fact stopped!

She'd sucked herself to sleep every night since 10 weeks old, and she just managed to stop. She said her trick was to sleep with her hands under the pillow which she still does!

jandmmum · 24/12/2010 05:25

I tried DS with a cup around 13 months and he wasn't interested at night time. I left it a couple of months and at 15 months he took it fine. He still has it now at 3. We use the cow cup and he asks for his moo cow milk. We have gone through a few ofvthe same cup though as the anti-spill valve thing gets a bit manky after a while no matter how well I wash it. I wouldn't worry about giving up the bottle just yet if he is not ready. As I understand it the main issue with teeth is if they are allowed to just suckle for ages on it without feeding so that the milk is held close to their teeth (ie use the bottle like a dummy).

seeker · 24/12/2010 05:57

One or two bottles a day are no problem at all - relax! As long as you clean her teeth.

I you think about it rationally, it is ompossible for sucking a bottle for maybe 10 minutes a day to do any damage!

olivo · 24/12/2010 11:33

thanks MumNWLondon, my 4 yo also sucks but it seems there might be hope!

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