Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Getting off the bottle

8 replies

Em32 · 27/04/2005 12:39

Hello I'm looking for help with my nearly 15 month old who refuses to drink milk out of a beaker (he will happily take water from one, and does throughout the day). I know you are supposed to get babies off the bottle after 1 year but we're not having any success. I'm not hugely worried as he just has two bottles a day, morning and evening and sits on my lap to drink them, so I can't see how it can really be harming his teeth, but know I need to do it sometime. Has anyone got any suggestions? He's getting quite independent and will only eat with his hands at the moment so I thought he might be ready to give the bottle up, but no.... Thanks

OP posts:
colditz · 27/04/2005 12:41

Mine still has a bottle and he is two, so no advice to give here!

Gobbledigook · 27/04/2005 12:43

I got mine all off the bottle by 12 months - I think their milk intake plummeted but I didn't worry too much about it and made sure they ate yoghurts, cheese, rice pudding etc to make up for it.

You're probably not doing any harm with a bottle in the morning and one at night so I wouldn't worry too much. Just the longer you leave it the harder it might be to 'wean' him off it later. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it though. Just keep trying the beaker.

tarantula · 27/04/2005 13:07

my dd is 15 mnths and we have only got her off the bottle quite recently. We introduced beakers quite slowly and didnt fret if she wanted a bottle instead and gradually she took to the beaker. It started with her taking a small amount in a beaker and the rest in a bottle.
She also has two different kinds of beaker a magic cup for water and a tommee tippee one for milk. Not sure exactly why it went like that but we just found shed drink milk from one and water from the other so tahts how its stayed.Shes also odd in that she'll drink cold milk from a normal cup but will only drink it from a beaker if it is chill off or warm.
these things take time so keep persevering and there is no harm in him having two bottle a day.

nailpolish · 27/04/2005 13:18

can you not use the avent beaker spout/teat things on the bottles? oh im not sure, but worth investigating

or try and let him choose a cup in boots - my dd chose her own cup and it made it extra special

Original poster
Em32 · 27/04/2005 13:57

Hmm I wondered about having two different kinds of beaker. I do think he's decided that his Heinz beakers are water only as he looks extremely unimpressed to find milk in them but delighted if it is water (strangely enough). Thanks for everyone's advice, I'll try the avent spouts in the bottles as well but suspect it is the sucking from the teat that he especially likes, we'll see!

OP posts:
vkone · 27/04/2005 14:52

I've been trying to do this and have now given up for now, friends who've managed it say that they took the opportunity when their child had a bad cold, as the child found it difficult to suck on a bottle with a blocked nose.

Sooo, I'm just waiting for a real streamer and then we'll have another go!

Cristina7 · 27/04/2005 14:57

Mine still had a bottle at 4. He gave it up by himself. He has beautiful teeth.

rubles · 04/05/2005 13:31

I am having the same sort of dilemma at the moment with my dd who is 12 months. I, like you give her milk from a bottle twice a day, on my lap, and when it is over I take the bottle away. I have this nagging concern though that I should be moving her onto a beaker, probably brought on by the likes of Gina Ford...but then when I am unsuccessful and dd is repeatedly throwing the cup across the room in a fury, I find myself wondering why exactly.
There is the argument about tooth decay and palate development but actually I don't know if this applies to people like you and me. I suspect that this concern is based on the assumption that the baby has it in their hands and is wandering around for a prolonged period sucking on it, or that the baby is being given the bottle to go to sleep with at night. If my suspicion is right then because our babies only have the bottle in their mouth for a total of less than 20 minutes in the day they are not at risk. In which case we are being forced to waste our time worrying about things that are really not of great importance to our children's wellbeing at all.

Having said that...I can't stop myself trying and will be offering her a cup first at her next feed!!!

New posts on this thread. Refresh page