Help with cup feeding ......

[heymissytoe]

Hello all my dd is 10 months on the 10th of Dec. I have heard a lot about stopping bottle feeding and replacing with cup feeding by the age of one year. I'm still unsure about the reasons for this I have heard that teats can cause dental problems and one HV said speech problems too. If anyone can explain more I'd be grateful. Also if the bottle has to go by the age of one year does the dummy/ soother have to go too for the same reasons? And finally my dd is very tempremental with the cup - she happily takes water from an avent and tommy teepee beaker throughout the day but is so so when it comes to milk in either of these. The tommy teepee cup flows freely and I remove the 'magic' element on the avent cup so that flows freely too - dd finds this easier. Advice, experiences and your thoughts will be very much appreciated.

Hi there,

My son did not give up his bottle until about 15 months. Once he could take fluid well from a cup I started giving him his early morning feed from one. I'm lucky as he did not complain about this.

As for dental problems - most dentists will recommend getting rid of the bottle as soon as you can due to the milk/juice etc sitting round the teeth too long when feeding that way. One of my friends who has breastfed her dd for nearly 2 years was horrified to find that this had caused tooth decay. (Dentist said it was due to prolonged breastfeeding and milk sitting around the teeth).

As for speech - well my ds is nearly 2 (20th December) and still has the dummy I said he'd never have. (Hah! That resolve took about four days of his life to go out of the window). He isn't saying much yet and all the literature I've read at work (I'm a HV)says he should be saying 50+ words and joining some together (yeah right). I get about 5 recognisable words, nothing joined up and alot of unintelligable babble when he plays. He's also an expert at animal noises! Don't know if it's the dummy that has held things up, if he's deaf as a post or if it's just because he's a boy and they can be a bit slower.
As far as I can see a dummy will only cause speech problems if it's never out of the mouth. We've all seen kids walking around with the dummy permenantly in their mouth. Most babies as they get to toddlerhood and are able to get about find less need for it during the day (except for naps) as they can entertain themselves.

That's probably not a lot of help I know (rambling away now)

Mandy

About the dental problems. Does your DD use a dummy or suck on her fingers? That's the real risk. What's called "non-nutritive" sucking (NNS, ie, on a dummy or a thumb) is the biggest risk. For instance, I was reading a research article last week -- it basically found that about 13% of bottlefed babies who also did NNS had a certain type ("posterior cross-bite") of crooked teeth (compared to 5% of breastfed babies who did NNS). I know that's not brilliant, but we do have modern good dentistry to fix these things. I haven't researched speech (yet), but I suspect it's a similar incidence...

ps, \link{http://press.psprings.co.uk/adc/december/1121_ac29728.pdf\Here is the original research article}, and a more readable summary of it \link{http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4017283.stm\here}.

Hi Amanda - that's useful - not rambling at all

Zebra - my dd uses the dummy to go sleep at night mainly - I'll have a look at the article now

Thanks guys

Heymissytoe.

My DD had a bottle for her morning and nighttime milk up until the age of 2 1/2,her juice/water was taken from a training cup, from being around 9-10months. (8yrs ago so can't quite remember). I will be starting my DS (nearly 6months) on training cups for juice/water after xmas. As far as teeth go I started to brush DD teeth as soon as her first tooth came and her teeth have always been perfect. I was thumb sucker until the age of 15yrs, and my teeth are all staight ( I have 3 fillings all through wear and tear!!).
Hopethis makes sense and helps.

Thanks Karen01

This is what I thought, morning and nighttime milk in the bottle then I can be sure she takes it all and has it nice and warm too. But just to buck the trend we have been using cups today so far and most of yesterday for all drinks and no complaints from the little missy. DP can't believe -he knows the general mayhem that ensures when either of us approach dd with a cup - so fingers crossed. I have tried to hide the dummy as well but it has come out at nighttime? I was worried because dd's first two bottom teeth have finally come through and they look a little crooked - in a horizontal sense rather than vertical. It's like a v shape - very hard to explain in writing. But I have terrible teeth load of filings and holes due to too much fizzy drink and sweets and caskes after my mum refused to let me have them as a child. DP and I have teeth that get more and more crooked as we get older - so perhaps its inevitable for dd but she is only nine months!. But she was breastfed and then bottle and uses dummy to go to sleep.

From what I can see lots of people use bottles past the year of one for some feeds and some children have dummies a lot longer than the age of one so I guess I am beating myself up - just being a typical mum

My dd has a morning and evening bottle but drinks from a cup during the day. HV says this is perfectly ok because it's quite nice to have a cuddle whilst she having her bottle. DD loves drinking from her cup because she sees her dad and I doing it. She used it from 6 months. My friend used to work for surestart and she managed to get me a doidy cup (a plastic cup which has a slanted base) and it enables the child to see what they are drinking and it also helps with teeth and dental problems. I'm convinced this is why dd uses a cup so well.

Heymissytoe- I noticed when DD teeth were coming that they too came through crocked but once they are fully out they have corrected themselves. I have always taken her to the dentist every 6 months from when she got her first tooth. The first two times all he did was sit her on the chair and get her to open her mouth so she got used to it. she has never had a problem going to the dentist and I am sure this helped. Infact now she keep asking when her next appointment is !!!

Karen01 - I was thinking of doing the very same thing - taking dd to dentist with me now she has two teeth. One of my many fillings fell out rather a long while ago and I need to see the dentist to get it fixed. I think just as you experienced the crookedness will correct itself but I'll defo take dd to dentist with me from now on.

We had problems getting DD to give up her bottle briefly. I think it was a comfort thing. So we cheated. We used Avent bottles and teets, so I bought the spout from an Avent magic cup, removed the non-spill value bits and just used the soft spout int he bottle - and it works wonderfully!

DD never liked using a spout cup at all, and we used a Doidy cup (has no lid or spout) from 4 months - with help - with her. They are available from www.bickiepegs.co.uk for about £3.50. When we got ours it was pretty much the only cup recommended by the dental health people.

BTW, DD had a bottle until a year old, and at 2y 8m still has a dummy at night only (has been night only since before a year old). Her speach is excellent. She started talking early and hasn't stopped. Even Father Christmas this week commented on how well she spoke for a 2.5 year old - think she talked him ragged!!! DD has never been allowed to try and talk with a dummy, and things like that.