Feeling confused about one year old milk

[listentobirdsong]

Dd has very recently turned one, and has three bottles a day. First thing in the morning she has 7oz, at some point in the afternoon she has 5 or 6 oz, and before bed she has about 6 oz. Dd never goes to sleep on a bottle, but just likes to snuggle up to us as we feed her. She eats a varied diet and three meals a day. She sometimes has a little snack, but it isn't in her routine to always have one. She also has water from a cup throughout the day.

I thought this was totally normal, but after looking online she should apparently only be having 8 - 12 oz of milk (baby centre), and we should have introduced a cup from six months (nhs). I am also on a facebook group, and the other mums said their health visitors told them to put vitamin drops in the milk but we don't do this. We haven't seen our hv since dd was 6 weeks old, and are still waiting to hear back from her about a visit. I feel so stupid like we have been doing it all wrong, and I'm please looking for some advice.

Thank you

My dd is just over a year and has a breastfeed in the morning then 3 bottles of formula (around 6 or 7 oz) through the day, including one before bed. She won't accept milk out of anything other than a proper bottle. Makes her very angry when I try different cups. She's not a great eater though and she's also got a cow's milk allergy so I'm definitely not going to try and stop her feeds. Health visitor said they advise switching to cups as the teet can affect speech development. Not all babies play ball though!

I wouldn't worry, just add some vitamin drops. My son had four bottles a day of formula until he was two and a half and then decided when to drop them himself.
DD is 18 months and on occasion, particularly when teething wants 5!! Another day will just have 3. I just follow their lead.

Thank you both, I think I've just been feeling a bit guilty a out doing things incorrectly. I'm not worried about dd's speach space at all as she can already say about 10 words, but I do want to make sure I'm doing the best for her teeth. I will give the cup a try, but I'll be surprised if she takes to it right away, I think it will take some time.

Thanks, it's nice to see I'm not alone with the bottles!

I'm not sure why that says "speach space"!

Both mine switched from bottles to cups at 12 months so it does happen, honest!
Doesn't mean you're doing it 'wrong' though, at all. DD1 still had 3 big cups of milk until 18 months. DD2 dropped to only a cup of milk at bedtime at 12 months. Different children, different needs.
You'll find everyone does things differently, you have to figure out what works for you and your child.

You're being very harsh on yourself!

I was fully aware of the trying to get them off the bottles advice but we failed massively trying to do so. 20 month DD still has 2-4 bottles a day

We did get her down to one bottle at night about 6 months ago, but then she got a cold and wouldn't eat and was signing for bottles all day so the bottles sneaked in again.

We don't bother with vitamin drops because despite the ridiculous amount of milk drinking going on, she does eat really well and had a very varied diet.

I've mentioned it to the HV and she said she wasn't bothered as long as she was eating well and we were aiming to get her off the bottles - there was no problem.

Our problem has been that DDs main form of comfort is a cwtch and a bottle, we feel cruel taking it away properly.

I honestly can't see why you are being hard on yourself OP. Yes to giving the vitamins as that's what the NHS recommend.

If you do want to move away from formula, you could try reducing it by an ounce every few days and adding an ounce of cow's milk.

If you want to ditch the bottles I'd tackle the first one first and replace it with a cup of milk and breakfast, but it's upto you