Worrying about bottles

[Cantbedoingwiththistoday]

DD is 9 months old. She has 4 bottles a day: one in the morning, two when she’s at her childminders or nursery and one when we put her to bed.

She goes to a childminder twice a week and nursery once a week although this will change to twice a week when she turns one.

As she’s close to one now, I don’t see how we are going to get rid of the bottles. Obviously I’m not trying to get rid of them yet but I want to get rid of them when she turns one but I can’t see how?

Is she drinking water from a cup with her solids? My daughter is 8 months and sometimes uses a sippy cup, sometimes a little plastic beaker. She is learning to drink from those and I’m hoping by 1 year will be good enough with the sippy one to drink milk from that rather than a bottle. 3 months is a long time for a baby so I don’t think you need to panic yet!

Or is it the milk you want to stop rather than the bottles?

As she’s close to one now, I don’t see how we are going to get rid of the bottles. Obviously I’m not trying to get rid of them yet but I want to get rid of them when she turns one but I can’t see how?

I didn’t bother and I wouldn’t worry about it too much. The bottles should gradually decrease anyway - I think at 1 my DS was on 2 and now he’s 18 months and just has one first thing when he wakes up and drinks water/diluted juice from an open cup/sippy cup during the rest of the day. I don’t see the point in forcing it and turning it into a chore. It’s a nice part of our morning routine and in a few months I’ll probably just cut out the morning one and give him a cup of milk with breakfast. I would just recommend giving juice or water from a cup only and slowly reducing the milk.

Three months is a long time away - it's a third of her life so far! You could maybe drop one of the day time bottles if she's well established on solids, but mine just dropped his naturally - he drank less and less until I stopped giving it to him.

When he turned one, I started offering his afternoon milk in a cup. I'll offer his breakfast milk in a cup next, however I'm dreading getting rid of the evening bottle! However, I'm sure it'll be fine - most of these things we build up to be a really big thing but they take it in their stride!

When I stopped BF (at over a year) I just switched DD to drinking her milk out of a Munchkin 360.

You can switch to cows milk at 1 and swap to a cup.

If you're worried she'll miss the formula you could mix formula with cows milk gradually upping the amount of cows milk to get her used to the taste.

Then once she's content with cows milk, change the drinking vessel.

It doesn't have to be a sudden change when the clock strikes midnight on their 1st birthday.

DD still used bottles for milk if being looked after by someone else up until around 18m.

I stopped giving my DS bottles at 18 months. He is 20 months now and I was dreading it, he was only having one before bed and one day I just threw the bottles in the bin and gave him milk in a sippy cup instead and I don't think he has really noticed the difference

Honestly I spent from 12-18 months stressing about him still having a bottle and worrying about when I had to stop giving him one!

A big issue for us was he would fall asleep drinking the bottle of milk which I know is awful for teeth, so I would brush his teeth and then give him milk (awful I know).

Now it's in a sippy cup we get in bed and read while he's having his milk, then I brush his teeth in bed 🙈 then it's lights out and sleep and it's worked really well so far! And no more stressing about bottles and teeth

We stopped bottles at 12 months. Really wasn’t a big deal. Are you worried about dropping feeds down from 4 a day or the swapping from bottle to cup?

I just went with it one day.. I bought a munchkin weighted straw cup as I figured sucking through a straw wasn’t too dissimilar to a bottle. My little girl took about 2 minutes to get the hang and happily drank from it. I started with just morning milk and kept her night bottle (we were down to two bottles by 12 months) for another week or so. Then switched that too. I also switched up the straw cup with a basic sippy cup at breakfast after a couple weeks & she happily drank her milk from whatever cup I put in front of her. Maybe we were lucky but it was really easy!

That said, I know kids at 2.5 who still have a bedtime bottle.. probs not great for their teeth but no horror reports from their dentists either!

There’s a big difference between 9 months and 12 months! She’ll probably naturally move to more food and less milk anyway.

We were on 3 bottles a day by about 10 months. Replaced the mid morning one with a solid food snack and then gave one after lunch. Then around 11 months I swapped the lunch time bottle for a cup of cows milk. Then around 12 months the same for the morning bottle and then the bedtime one was gone by 15months

My DD is 2 and still has a cup of milk with breakfast, and before her afternoon nap and before bed. In fact my 4 year old often has them too. So once you’re on that routine it can stay for a while

Thanks all.

I’m mainly worried about dropping the bedtime bottle as we got into the trap of relying on that to get her to sleep. I don’t know how to get out of that cycle.

Also, DD doesn’t tend to eat as much with us as she does when she’s in childcare so that’s a worry too

When they’re a bit older and can communicate better you can swap the bottle for something appealing like an extra story.

I’d introduce the idea of drinking out of a cup and if she takes to it then aim to switch to her having her bedtime milk sitting on your knee while having stories. Then you can brush her teeth before putting her in your cot.

I’ve read on MN about parents who are horrified to be told that their toddler’s teeth are rotting and will need removing.

I’d say that the priority over changing the drinking vessel is to change the routine so that she has the bottle out of bed so that teeth can be cleaned before bed.

I know it’s difficult but I felt very motivated to go through whatever we had to once I realised that my 1 year olds teeth could be affected by letting her feed/bottle drink to sleep.

As others have said she will decrease milk feeds when eating more, and 3 months is a long time still.

Eventually, I would aim for morning and evening milk in a cup/beaker, and no milk at childcare (or just in a cup instead of water if they offer)