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Infant feeding

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

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Original poster

18 month old still on bottles - normal?

19 replies

ladypop · 08/07/2011 15:08

Our DS is 18 months old and still has milk from a bottle first thing and at bedtime feed. Is this normal? I only ask because all the official advice is "around aged 1 they should be moving onto a cup". To be honest, he enjoys the bottle and it is a good way of ensuring he gets a good quota of milk as he can tend to play around with it in a cup (he drinks water and fruit juice out of cups in the day no problem).

I am just interested to know what other moms do. My mom said do what works for us and not what the books say!

When should he look to ditch the bottle and completely go on to cups?

Thanks x

OP posts:

RitaMorgan · 08/07/2011 15:55

Cups are better for their teeth than bottles. So long as you are sensible and don't let him take the bottle to bed and obviously clean his teeth after his milk at bedtime it is fine though. Lots of 1 year olds (and older!) still have bottles ime.

pinkytheshrinky · 08/07/2011 16:00

A lot of fuss about nothing - it is perfectly fine and bottles do not harm teeth nor does milk. You are not talking about a child having it stuck it it's mouth all day then absolutely fine...... Your baby is still a baby and if your son is content having a couple of bottles a day and it helps him get off to sleep then bugger what the books say.

You Mum is right, she knows because she has done it before and you didn't end up snaggle-toothed...

RitaMorgan · 08/07/2011 16:05

Bottles/milk can harm teeth pinky as milk is quite sugary - the sucking action of a bottle causes milk to pool around the teeth in the mouth giving it more time to do damage.

wigglesrock · 08/07/2011 17:05

My daughters would have had a bedtime bottle at 18 months, all other milk/ water etc was taken out of a cup. It wasn't the milk they wanted, it was the idea of the bottle, sucking it, cuddling up, their teeth were brushed afterwards. All bottles were away for just before they were two.

Bunbaker · 08/07/2011 17:18

I followed my sister's advice and stopped giving DD a bottle when she was 12 months. She told me that the longer I left it the harder it would be. I have a sneaking suspicion she was right because DD didn't miss the bottle at all. On the other hand I remember being given a bottle when I was four because I didn't want to stop having my milk in a bottle. My mum used to tell me that I was too old. I can't actually remember when I stopped drinking milk from a bottle, but I don't do it any more!

pinkytheshrinky · 08/07/2011 17:54

Well I have four children and really they have perfect teeth. Seems I got it all wrong then. So strictly speaking are we meant to brush babies teeth after a breastfeed????

Breastmilk does contain more lactose than cow milk.

VeronicaCake · 08/07/2011 18:28

My dentist's advice was to brush teeth after a bedtime bottle and never put DD into her cot with a bottle. Bf-ing isn't as bad apparently because the milk squirts towards the back of the mouth rather than pooling round the teeth (though my dentist's advice was still to try and get teeth brushed after breastfeeding too).

For the OP I know plenty of 18m olds having bedtime bottles too so it sounds perfectly normal to me.

fuckmepinkandCALLmegoran · 08/07/2011 18:30

I wouldn't worry too much - she's hardly going to be leaving school with a bottle

Brush teeth, try not to put her into bed with a bottle and she'll drop it when she's ready

my DD1 was nearly 4 but she had ishoos but still I am a bad mother obviously because I couldn't be arsed we had bigger problems

RitaMorgan · 08/07/2011 18:55

pinky, as Veronica says the nipple is pulled towards the back of the baby's mouth during breastfeeding so the milk doesn't pool around the teeth, so isn't so much of an issue. However I did start brushing ds's teeth before bed once he had some teeth around 9 months.

pinkytheshrinky · 08/07/2011 19:06

Apparently I am lucky my children have any teeth in their little heads.....

And I have known a great deal of 18 month olds who have a bottle at bedtime- I don't think it is abnormal

RitaMorgan · 08/07/2011 19:08

Not sure why you are taking this so personally Surely brushing teeth before bed is just sensible?

pinkytheshrinky · 08/07/2011 19:08

oops pushed button too fast...

IMVHO I do feel you have to try really hard to get tooth decay in milk teeth - and I guess the incidence of this being caused by milk in otherwise healthy children is extremely low indeed so I think I will carry on taking the risk!

pinkytheshrinky · 08/07/2011 19:09

no really not taking it personally that was meant tongue in cheek !

pinkytheshrinky · 08/07/2011 19:10

I am not suggesting not brushing teeth before bed - not at all. I just don't think it is the end of the world to have a milk drink afterwards - that's all

HooverTheHamaBeads · 08/07/2011 19:12

I'm sure it's common at 18 months.

I moved from bottles to cups at 11 months as was following the advice at the time. DD then wouldn't drink milk from the cup, so HV just advised water to drink and plenty of cheese and yoghurt to eat.

We were brushing teeth from about eight months.

rathlin · 08/07/2011 19:15

My 2 yr old DS still has a bottle morning and night. He drinks water only from a lidless cup the rest of the day. He has refused to drink milk from a cup. My only issue with the bottle is having to clean it. I hate the darn things! He sucks on the bottle for a max of 5-10 mins a day in total and teeth are cleaned afterwards so figure it's not doing him any harm.

Original poster

ladypop · 09/07/2011 19:40

Thanks folk... athough I am now worried about his teeth! I had not really considered the teeth issue, more to do with simply getting him away from the 'baby' stage.

We always brush teeth (although how successful it is I don't know...he often struggles and really hates it!) morning and night, but he has his milk after this at night. It is mainly down to routine as the bottle relaxes him and it is in the dark that he has it, so then getting him up to then brush teeth in the bathroom would not be too great in helping him to settle.....no feel lkke bad mom!

OP posts:

Original poster

ladypop · 09/07/2011 19:41

that was meant to say like a bad mom!

OP posts:

VeronicaCake · 09/07/2011 20:18

Well you could wake him up to brush his teeth and then leave him to scream in his cot and feel like a bad mum about that too!

As a general rule moving on from milk just before bed is probably a good idea. But as pinky says above we are talking about a small level of increased risk to his teeth. I'd say look for ways of gently shifting his routine around but definitely don't panic about it. His teeth aren't going to all fall out if he is still having a bedtime bottle at two.

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