What's more important after 1 yo - drinking milk or using a cup?!

[Tinkjon]

DS will drink milk fine from a bottle. He's very happy to use a cup - loves it, in fact - but will only drink very small amounts of milk from it. Drinking milk is important but getting rid of bottles is also important - so which should I do?! He eats plenty of dairy and eats a great diet but would only drink a few ounces in total from a cup. The HV helpfully suggested I trust my instincts - er, I have no instincts, could you just tell me what to do please love?!

Any thoughts?

If you use lots of milk in cooking, add cheese to potato etc, then use the cup. You can also get natural flavouring stuff to make milkshakes which is fine so long as you brush teeth after it. DD1 was like this, so we made her decaf tea, weak, mostly milk. She is now 2.8 and drinks milk with her meals in an open cup fine. Dairy is important but getting rid of bottles was more important to me (as someone who had to have braces iyswim) If he didn't have a great diet then I would say the milk was more important. HTH

Oh and give yoghurt/rice pudding/custard for one dessert to boost milk intake.

DS had loads of milk in diet with it in his breakfast and cheese etc. I gave him a cup in the day which he could drink as and when he pleased thoroughout the day and a bottle at nap and nighttime at this age. At about 20months I droped the bottle at nap time and now he is 2.2 I have also dropped the night time bottle and he only has cups.

I think they drink better out of bottle as it is a comfort thing but he will not go thirsty so as long as he has free access to a cup that is fine.

Just wondering, is getting rid of a bottle really so important? DD was bfed fully until I went back to work at 10mo, but now has bottles a few times a day, usually before a nap/bedtime. It seems to be a nice time for her to relax and calm down. She is 14mo, is it really so bad to have bottles at this age?

My DD 2.6, still has an evening bottle. I have started to dilute the cows milk with water as she does not drink much during the day. I got her down to 1 bottle a day by 10 mths as it was important to me for not to have bottles during the day. She does not have any other form of comfort so personally was not in a major rush to take this bottle away. Am aiming for Christmas to ween her off of it. HTH

Bumperlicious, no I don't think getting rid of bottles is very important, but it's quite important as the sugar in milk affects their teeth much more with a bottle than with a cup.

Sure the bottle has less of an effect as the milk bypasses the teeth but doesn't with a cup?

I was just curious really, as I am not in a hurry to take them off DD, but was wondering if I should be? She does drink from a cup so I'm not worried about that.

Bump, I've never really understood it frankly, but apparently milk goes straight down your throat with a cup but it goes straight onto your teeth with a bottle. I can't see it myself but it is the accepted wisdom so I've just accepted that I must be wrong

'They' say that babies shouldn't used bottles after 1yo but I don't think it's that terrible provided you're cleaning teeth well each day. They don't tell you not to give kids raisins and that must be far worse for teeth than milk anyway.