when should I stop giving my dd bottles.

[K8eee]

She's nearly 16 months but is having 2-3 bottles a day. 1 mid morning before a sleep, 1 sometimes in the afternoon and 1 before bed. I've just googled it, and apparently I should've stopped by 9 months old I'm a bit confused

I was a terrible mother. I loathe and detest children running about with bottles, however, DD1 had hers until she was 4. It was her comfort and I know it's all very unfashionable and bad for them, but it kept her quiet and I am a woman with little patience. Also, she had orange squash in them, she is now 25 and has beautiful teeth. I would stop giving them to her when she stops wanting them.

It's really not the end of the world. If she drinks them quickly, doesn't have the teat in her mouth for ages, and seems to be eating well (as in, isn't replacing food with milk) then it's not always the most important battle to fight.

Having said that, have you tried yet to see whether she will take some of her milk from some form of cup? It could be worth trying to change to a cup of some form, see how she likes it.

I'd only advise changing as early as possible because we were quite laid back about this, only dropped the morning bottle at 2.5, and have only dropped the bedtime bottle at 3.5 Turns out the older they get the more wedded to the bottles they get, and it's harder to get them off it and onto a cup!

My hv suggested 1 yr old. So i introduced a sippycup at one.

So long as you're staying on top of brushing teeth afterwards I wouldn't worry. My Dd is 14 months and still has her bottle morning and night. We tried it in a beaker when she hit a year old and it was a mess, so we went back to the bottle. DD wants to do it herself and the beaker spilled everywhere, and since the no spill cups are no different to bottles in terms of pooling milk in the mouth I just went back to the bottle. I don't mind, it's only morning and night.

If I were you I might switch out the afternoon bottle for a snack instead, but don't worry about the others..

she'll drink from a sippy cup during the day. when you say try her with a cup, what sort? the nurse at her 12 month check up said a cup without a valve surely that's going to go everywhere?!!

DD is 26m and still has (watered down) milk morning and evening. I know I need to at least put it in a sippy cup rather than a bottle but I can't face it yet!

Was the hv suggesting an open cup? They were horrified when I admitted I haven't even considered giving DD one, I have cream carpets, why would I want drink all over them?!

DD's favourite drinking receptacle is a sports type bottle from The Range - it's free flow but the drinking bit flips down to lock it closed. Probably no better than a bottle though!

You can get lidded cups without valves or try one with a straw

dd was off bottles by 14 months and ds was taking milk from lidded cups by 10 months

trilby dd has one similar. it's not free flow, but has the flippy lid which she likes playing with which encourages her to drink throughout the day. I've put milk in it before, But the milk dries and turns sour in the straw

I think she meant a sippy cup without the valve in. even so, she'd end up wearing a lot of it. she's got into a hsbit recently too of finding it fun to dribble some of her drink down herself

I swapped my ds from bottles to strawcups at about 13 months, I just did it one day to see what would happen and he just drank it so never gave him a bottle since, never used a sippy cup for milk, I did use one for water but he couldn't work out how to lift his arms up to hold it, so I had to, so that's why I went for a straw cup.
He still has milk in a straw cup morning and night and will be 2 soon.
He drinks water out of an anyway up cup as open cups end in disaster.

My son is 22 months now, he has an AM bottle before breakfast and a PM bottle just before bed. He will have the bottles as long as he likes because he drinks them so fast the teat is in his mouth for 3 mins, he only ever has warm milk from the bottle and the rest of his drinks are from a cup. I'd like to stop them by the time he is 2 and a half but I won't rush him. He currently uses a Tommee Tippee cup, it's a free flow sports top kind bottle. We switched to this one a few weeks ago, he had a Nuby cup with a straw from about 9 months til we swapped, he's got on very well with both.

At that age they only need around 300mls of milk so multiple bottles a day aren't really required.

If you think it's going to cause problems getting her off the bottles, and it's not interfering with her food, and she's drinking it quickly, there's no need to stress about it, really. They all get off bottles eventually even if you have to bribe them with sodding expensive binoculars to achieve it in the end

My dd had half a bottle before her nap and bedtime till she was about 2. It made her all relaxed and sleepy and frankly I loved the cuddles. It was the only ones she had. I did fret about how on earth we were ever going to break the habit but over the course of a couple of days she just decided she didn't want them anymore and batted them away saying 'no milk'. Couldn't believe my luck!

I didn't realise this was something to stop so soon
My three year old has one first thing in the morning then last thing at night
She doesn't / didn't have dummies so I hope that offsets any potential teeth issues!

Ew, I hadn't thought of skanky milk in the straw. I will not use that one when we finally abandon the bottles!

I can't stand bottles and although I gave my DS the occasional one up until about 6 months (I mix fed) - I then just used sippy cups so he didn't have the option of a 'bottle'.

Of course, it's no one else's business what you do but ask yourself why you are continuing to give your child a drink in a bottle rather than a cup? A friend of mine used to give her children chocolate milk in bottles every bed time until they were 6 or 7 - and yes, I do think that's odd.

don't stress at only 16m. Start thinking about getting rid by 2 years. if she has a sippy cup in the day then she's on track

you can clean the straws with a small bottle brush.

I've always managed to the the small bristly end of a nuby bottle brush down the straw trilby.

seems a mixed subject! dd has a dummy, but her teeth so far thankfully aren't bucked

I can't see the problem in my opionion my dd is 15 months and has the same as yours. I don't plan on stopping them any time soon to be honest. My son still had a bedtime bottle until he was 3 and a dummy which he understood and got rid of himself at 3.5. It was his cwtch and I didn't mind that. He is 6 now and teeth are perfect, eats fine and drinks from a normal every day cup perfectly fine.
Not babies for long, you'll know when she's ready xxx

Dd1 was down to just a bottle for her last milk of the day by a year I think and she was off bottles by 14 months. I just found it easier to do it when she was younger as then we didn't have a fight over it. She did stop taking much milk for a while as she didn't like taking it from a sippy cup but we found a tall sippy cup she liked so that was fine.
She gave up the dummy just before her second bday which was great.

I don't think it's anything major but I would try and get rid of them sooner rather than later as the older they get, the more of a fight you'll have getting rid of them.

Maybe even cut back to the evening bottle initially? X