Health visitor advice re switching from bottle to cup

[cordiality]

I took my son to his one year check up today, and something the health visitor said has been playing on my mind. She was asking if he still had a bottle, (I said yes, morning and bedtime) and she said I now needed to give him a free flow cup, no more bottle. I'm fine with that, he's old enough.

HOWEVER, she then said that they recommend that you change the baby onto a cup as soon as they get a tooth. I said no, my baby had teeth at five months, that's ridiculous. She said absolutely yes, straight onto cup, it's the advice of the British Dental Association, bottles are bad for teeth.

I thought that babies get a huge amount of benefit from sucking? Emotionally and physically, didn't I read somewhere that it helps them produce hormones and is reassuring and soothing for them?

I told her that I thought I disagreed with that advice, but she said sorry, if baby isn't breastfed he only gets a bottle until he has a tooth.

How sad for those little babies. Or am I being too soft?! Has anyone else heard this from a health visitor? I'm in North West London...

I can't find anything on the BDA website to support this. It's not a bad idea to introduce a cup when a baby is around six months and to work towards dropping the bottle altogether as he grows into toddlerhood, but she must have misunderstood if she thinks a bottle fed baby should not have a bottle at all from 5-6 mths....it would be hard for the baby to get the milk he needs from a cup as young as this.

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/drinks-and-cups-children.aspx

You should introduce a cup when the first tooth appears (although, rarely, some babies are born with teeth) so you can move to cups at 1 year old.

She was absolutely definitely saying no bottle at all as soon as they get a tooth.

Should I do something? Tell someone?!

She was absolutely definitely saying no bottle at all as soon as they get a tooth.

Should I do something? Tell someone?!

OK.....it's a shame if she is telling mothers this :( She will undermine them, or else reduce their confidence in everything she says.

I suggest you get that NHS Choices page up on your phone and show it to her next time you are at the clinic. You can just say, 'I was really confused by what you said last time....and a bit worried, too, in case I'd done something wrong. My friend told me to check it out with the NHS pages and this is what I found and I'm still confused...' if you say it smilingly and a bit self-deprecatingly, so she does not feel challenged, you might get somewhere :)

It's crystal clear - the video and the text on that page talk about introducing a cup at 6 mths, not using it exclusively instead of a bottle straight away.

Thank you Tiktok, that's great advice especially re handling it sensitively... I'm often inclined to blaze in full of righteous anger.

I'm not really a frequent health visitor visitor, as it were, but I will try to find a way of having a chat to her at some point.