Milk in a cup?

[NoTeaForMe]

Hi all,

Just wondered when you should start introducing milk feeds in a cup? My baby is 9.5months old and has 3 milk feeds a day - having less at each feed now though. She has one in the morning, one mid afternoon and one at bedtime. I think I've heard that by the time they're one they shouldn't be having milk from a bottle, is that true? Why? What kind of cup do you use at this point? Should I be starting now-ish, I'm guessing with the mid afternoon feed? I thought I'd continue with bottles until she just stops having formul at one and then give cows milk in a cup just as a drink rather than a 'feed' if that makes sense?

Any advice?!

Thanks

I introduced the cup at 6 months with water & then cows milk as a drink at 1 year. But no bottles here as DD was BF. Does your DD use a cup at all? It needs to have a hard spout and be free-flowing like these.

supposed to drop bottles around a year I think. Dd was a few months past that when I got fed up washing a bottle every day. I gave her the milk in an anywayup cup and that was that.

Bottles aren't good for their teeth - milk is very sugary and bottle teats/sucking causes the milk to pool around the baby's teeth. You can reduce the risk by ensuring you brush teeth before bed (after last feed) and don't let the baby have a bottle in bed/through the night as a comforter.

Some of the soft spouted valved cups are similar to bottles in the way they cause milk to pool - as JetLi says free flow spouts are better. I do give my ds cow's milk in a valved cup though so he doesn't spill it everywhere, but never at bedtime or in his cot.

She drinks water really well from a doidy cup and a soft spout nuby cup but has only ever had milk in a bottle.

So it has to be free flowing and hard spouted for milk? Any reason for this?

Thanks

Cross posts Rita thanks for that!!

We clean her teeth every night but she does have a bottle of milk after this. Surely most people do that though? Clean teeth at bathtime and then milk before getting into bed? It's just a feed though, she doesn't keep the bottle with her or anything!

Do I need to be introducing a cup now or is it about 1ish that this should happen.

Thanks

I don't know if most people do it, but strictly speaking you shouldn't! I breastfeed ds after his bath, then brush teeth, then bed.

The problem with milk is it is quite high in sugar, so that will be sitting on her teeth for 12+ hours.

It's up to you about when/if to swap from bottles to cups - you don't have to, you just need to be a bit more careful with dental hygiene with bottles.

Hmm, problem is most nights she either falls asleep on the bottle or gets very sleepy on the bottle, going to clean her teeth then would wake her up!

I guess soon she'll just have a cup of milk before even getting in the bath and starting that part of the routine!

Hmm......

I swapped bath and milk round when I first stopped feeding ds to sleep - so milk, bath, bed. He always slept really badly when he fed to sleep though so it works better for us if he goes in his cot awake!