please talk to me, am confused - why is extended BF ok, but extended bottle drinking not?

[dontbitemytoes]

hello, dd is 14 months old and LOVES her bottles. she is down to 2 9oz bottles a day, one in morning, one in evening. Until recently she had a dairy intolerance which she has now grown out of, and this week has started taking straight cows milk her bottles.

she absolutely will not give up her bottles. so i wondered, why shouldnt she have her bottles ? What are the reasons for giving up a bottle at 12 months, and why is extended bf ok, but extended bottle feeding not?

please can you help me? TIA

Breastfeeding continues to pass on immunities well past 12 months, as well as other benefits.

Extended bottle feeding (especially bottle feeding to sleep) can be very bad for a child's teeth, I think, which is why it's not encouraged.

[smile[

Oops, better get ds out of his bedtime bottle habit

I think bottles are felt to be bad for teeth? Mind you, I don't have an issue with children having bottles past a year, particularly if it's only a couple a day.

And many/most extended breastfeeders will tell you that the overwhelming reaction they come across is not that extended bf is OK...

I did bf to a year though, so bedtime bottle is fairly recent, til then it was boob at bedtime.

i agree, BFing doesnt affect teeth but bottles do, therefore extending bottle feedigng will increase the chances of teeth difficulties. hth

I do agree with the others about the teeth thing.

however, I do think that in a bottle fed child the bottle (or dummy etc) is a replacement for a breast. and as such shouldn't necessarily be taken away because it could have just as many repercussions as weaning a child early from the breast, iyswim?

ds1 had a bedtime bottle until he was well over 2. it was one a day, and I was happy for him to have it because it was his comfort thing before bed.

oh ok she never bottle feeds to sleep, has her bottle then bath/teeth cleaning, story and bed. i thought for developmental reasons (or perhaps it was teeth?) that babies should give up bottles by 12 months

really portandlemon???, although i personally never breastfed, i'd never judge anyone else who wanted to, and as long as the children aren't teenagers i don't see the problem in extended bf. I feel a tad bit envious of all of you who do/did bf, not enough to do it myself, but just an envy that you have the bond with your child that i might have missed out on.

Well, DS is 2 and is breastfed and has 1 bottle a day, so I guess that puts us in a pretty rare camp.

I'm sure he'll give up both eventually.

I don't see anything wrong with extended bottle feeding myself. It's always struck me as strange too.If kids like it, why not?

i have dim and vague memory that it is something to do with facial muscle development. the teeth thing must be because there is some sort of sugar in formula, but then i agree md, why shouldn't it be ok with just plain pasteurised cows milk?

My kids never really had a bottle but ds got hold of one when about 3 and thought it was the bees' knees.

ha yes ds got a dummy at from his friend at 2.

it was a bit odd actually, he went all spaced out on it.

dd had bottles till she was 4 then overnight stopped drinking. We now drip it into her with a syringe or she'd get no liquid.

My DS still has bottles at night and in the morning and he's 2.5

I've tried many times to get him off them but he just won't drink milk from a cup of any type. I tried the cow coloured (black and white) one that I bought specially but no way. I think it might be because he has his water in the day from beakers and at meals in 'adult' cups but these are always cold drinks, and he seems to think warm milk shoudl come in a bottle.

If it's a choice between getting a pint of milk a day down him with a bottle or no milk without a bottle I figure this has to be better for his teeth due to the calcium? But maybe I'm just being hopeful because it's in the 'too difficult' list...

I just can't see the problem with routines like you've described. If the child is capable of, and does, drink other liquids from a cup; and if the bottle is drunk in one go or under 20 mins, and is followed by tooth brushing at bedtime then it simply isn't an issue to my mind. It really isn't. My ds1 was 22 months before he gave up the bedtime one!

phew you don't know how relieved this has made me! thank you.