Giving up the bottle

[IMissPlutoBeingaPlanet]

Dd is 9 months old and only drinks milk from a bottle, but will take water from a beaker - although not a huge amount.

When hll I try and get her to give up the bottle?

it's advised to phase out bottles around 1 year of age so you have plenty of time

I should probably start now though if I need to get rid of them by 12 months right? That's only 3 months to get her used to a beaker. I can't see her drinking much milk from a beaker. She only manages a few sips of water as it is.

as long as she isnt eandering round drinking from a bottle or drinking juice from a bottle uts perfectly fine for her to have her milk in a bottle.

my dd is 20mths and has 5oz in morning and another the same at bedtime. just clean teeth after the bottle before bed. water in sippy cup ie tommee tippee type, during the day.

ds4 had a bottle of milk as part of his bedtime routine till he was 3yrs old. two if my elder children bfed till 3 and a half years old. milk from breast or bottle us a nice comfort for babies/toddlers, as long as they dont fall asleep with bottle or have it all night/day its fine and they will grow out of it.

9mths is very young to start taking away a comfort like that and milk should be ger main source of nutrition until she is one.

wandering around

DS was about 20/22 months when we stopped giving him a bottle at bedtime. He was having his water/juice etc from a sippy cup from about 6 months.

We didn't have any issues switching to a cup at bedtime, despite me dreading it!

Thank you

It's easier to do it sooner than later. At nine months solids have kicked in and your baby is starting to get most of her nutrition from them so morning and evening milk is for comfort more than anything else. It doesn't matter at all now if she doesn't have as much milk - what matters is the calcium and she can easily get all she needs from yogurt, cheese etc as well as other calcium-containing foods. I'd keep going with the sippy cup and start dropping the bottles. You'll probably also find that if she's drinking less milk then she'll eat more solids.

no milk is still a very important source of nutrition up to a year, and should be their main source of nutrition.

also sucking is instinctive for babies and very comforting for them, they grow out of the need to do this, some earlier than others, but 9mths is very young, so if she struggles with a cup for milk, i wouldnt worry about it at all.

offer milk in a bottle at 9mths i think they 'should' have 3 bottles a day, they need 20oz of milk a day (tho some of that can be made up with yog, cheese etc) and then offer her water in a cup at mealtimes and in between.

Thank you...she has 4 bottles a day so maybe I can change one of these to a beaker instead.

Actually, 5mad, from 9-12 months the advice is 'up to' 500ml (17oz) milk a day but there should be four servings of starchy food, four of fruit and veg and two of protein as the relative nutritional value of and need for milk grows less. Milk is NOT a baby's primary source of nutrition up to a year old, that can lead to iron deficiency.