14 month old still using bottle - help

[tiredmum20213]

Hi, my 14 month old is still on one bottle a day of formula before bed. He happily drinks water from a Tommee Tippee sippy cup but won’t drink much milk from a sippy for some reason. Whereas with the bottle he’ll drink the whole 200ml.

I am worried that bottles are bad for his teeth though. How can I stop this habit?

I’m also giving him the bottle straight before bed as I think it helps wind him down. Again another bad habit that is bad for his teeth but life in general is very stressful ATM and I can’t face disrupting his routine and having battles at bedtime.

Help!

My 14mo still has a bottle before bed and I dont see anything wrong with it tbh. One bottle for what must be 10/15 mins isnt going to do harm. I know thats an unpopular opinion on MN though.

Hi OP, have you tried just not giving him the bottle before bed? If you have, what happens? You could perhaps try putting water in the bottle for him to have before bed and then wean him off the bottle that way. I did this with my DD and because it was a 'boring drink', she ended up refusing it on her own and that was that. To be honest if you're in a stressful place in life I wouldn't worry about it right now, it sounds like you don't need a fussy baby on your hands for no reason. I'd just make sure teeth are brushed thoroughly twice a day.

Is there a reason it’s formula and not cows milk? Apart from that, I wouldn’t worry too much. Especially if it’s a comfort thing. My DS still had a bottle before bed (before teeth clean I might add) until he was about 2.5/3. One day he just said he didn’t want it anymore. He only had an ounce eventually but this was dropped from
About 5/6 over a couple of weeks.
At your LOs age, I would just try to get the teeth cleaned afterwards and leave him to it.

Agreed with @Letsallscreamatthesistene one bottle won't hurt and he will give it up/transition to a tippy naturally. If it helps, it took my first until 22 months and her teeth are good.

Is there a reason it’s formula and not cows milk?

He hates cows milk so I went back to formula Maybe I should try transitioning again as it’s been a month or so since I last tried?

Just keep putting it in a cup, he will take it if you persevere with it. It might be that he associates milk in a bottle so finds it a bit odd. But he can drink from a cup so keep offering. If he has milk with lunch it's often easier then, as he's still alert and a good time to help with the milk-bottle association.

You could try adding cows milk into the formula and gradually upping the amount an oz of cows milk and less formula at a time, increase every 3-4 days.

Keep all other aspects of his routine the same, you could even introduce another comforting part of routine to help wind down. Whether it's milk over In the Night Garden or similar and after tooth brushing, cuddle and story.

Just do what you need to do.

DD had her prescription formula until she was 2.5. She took her bottle to bed! She finished her milk (no teeth brushing after) then liked to have the bottle as a comforter. We didn’t put much formula powder in so it was quite watered down.

Her teeth are fine. It naturally came to an end, we took the bottle away and now she has stories and no milk instead. We struggled to get her to sleep and it was a battle I wasn’t prepared to go through! We’re probably awful parents for the teeth brushing thing and letting her have her bottle for ages but it got us through the toddler stage and I would do it again if we needed to tbh!

You either need to accept the current risks to his teeth with using a bottle at this age and not brushing or remove the bottle of milk just before bed. It sounds like you are not sure whIch one you want to do?

Throw the bottles away. He can’t have what you haven’t got.

You could try a gradual transition to cow’s milk by switching it an ounce at a time (so the first bottle is, say, 6oz formula and 1oz cow’s milk, then after a couple of days move to 5oz formula 2oz cow’s milk) and keep going until it’s all cow’s milk. Then if you wanted to move away from the milk completely you could gradually water it down until it’s just a bottle of water. That would be a gentle, non-confrontational way of doing it.

In the meantime, encourage a cup at every opportunity. Try different kinds of cups to see if there’s a shape he prefers.

The bottle isn’t great for his teeth but you can mitigate this by brushing them after until he has given it up.

My daughter had a night time bottle of milk until 2.5yrs old and then I just got rid of it.
Brush teeth after bottle and it’s fine
The formula though is strange

Have you tried the soya 1+ milk? It taste like ice cream and has lots of good stuff in it!

Relax and don’t rush it.

It’s fine. They are meant to suckle into toddlerhood.

He’s not having them in the day or juice in them. He won’t be doing this forever. Please don’t worry.

Nearer 2 he may well move to a cup or be more amenable to milk and then teeth.

I don’t see a problem at that age as long as teeth are brushed straight after. We still gave a bedtime bottle until she could properly use a sippy cup (about 18 months). She drank water out of a munchkin 360 but it took her while longer to master the sippy.

14 months is still a baby really. It’s a personal decision, but I would only worry past the 18 month mark be a use it gets harder to change things then. For us, dropping the dummy and bottle at that age was very easy. It would have been very hard at 2 years.

It does make me laugh that we are told to ditch the bottles and formula at 12 months but that it's perfectly normal to breastfeed a two year old to sleep.

Neither of mine would drink milk out of anything other than a baby bottle. When we ditched the bottles, they ditched milk for a while. DS1 kept his bottle longer than 12 months. He had one bottle of milk before bed and it was part of his bedtime routine. With DS2, he gave up the bottles closer to 12 months. We kind of accepted he wasn't going to drink milk as a result and got it into him through his food etc.

Give them a multivitamin and make sure they're getting plenty of calories into them through their food. Then they don't really need milk or formula.

We did the gradual transition from formula to cows milk and it worked great. I also used to brush teeth after milk in the dimly lit bedroom with a cup of water to rinse and another to spit so as not to disturb the wind down bedtime routine by having to go into a brightly lit bathroom. I do think in reality most people keep the bottle past 12 months but you do have to think of their teeth.

I don't want to hijack the thread - but can I just ask - what's peoples thoughts on breast milk before bed - I brush DS teeth and then milk before sleep - he wouldn't sleep if I brushed his teeth after - I am now worried that I'm damaging his teeth with Milk? (He's 1 with 6 teeth)

@OP I agree with PP - if it's a bad time to rock the boat, leave it for now - but if you can withstand the drama - throw them out. Does he self soothe to sleep?

My LO had a bed time bottle until 2!
Just make sure to brush teeth after, his teeth are absolutely fine!
It was his comfort before bed.

I dont think its an issue as long as teeth are brushed thoroughly after, maybe if he was 18m but 14m is still tiny.

@NigellaSeed my dentist said teeth don't need cleaning after breastfeeding unless they're drinking it expressed from a bottle. Health visitor said the same but I double checked with the dentist and he said its 100% fine. Something to do with how the milk doesn't pool in the mouth but I cant remember exactly as my little girl was 1 when I last asked about this. Shes 2.5 now, still feeds to sleep and her teeth are perfect.

My 15m DS still has his morning and bedtime formula from his milk bottle. We could transition I suppose but we have a nice little routine that I'm not too eager to break just yet. His teeth are brushed morning and evening and I see no harm at this stage. You are definitely not the only one OP so I wouldn't stress about it :)

Have u tried mainly formula with a top up of cows milk. That's what I did for a while and every few days or so done a scoop less of formula and more cows milk. It's a bit of a faff but it might work if he's refusing the cows milk.

I've only just took my 18month old off the bottle and she takes her milk in a sippy cup no bother I also don't heat it. I'm sure my first born wasn't interested in the milk when I took her bedtime bottle away. I did it maybe around 13/14 months which I think now was a bit too soon.

Thank you @ShinyGreenElephant xx

One bottle a fag will do no harm. I did that til mine were 2, no issues. Do what's easiest and stop stressing

Fag?? Haha fags will def so harm. Obvs I meant day 😂😂😅