Bottles with 17 month old?

[Liskey]

Hi

Any advice much appreciated. DD is 17 months old - was prem and still very small.

We're just moving her from SMA high energy (precription milk for her lack of weight gain) to normal cows milk which is going well - under dietician at hospitals discharge now. She still has 3 bottles a day one when she wakes, one about 14.00 and one before bed at about 18.45 then sleeps till normally 6ish.

I'm worrying if she has too many bottles and how to move her from bottles to cups - she'll drink water out a cup but not very much. I was wondering whether it would be cruel to move her completely to cups one day just drop the bottles altogether?

Also whether I should be dropping the 14.00 milk - my HV is pretty useless when asked questions like this so no help there.

I'm feeling pretty insecure about this at the moment due to MIL keep telling me it'll all happen naturally etc.

Cheers.

Is there any particular reason you think she's having too much milk - is she overweight or not interested in solids?

If you wanted you could try switching the afternoon milk to a cup. So long as you're sensible with the bottles (don't let her wander round with one for hours, brush teeth after, don't put her to bed with one, don't put juice/coke in them) then there's no rush to get her off them imo.

She's defintely not overweight! She's only 17lb and on the 0.4 percentile or hoving between that and the line above it!

She polishes every bottle in 5 mins but she isn't very interested in tea normally (unless its scrambled egg) usually tea ends up on the floor and she might or might not eat the fromage frais afterwards. So I was thinking that we should just not give her the 14.00 milk especially or give it in a cup and then its up to her if she drinks it.

My dcs used avent bottles with a variety of different teats, spouts and handles, the spouts were softer than beaker spouts at the time and the dcs prefered them.

If your dd is drinking three 8oz bottles that's about 750ml of full fat milk, so it's 500 calories just from milk. She might still need these calories if she doesn't eat that much food.

she doesn't drink full bottles of milk - day feeds its about 150ml/5ozs and the last one is about 220ml/8ozs - She doesnt usually have all thats in a bottle. She has usually about 460 mls of milk a day.

I don't think you really need to worry, maybe the 14:00 does fill her up so she doesn't eat her tea or she might not eat her tea because she's tired, if she's sleeping through then she's not hungry.
She should be getting most of her nutrition from food rather than milk at her age. But she must be healthy and happy so don't worry, I hate to say it but you mil is right.

I do worry though as I've been told that she should be off the bottle by a year old.

Additionally most of the toddlers I know don't have as many milk feeds - me and DH do worry a lot about her getting enough calories as she didn't do well as a newborn. So we've tended to rely on the high calorie milk making up for a lot of her needs. Now we're coming off it I'm starting to panic.

My ds was still drinking from bottles with teats after he was 2 and he is fine. I can understand how you might feel that it's a bit babyish but you see loads of kids still sucking dummies at 3 yrs and older. So long as she is able to drink from a cup if she is out, what harm is there in her having a bottle at home, especially if it means she's drinking enough.
Remember she had a different start in life to most of the toddlers you know and she needs that bit extra.

They say babies should be off bottles by a year because of their teeth - people let them walk around sucking on a bottle all the time, or feed them to sleep/give them a bottle in bed and don't brush their teeth after because they don't realise milk is really sugary. As long as you're sensible about it I don't see the harm - lots of children her age are still breastfed after all.

'lots of children her age are still breastfed after all' - BF is completly different from bottle's with bottles the milk can pool in the mouth leaving it there to couse tooth decay. The main problem with bottle's is leaving them with them or letting them suck on them for a long time (ie letting them go to bed with them themself's for instance). If she's downing her bottles in 5minutes it's probably not so much of an issue.

Babies who BF have to actively suck to remove milk it's doesn't pool in the same way plus there are actualy emzines in BM which help prevent tooth decay.

Which is why I said the problem with bottles is their teeth - no reason to stop a child getting comfort from a bottle just because they are over 12 months.

Cheers for replies. DD has refused her 14.00 bottle for the last 2 days - while MIL looking after her - she's been having lunch around 13.00 as her naps have just changed a bit (only 1 nap a day now). Today she's now eaten tea and had some milk in a cup 60mls at 18.00 and then polished off another 200mls at 08.45!!

I am trying to clean her teeth after the last milk though she hated it and wouldn't open her mouth.