"your aim should be to make the changeover from breast or bottle to cup by your baby's first birthday..."

[Tutter]

...help to establish good eating patterns, and help avoid speech problems"

according to the leaflet i was given today at ds2's 8 month review

sounds like they're discouraging bfing beyond a year to me

What? Moronic.

Chuck it straight back?

I've read that in loads of places too.
And one of the gp's at my surgery said I should stop feeding dd definatly by the time she's 2 as it will create problems later on.
wtf.

Sounds like rubbish to me, I would complain to whoever gave it to you

btw my dd aged 22 mths is still bf and she is a brilliant talker!

regardless of the bf issue, even changing a ff fed baby to a cup for milk by 1 is ridiculous.
when I was told to by my hv, i told her she could do it for me if it was so important, as ds needed his milk as is dairy intolerant. that shut her up.

Yes my dd was speaking sentances at 18 months and bf till she was 26m.

Load of rubbish I agree with the rest of you. Even for bottle feeders too. Yes, all bottles instead of food I wouldn't have thought ideal, but a bottle before bed or even when they wake up? I really don't see the problem. I can't see how BF or bottle feeding past a year can cause speech problems unless either is permanently in their mouth. Load of rot.

starlight - ds was also having water in a cup at 6mo. but even now wont take milk unless it's in a bottle. And I cant risk cold turkey as he is dairy intolerant and cant get his calcium etc elsewhere. well, he probably could, but I cant be arsed

Hmmm... My two year old still drinks from a bottle. ME NO CARE> am I bad??

what a load of fucking nonsense
what fucking problems?
fucking bunch of incompetent no-nothing wankers.

sorry for sweariness
can anyone show me one scrap of evidence that bf after one year causes problems with eating?? why would it??? that makes absolutely zero sense, if you are replacing bf with a cup.
and as for the speech problems - show me the evidence! even anecdotal, because afaik there is nothing to demonstrate anything of the kind.

Send it to your PCT and ask if it's government policy to discourage breastfeeding from 12 months. If so - on what evidence is the advice in the leaflet is based.

If I found this leaflet being handed out locally I'd try to get it withdrawn.

who has produced it? Cow and Gate ?

"produced for the Community Nutrition Group of the British Dietetic Association"

better than bf [incredulous]
OK

Yes, I think this this is misleading.

It should be that you should aim to introduce a cup if you bottlefeed really as breastfeeding helps speech development.

Who does though???

(Not near my cream carpet, no siree!)

ok I have been googling like mad and ony can find evidence that bf aids speech development.

Riven, that is disgusting. Write to the head of the Primary care Trust and state that your child requires SALT help immediately.

Tutter sorry to be a pain mate but what is the leaflet called? have looked on the BDA website but can't find anything there

First time round, with DS#1, when I actually cared a teeny bit about guidelines and 'what people said' this would have made me think about giving up bfing. And also added huge amts of guilt/inadequacy that I was still offering boob/bottle. Which is destructive and pointless.