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Parenting

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Original poster

Dropping the bottle by 1?

12 replies

greenlizard · 09/01/2016 10:44

I have just been with my DS to his 10 month check and they told me that my son should not be taking a bottle or using a sippy cup past 12 months. Currently he has 4 bottles a day (1 first thing, 1 mid morning, 1 afternoon and 1 before bed). He has water from a free flowing sippy cup with all his meals. He has a great appetite for food and water and doesn't drink all his milk all the time. He still naps twice a day (once in the morning and a shorter one in the afternoon). He has never had a dummy so I don't have to worry about that as well!

When did you drop the bottles/sippy and how did you do it? In particular the last one is very much part of his bed time routine. I know that I need to try and wean him off it in due course but have no idea how to go about it and don't really want to as he has just started sleeping through the night regularly and I don't want upset his routine

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stargirl1701 · 09/01/2016 10:47

DD1 dropped all but the bedtime bottle herself by 12 months. The bedtime bottle (switched to cows milk at 12 months) went at 18 months. Just make sure teeth are brushed before night time sleep and only offer water in a bottle until morning. It's just one of the PITA aspects of formula bottle feeding.

lornathewizzard · 09/01/2016 11:13

We just swapped DDs bottles that she was still having (morning and before bed) to cows milk in (non free flowing) cups. No drama really.
I checked with the dentist about non free flow cups and she said those were fine as long as just water or milk (no juice) and that DD didn't have it with her all night.

skankingpiglet · 09/01/2016 11:46

By 1 DD was on two bottles, one before bed (brushed teeth after), and one when she woke up, and we'd switched off of the formula. She was very attached to her bottles... At 16mo I went cold turkey with the bottles and offered the milk in a sippy cup. It took a few days of complete refusal before she would accept the morning milk, but has refused bedtime milk ever since so I'm glad we left it a bit longer to make the change. I've never had anyone tell me not to use a sippy cup. We were told it was better than the bottle and we brush her teeth shortly after she's had the milk. She has water in a doidy for mealtimes (water in a straw cup throughout the day), but she has her milk sat on our bed and I don't fancy risking an open cup so it'll stay in the sippy.

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ODog · 09/01/2016 14:59

I would just drop the daytime bottles and replace with water and a snack and see how it goes. Maybe not. It's at the same time. Re-introduce and try again in a few weeks if he still wants them.

Re: morning and evening bottles I wouldn't panic too much. My DS is 19mo and still has these bottles as he refuses milk out of any other type of cup and since he doesn't like cheese and and isn't too fussed about yoghurt I'm keen for him to keep the diary intake. As long as they aren't sucking them all day and night and teeth are brushed then in sure it's fine.

I would ignore si ppy cup advice if it's a free flow cup. Does HV want him to drink from an open cup or would a straw cup be ok? I've never heard this advice.

uhoh2016 · 09/01/2016 22:23

Drop it when he's ready not when the HV tells you too. My ds 11m still has 3 7oz per day 1 morning 1 mid afternoon 1 before bed.

Vespar7 · 11/01/2016 10:24

I think it depends on the child. With DD I tried introducing a cup and she was not having any of it. Eventually she dropped bottles shortly after her 2nd birthday. We threw the bottles away and she asked a few times for them but she wasn't too fussed. With DS I tried again at a year and he sometimes drank the whole cup and other times not but then we gave him a bottle. We always gave him a cup first and in a few weeks the bottles were gone. I do think that a year is a bit young to start pressuring parents to drop bottles. In RL I don't know anyone who managed it.

neversleepagain · 12/01/2016 20:24

Our twins are 3.3 and still have morning & bedtime milk. They have this in sippy cups and have done from 14 months.

museumum · 12/01/2016 20:30

There's no need to completely drop the free flow sippy cup.
Ds had milk at bedtime in his from around 10mo till nearly 2.

Only1scoop · 12/01/2016 20:32

Did cows milk from 12 months.

Still had 1 bottle just before bed until 14 months.

Outaboutnowt · 12/01/2016 20:41

I didn't manage to get rid of the bottles by 12 months, DS had a free flow cup but wasn't interested in having milk in it. And he wouldn't touch cows milk at all.
I was confused too - I thought he had to stop having milk altogether but he was still on 3 bottles of milk a day at 12 months.

What I did was - started mixing cows milk with formula from 12 months until his bottles were all cows milk (this took about two weeks). Then I started offering the morning and afternoon milk in a cup and nighttime still in a bottle. Then at about 13 months I took the bottles away and only offered the cup. He didn't like the non leak sippy cups so I swapped it for a bigger free flow cup and he got used to it pretty quickly. If you keep the rest of bedtime the same the change from bottle to cup shouldn't be a big issue - I found small changes gradually was the way to go.

I might not have done this right but the HV didn't offer much useful advice and family told me to just stick with bottles so I just improvised!

Doje · 12/01/2016 20:43

Don't panic because a lot will change naturally in two months. By 1 year DS1 was only on a bottle in the morning and one last thing. We stopped the morning formula around 1 yr and gave him a sippy cup with his breakfast. A month or so later over a period of a couple of days we changed to milk in a bottle (one day doing 70/30 formula to milk, next day 50/50, then all milk), then soon after that we swapped to a sippy cup. He didn't bat an eye to any of these changes.

He still has a sippy cup of milk with his breakfast, and one before stories (and cleans his teeth afterwards) and he's almost 2 now.

Shelby2010 · 13/01/2016 23:50

Do what the majority of parents do & ignore the HV. If a bed time bottle gets your baby settled then don't mess with the routine! Start by using open cups of water at mealtimes when you can help stop DS dropping his food in it or pouring it on his plate but you'll probably want to keep using sippy cups for water in other parts of the house. I'd rather my toddler had free access to water but until about 2yrs neither of my DDs could be trusted just to drink it rather than play with it - hence sippy cups or sports style bottles except at the table.

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