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how do you know when to stop the bottle??

Hiya

MY LO is 14 months and he is still having abottle morning and night, my question is how do you know when to stop them because I tried taking away the morningone or putting the milk in a sippy cup but he will not have it.

At what age are you supposed to stop the bottles altogether? and what do you do just take them away and not give them any milk?

Sorry for so many questions but it does not get any easier does it?

L

Replies

  • Personally I just don't see the point in rushing to get rid of the bottle. They make life easier imo & I quite like having lo on my lap & his having his wake up & beadtime bottle with me.

    My lo is 15 months & still has a morning & night time bottles, he drinks all other water/juice from a sippy cup & is just learning how to use a normal toddler cup too. Although it can be very wet & messy, having a bottle clearly isn't affecting his other developmental abilities.

    My neice still had a nighttime bottle until she was 4, it was a comfort for her & also meant her mum didn't have to worry about her spilling milk on herself in bed. It hasn't affected her in any way.

    So go with your own instinct, if you want ot get rid of it then go ahead & change but IMO, if it aint broke, why try to fix it image

    If lo isn't happy about losing the bottle, you'll soon know about it image


    [Modified by: Beebee on August 06, 2008 11:47 AM]

  • brooke is 12 months and on last friday night she stayed at my friends house she made her morning bottle and brooke wouldnt drink it so sincethen i havnt given her it just given her juice in her cup and her cereal she is fine with it.. and she is sleeping better at night!! dont see how its relevant tho must just be a coincidence!

    i will give her bedtime bottle untill she is old enough to understand that she can have a drink of milk before bed downstairs then up to bed. but at the moment i dont think its a problem to have bedtime bottle..

    my friends little girl is 18 months and still has a breakfast bottle 2 o clock bottle and bedtime bottle...

    totally depends on the child i think. they will just give it up when they are ready! some nights brooke refuses bed time bottle too. but not very often


    xx
  • I wouldn't stress too much. My eldest boy is 3 1/2 and has just gone off his milk altogether and over the last week or so, we've managed to wean him of having a bottle at night with juice - he now uses a sippy-cup or suchlike. My youngest is at that mid-way stage between bottles and sippy-cups but he's only just 17months so we're not stressing. I'm expecting him to relapse a little, like his big brother did, when new baby arrives but they get thru it.

    Just go with ur instincts and for the most part, take ur cue from ur LO.

    xxx
  • thanks so much everyone for your responses I am jusy goling to stop worrying stop reading those flippin books and go with my instincts.

    He can have a bottle as long as he wants it
  • M????ne stopped the bottle at 11 months as ????t was tak????ng h????m sooooooooooo long to dr????nk h????s m????lk. He has pretty much dropped h????s bedt????me dr????nk too.

    Guess Im just lucky, each to the????r own - I certa????nly wouldnt be worry????ng ????f he was st????ll us????ng the bottle!
  • Hi
    I was really lucky and Matthew dropped the bottle himself at about 12m. He was so used to sucking hard on his beakers that in the end the milk was then coming out too quick from the bottle and choking him. I gave him a beaker at night and after a few nights he drank happily from the beaker.
    I introduced the beaker for mealtime and day time water drinks from 6m onwards. After a while he started having his mid morning milk from a beaker and then at 12m he was just beakers.
    I like the anyway up beaker (??1.99 at Tesco) Matthew seems to find it easy to drink from and it doesn't spill. He's scrapped the spout a bit but at that price i'll just buy another and use the beaker bits from the others when he's older.
    Oh, Matthew has some milk at 10/10.30ish and some at night time. I don't give him any other milk cos he eats lots of cheese, yog and has milk on his cereal.
    Good luck if you choose to drop the bottle, but as others said, i don't think it does them any harm.
    Juliette image
  • hiya primrose stopped having milk at the age of 9mnths she just didnt want it anymore..when she was 12mnths she had full fat cows milk on her cerial buts thats the only time she has it...she has a beaker at 12mnths with water in it.x
  • hi hun, izzy is 2 and a half and still has a bottle at night, i dont really know wat to do cos she still has her dummy at night aswell so cant get rid of both together, which du think i should try and get rid of 1st? x
  • I really wouldn't worry. Some people are so snobby about toddlers having bottles but as long as its only morning & night then what's the problem? My stepmum got her kids off bottles by 9 months which I think is a shame in a way, they should do it in their own time, as long as they're not drinking sugary juice from a bottle all day long which your LO isnt! x
  • I work as a Health Professional mostly in children’s development. There’s no problem in drinking milk even a glass of milk for older children. although bottles should be weaned of as they can cause speech and language delays and tooth decay as well as other problems, it’s best to stop bottles about 12-14 months although a bottle a day not really a problem, I would however not have any of my children having a bottle still at 3-4 years of age. I chose to swap at 12 months to avoid teeth growing bent and never used dummy’s for same reason, just didn’t want to use it as a comfort. Even to this day my children are healthy and the 1st has his bottle till 2. my others at 12 months moved to beaker and never even needed a dentist and started speaking 2-3 word sentences by age 16 months.

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