Drinking milk from a bottle at 15 months

[kparker]

My little guy eats really well (usually!). He's down to having milk in the morning and before bed with perhaps a tiny bit of milk with his lunch. He's happy to drink water or a bit of milk with lunch from any sippy or cup but he HATES anything but a bottle with a nipple for his two milk feedings. I've tried lots of kinds of sippies but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. I try to treat the bottle like the breast and I don't think two snuggly times with the bottle and mommy is really such a bad thing. He eats lots of solids and gets his teeth brushed three times a day, too. He only has milk from it and isn't allowed to run around with the bottle. But I keep reading "official" information that says he should drink from a sippy or cup only by now. Is a sippy really that much different from a bottle? Won't he grow out of wanting the bottle eventually? Thanks for your thoughts.

[Rosie_t_Riveter]

I'm not sure this will answer your question, but what happened here was... I told DP "the advice is for them to be off the bottle by 12m" when TheWriggler was 11.75m. The next morning he brought up a sippy cup with his morning milk in it. This didn't go down well with TheWriggler and he reduced the amount of milk he was drinking by a fair bit, but he was already eating well and I upped the amount of yoghurt I provided for a bit before I relaxed and realised he was just fine. We still had cuddles at bedtime, even though he no longer had milk.

Having said that, if you're both happy with a cuddle and a bottle in the morning and evening then why change it? I think the main thing is to make sure they don't *only* have a bottle at 12m and you don't put anything but milk in it (no sugary drinks, for example).

[pirate_han]

B still has a bottle for her bedtime milk. She likes it, it's part of her routine, she brushes her teeth after it. I figured that it's such a tiny portion of her 24 hour day that it wasn't really worth worrying about, so I plan to enjoy the cuddles until she doesn't want it any more.

[mamapup]

To add to rosie's words of sense, I know loads of kids who.still have milk from a bottle at two. Never had to worry here though as my puppy would never touch a bottle, ever. He won't be having milk feeds forever so I wouldn't worry.

[DIMDongMerrily]

Dylan cut his milk down to two bottles a day by about 14mo, then at 18(ish)mo cut down to one bottle. He kept that one until he was about 2.5yo and then decided he didn't want it anymore. I didn't worry about it too much tbh, it was a comfort thing and (like PH's B) he always had it before teeth brushing so I wasn't worried about it damaging his teeth.

Tbh (this might sound judgy but I don't mean it to!) I think the guidelines wrt bottles are not so much aimed at sensible parents who might let their kid have a bottle past 12mo but take care to clean their teeth after, etc, as they are aimed at the parents who put their child down for every nap/bedtime with a bottle in their mouth to fall asleep with. The way I've always understood it is that it's that which is really damaging to teeth..

So, no, I wouldn't worry about the bottles - he will wean eventually.. It's Baby Led after all

[WishingBone]

Agree about treating bottle feeds like breast feeds - no harm at all if it's twice a day and they find it comforting. It's wandering around all day with a bottle full of ribena that's damaging. Bear had a bottle till she decided at 2.5 that it was for babies. Smudge still has one at 2.

[jvnt]

What they said - the boy had a bedtime bottle till 2.5 , no harm done. My feeling is that they don't want a bottle for ever and if it isn't broken don't fix it.

[kparker]

Thanks gang! You've all pretty much summed up what I was feeling about this. I'm sure all is well.

[UnhappyRightFoot]

Munchie still has a bottle at 3.5! Before bed has been her only feed for well over a year now. But she likes it, won't use anything else and there are bigger battles to have! WTS about sugary drinks but will also add that they shouldn't fall asleep with it either - I think it's to do with pooling the milk near the teeth and causing damage. Munchie sits up with us on our bed for a story and then, when she's finished, she goes to bed.

[Terry_09]

Nice post!