Getting baby off bottles at 1year - tips needed please!

[zebedeethezebra]

Hi girls

DS is now a year old and I'm trying to get him gradually off bottles. What's the best way of going about this? I need lots of advice!

At a year I would just start offering him an open cup. Choose one with 2 handles & offer it to him sitting down at snack & meal times when you are able to supervise closely. At first there will be no progress & a lot of mess but you will be amazed when it just clicks. Try to join in with a drink of your own too - children at this age learn by imitation.

Good Luck

Thanks, we've been doing this for ages (months) with water at lunchtime but more comes out again than he swallows. Same with a sippy cup.

I just went cold turkey and stopped offering bottles. And threw them all away so I couldn't relent.

We bought 2 lidded cups. A cow print one for milk and a normal one for water.

He protested slightly at first but it didn't last long (about 2hrs) once he realised that was the only place he was getting milk from.

I'm going to disagree with pp about the open cup and would definitely use lidded sippy cups until he is used to it.

Ds is 21months now and drinks really well from an open cup but lidded cups are much easier for when they are in the car/pram.

Good luck.

Gawd, I wouldn't do the open cup thing all the time. DD2 (15 months) has a go with one with water in it at mealtimes, but she has milk at bedtime and in the morning in my bed - so I'd hardly want the mess in there!

Actually, this thread reminds me I really must take away her bottles soon too. I've been putting it off because she loves sucking so much. Her sister refused milk for a week when we stopped her bottles, but eventually gave in and went along with us! We'll be going cold turkey with DD2 too, I think anything else might give mixed messages make it a longer process.

Can I ask exactly why you're supposed to get them off bottles at a year old, as I've never known why?

Apologies for ignorance.

Same question as chocolatemoose - why are you supposed to get them off bottles at 1yr?

same here! DS nearly two still likes a bottle before bed for comfort

I was wondering about this too.... will watch this thread with interest.

I seem to recall something vague and blathery about teeth (presumably after a bit sucking begins to deform the palate, same as a dummy/thumb) and speech development.

Can't be that big a deal though. I don't know all that many adults who still drink from a bottle and can't talk from too much bottle time . And one bottle at night is not much, is it?

The NHS website simply says that by age 1 it may be harder to break the "comfort sucking" habit. The old "rod for your own back" school of parenting!

Yes, its because of the teeth. By sucking from a bottle it all swills around so much that they are more likely to get decay, particularly if a bottle of milk is given last thing at night and teeth are not brushed afterwards.

So this morning we tried again. He had a little bit out of the sippy cup then just kept throwing it on the floor. He wouldn't eat any of the banana I gave him either. So I gave in and gave him a bottle of half formula half cows milk since he wouldn't have his nap otherwise. Perhaps I shouldn't have given in, or tried to do it just before his nap.

Tempted to go cold turkey but will he then wake at night if he hasn't had a good feed? Have to commute to London on Mondays and Thursdays so I was going to leave the last one at night until he was drinking better out of the sippy cup.

Why is everything like this turn out to be harder than you think?!

I went cold turkey with DS just after his first birthday. By then he was down to just one bottle before bed anyway, but as soon as the last carton of formula was done, we switched to cows milk and offered this in a cup.

He refused the cows milk in a cup so went to bed without any milk at all - he was a bit upset for one or two nights, but once he was asleep he still slept through. It was a while before he was drinking much during the day (either water or milk) but he was eating plenty and getting lots of dairy from yoghurt, cheese etc so I wasn't too worried. Eventually he started drinking better and now drinks loads of water and milk every day.

I just tried this yesterday. Advice is that being on a bottle longer than a year will be bad for teeth. Trying to phase the idea of getting milk from a sippy cup by giving it instead of a bottle at mid afternoon before attempting to change the evening routine. Also started giving water in open doidy cup. So far DS is not impressed!

So glad I didn't have this to worry about with my eldest(23) who was still having a night-time bottle at 3y. I was quite happy as it meant he was getting a decent helping of milk (which I thought was beneficial to him).

I threw out all bottles when DS was 11m and used Avent Magicups for drink until 18m and then just at night time until he was 3.

Now use an open cup all the time unless on journey when we use a sports bottle... but he is 4.5 nowadays lol

Can't say I'm all that bothered about DD2's teeth. She's only got 3 of them! So we won't be binning the bottles just yet I think.

I don't think it matters too much so long as you don't give juice in a bottle, and you brush teeth after milk in bottle at night.

Letting a child take a bottle of milk to bed with them is what really ruins their teeth.

mamadiva - why is sucking out of the spout of a magicup better than sucking out of a bottle?

Try this, it is a straw cup, DD 18 months would never take milk out of a sippy cup only herbal tea and water, but the novelty of a straw and the sucking motion persuaded her to take milk from this. This one also looks ok as is one that Superdrug do in store although they both are unvalved unlike the Tommee Tippee which does not spill. Straw cups are seen to be better as the straw sits further back in the mouth and therefore the milk does not swill around the teeth before swallowing.