Bottles and teeth

[Tianatiers]

Hi, I know advice is to stop giving bottles once your baby is one, the reason being it is bad for their teeth. I can't seem to find out whether this because it will damage the way their teeth grow or because it will cause cavities. If it's the former then if it's just morning and night for a few minutes, is it really going to have that much of an effect on how their teeth grow? If it's the latter, then if you're brushing their teeth after their bottle at bedtime and in the morning, what's the problem?

I'd be interested in replies from anybody with experience of a child that still had a bottle long after they were a year old and whether this caused any problems with their teeth.

At the moment I can't muster the motivation to try and wean my DC of their night and morning bottle when it's the only way they'll drink any milk.

Some people don't brush their baby's teeth after the last bottle so milk is around the teeth all night. Its less of an issue if teeth are being brushed and only water given afterwards.

From age 1 they only need around 300/350mls of milk anyway.

Thank you, that's interesting. We definitely brush DCs teeth before they go to bad and only give water at night.

Toddlers don’t need to drink milk but they do need 350mg of calcium a day which can come from other sources including yoghurts and fortified breads and cereals.

I think the no bottles after 1 thing is more of a developmental issue than related to teeth. From 1, children really should be moving to drinking from a cup. It uses different hand/eye skills and requires they practice more coordination. I think the only concern with teeth is that some people give a bottle to them in bed during the night (like put them to sleep lying next to a full bottle, so they can drink it throughout the night). That is bad for teeth because of the constant coating of the teeth with little sips. You can't do that with a cup. But offering a bottle for overnight feeds is fine if you need to and same with the bedtime one for a bit. The overnight feeds will drop soon and you can move to a cup for bedtime milk, but does take a bit of time. My 2nd was bf, but was happy to take a cup of milk around 14/15 months at bedtime (I bf during the night) and my bottle fed one would take it from around 13-15 months.

@Tianatiers still had bottles at 7 (yes) both me and my brother. Zero teeth issues, healthy as a two-year-old horse! No braces, no cavities.

Teeth are about maintenance throughout the day as well as genetics and good brushing technique.

If you brush morning and evening and then give plain milk bottle for bed, I would not worry much unless your dentist says otherwise.

The other thing to keep in mind is a dummy - I see a lot of kids with dummies when out and about etc. Dummy should be for bed time to help them settle and kept in bed. That imo causes much more problems with teeth in terms of braces etc. than milk bottle.

I think it’s both bad for teeth and also development of muscles important for speech etc. My daughter is 21 months and still has 2 bottles per day, I have tried to give milk in a cup instead but she just refuses it. She’s not a great eater and for medical reasons needs extra calories so I can’t just drop all milk.

I spoke to my health visitor, she said the real issue comes in when a) they’re sipping from a bottle on and off all day, esp if the bottle has juice or fizzy drink in b) when they also have a dummy in most of the day, so they’re not able to practice their speech as much and c) if you don’t do their teeth after the last bottle of the day before bed. She said 2 bottles given for a set period (not sipped all day) and teeth done before bed, not the end of the world.

My 18 month old has a bottle of milk in the evening (after tea rather than before bed) and we brush teeth a while after that so I don't see a problem. She drinks water from a sippy cup but will not entertain milk in any type of cup.

I might try ditching it in a few months but tbh I think there are bigger fish to fry. It's one bottle, in her mouth for two minutes and it's never been a sleep cue.