When did you stop bottles for milk?

[Doireallyneedaname]

My boy turned 1 a few days ago and I had decided that’s when we’d ditch the bottles and dummy.

Dummy remains, but I want to stop the bottles and give him his milk in his Miracle cup (or whatever it’s called - I forget!) I tried him with it just now and he drinks it no problem, though obviously some of it spills and I’m not sure what bed time would be like with it.

My partner thinks he’s too young and we should continue with bottles (2 a day, one when he wakes up and one before bed)

It would certainly be easier to do this but he’s got to learn at some point!

What did you do?

Stopped bottles at 1 as recommended (though know a lot of people carrying on for a while longer, esp the bedtime bottle). My daughter wouldn’t take milk from a cup so we do a cup of water at bedtime plus books and just make sure she gets enough calcium from her food.

It was an easy transition for us.

Not sure what your husband’s rationale is for sticking with bottle given your son doesn’t seem to be resisting the cup?

Found NHS website quote: “Once your baby is 1 year old, feeding from a bottle should be discouraged.”

www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/weaning-and-feeding/drinks-and-cups-for-babies-and-young-children/

On first birthday except for occasionally bottle she had over night for the next month.

Why does he want him to still have bottles?

We transitioned to bottles that had straws in them so they still looked and felt like a bottle iyswim. This was when she was about 13 months. She's 2.5 now and we still do that at night and she has morning milk in a sippy cup.

Straws are a bit of an issue now if they are plastic. Just use the cup you want. DD2 never had a bottle. Get rid of the dummy too if you can.

We used the cheap sippy cup from IKEA (the 50p one) as the milk cup from 1 - he still had a bottle at night for a few weeks after while we used up the last of the formula before switching to cow's milk.

Ditched the dummy at 2 when he started sleeping properly. It was only got naps & nighttime sleep from about 9 months.

Thanks all. I think his dad knows sees a bottle of milk as a comfort thing for the baby, so initially wanted him to keep having it. To be honest for the last few months he mainly refuses most of his night bottle anyway, maybe has 1oz.

Can I ask how you offer milk in a cup at night? I normally offer him a bottle upstairs after his bath, but drinking from a cup gets messy so in bed isn’t an option.

I’m thinking of just offering him his sippy cup with milk before bath, then bath and upstairs to brush teeth and go to bed.

Any other ideas?

Just don’t offer milk before bed. He isn’t interested and it’s not needed.

@Thatwentbadly I agree, but when I asked about this on Facebook a while ago when he started refusing his night bottle I was told he MUST have milk and I should dig around to find out what the problem is.

I thought that as long as he was getting around 350ml per day it was fine, even if that includes in yogurt, cheese etc too.

He needs 350mg of calcium a day. That’s about 3 portions. That can be from milk (dairy or any other except rice milk), yoghurt or cheese and you can get forfeited breads and cereals too.

He doesn’t need a bedtime bottle of milk - whoever told you that is talking nonsense x

We dropped it at about 2-2.5 and he is 6 with perfect teeth around same age for dummy

He doesn’t need a bottle - it’s bad for his teeth (anyone who says their kids had one and were fine were just lucky) - and not recommended by dentists or the NHS. My DS never had a bottle - I breastfed him until he was 13 months and then he had a tommee tippee free flow sippy cup for his bedtime milk. We also introduced teeth brushing after the milk at the same time
(had previously fed to sleep). He still has his cup of milk with his stories at nearly 3.

My kids both dropped bottles about 12-15 months. And they loved their milk before bed so it was definitely a challenge. My DD (age 3) still does. She just has it in a 360 cup rather than a bottle and then we brush her teeth afterwards. We do it while we’re reading books and it doesn’t make a mess.

If your DS isn’t that fussed anyway then get rid. I loved being free of bottles. No more cleaning them! My DS had his dummy til just about 2 and then we stopped it. He loved his dummy and slept great so I didn’t want to rock the boat, but he adjusted fine and went back to sleeping as normal in a few days

We stopped the bottle at 1, dd was never a big fan of cows milk anyway. Switched to giving it as a drink from a cup during the day. She’s 2 bow and drinks no milk at all! She has plenty of other dairy though x

Get a 360 cup from nuby (they sell them in aldi and asda). It has a special lid that stops spillage buy you still drink from it like a normal cup.
I only ever gave the kids formula in their bottles, so water and cow's milk was always in a cup, sippy cup or 360 cup. I think cow's milk is less sweet than formula/ breast milk, so I though it would get them off bottles quicker to only give cows milk in a cup and luckily neither child minded.