HOW DO I WEAN OFF A BOTTLE???

[PEONY1318]

Hi,!

Would any wise mums out there be able to offer advice on how to wean an 8month old off his bottle??? My LO is 8 months plus and refuses to drink from a trainer cup, have tried the avent ones and also this other one which I cannot remember the name. Please help! Have tried to teach/ get him used to drinking straight from a cup but all liquid just spills out!

I am getting desperate as health visitor says a baby should be off the bottle by 1 and also am worred that the bottle is not good for his teeth (he has four).

Please help!!!!

What are you giving in the cup? Water? Milk?

My 14 mth old still has a bottle for milk but can manage to drink water out of a tommee tippee cup with lunch

Are you brushing your lo's teeth?

Why should a baby be off the bottle by 1?

Why is a bottle bad for his teeth?

a bottle is only bad if you put bad things in it...
I know i'm lazy but my ds is 20 months and still has bedtime milk in a bottle, then brushes his teeth. he can drink out of all sorts of cups. don't stress about it. keep prcticing with the tommy tipee with water ONLY. ps i'm a dentist!!!

Forget it until he is 1 ! ? If you are using the avent bottles try a magic spout with the valve removed on the bottle base (other wide neck sysytems may also have an interchangeable spout)but many babies can't use a cup successfully that early. ds used bottles until after one, then the spouts having had his teeth early, with no ill effects.

I never had a problem getting DS to take water / juice from a cup, but milk was a problem as he associated it with bedtime.
I tried him at about 10 months, as like you I'd been told they need to be off it by 1 (someone told me it can affect speech development - I don't see how, but you do worry about these things as a parent!).
Anyway - he was having none of it. I tried bottles that look like cup, cups that look like bottles etc etc! In the end I gave up for a while and just tried periodically.
For some reason at his 1st birthday he decided he'd have his milk in a cup - as if by magic. I just assume he wasn't ready before and 8 months does still seem quite young to be worrying about getting your baby off the bottle. I would wait til he seems ready.

Thanks everyone!

Mabel1973 - sounds like what you went through is exactly what I'm going through now - my LO won't have any of it anyway I try to disguise the bottle! You're right about the speech development thingy though that's what I'm worried about initally, but will take it slowly and try as you suggest periodically and hope for the best....

I am brushing his teeth but worried about something I read called bottle mouth or something, Louis mummy - should I be brushing his teeth after milk as well as my dentist says it's not necessary to brush after his milk (as he goes straight to bed)(generally would brush whilst he's in the bath)????

LIZS - will try to remove the valve from the magic spout and see if that works...

wish me luck all!!!!!

We went to the dentist today with dd (2.9) and ds (11mnth) he said not to worry to much about brush techniques and frequencies with milk teeth as their shape makes them pretty plaque resistant. He said it was important that they have a small amount of flouride(sp!) and get used to having a tooth brush around but not to worry too much about how and when it's used.

Thanks Leggymamba! Have put a little dab of baby toothpaste for him during bathtime.

My 18mth still has a bottle for his milk and is happy to drink water/juice out of a beaker. Should i be trying to wean him off the bottle? I have tried but before but he would throw a tantrum until i put it in a bottlen for him. Didnt think a bottle would cause speech problems. I could understand a dummy of thumb sucking. Ive also seen other chidren around hi age with bottles still.Sometimes I get fed up with hearing from h/v's that he should be doing this or he shouldnt be having that just because dykwim. You never know whether their is a genuine reason for it.

there is a big culture here for babies bottles to be taken away ASAP, the french let there children have them for longer than a year.

I would relax , and reduce the bottle very slowly over the next year.
Let babies be babies.
A baby gets great comfort from bottles and breast, whats the mad rush?

just my two penceworth!! LOL

Health visitors! Look at them, smile. Nod. Agree.
Then Do Your Own Thing!

My son still have his milk from a bottle (4-5 bottles a day) and he is 14 months. He has water from a straw beaker, normal plastic cup or magic cup (depending where we are and how much mess we can make!). I'm not concerned about it at all. The other mums from my antenatal group are all still giving milk from a bottle, although they only have 2 bottles a day. Maybe try just a straw beaker with no valve for water and see how you get on. Don't worry about what the HV says.

My 13 month old still has 4 or 5 bottles of milk a day too, she loves it, she drinks juice or water from a breaker. It doesn't bother me as their still getting most of their goodness from milk until their 2 anyway and if its how she likes it, then fair enough I think she still finds it very comforting. I don't think HV are in the real world sometimes, especially the ones that have never had children themselves.

Hello My 2 kiddies are completley different. I have a daughter who is just 6 months old and is off the bottle, and drinking out of a beaker already. But i also have a 21 month old baby, who is still on the bottle. The problem is that it is a big time comforter for him. I would love any advice fom mums on how to wean him off!. Also any good techniques on brushing teeth as he hates having them brushed! (tried giving him the tooth brush to hold and play with):)

I wouldn't worry about weaning off the bottle yet, 8 mths is very young. My kids were all different. DS1 was drinking out of a beaker by the age of 1, dd wouldn't take milk from anything but a bottle so had a bottle until she was 2 and ds2 who is 15 months gave up his bottle at 10mths.!

Just do want they feel happy with. If they want to have milk from a bottle until they are 2, whats wrong with that?? With dd I think it was because she doesn't actually like to drink milk. Even now at 3.5 she will not drink it.

Only one thing though, suggest you only give milk from a bottle, everything else goes in a beaker. This is from someone who went through her childhood with black teeth 'cos my mum gave me juice in a bottle. Not nice.

I remember hearing this when dd was 8 months and going through the battles you are going through because she 'should' have been having drinks out of cups then and she wouldn't have any of it.

It is such b***s it makes me angry. Complete and utter tosh.

Having a sugary drink out of a bottle, and having that hanging out of their mouths all day long yes that is probably damaging to their teeth, but really it's not worth HVs getting hysterical about them having milk out of a bottle at night or even at specific times of the day....they won't be needing milk so much in a couple of months so what's the big deal??

My plan was giving her the straight forward tommy tippe cup with each meal, filled with water, and she could just play with it. If she drank, fine, if not then noone was stressed about it as she was getting her fluid from milk anyway. That worked a treat and by 12/14 months she was onto cups happily. I phased the night time bottle of milk out about 6 months later.

Honestly. The unnecessary stresses we have to suffer in the first year because we are told we should and shouldn't be doing certain things to a certain arbitrary timetable. It makes me mad.