Stopping bottles?

Floxxie

I would take your cues from your baby. My little one is nearly 10 months and he doesn't have bottles. He has milk but it is fed in a cup. He has a very healthy appetite and just ate more and drank less. I have no idea what volume of milk he has as I don't measure it. I decided to give him a cup from 3 months and he started to prefer that to his bottles.

My other two - one had bottles until he was a year and the other until he was 18 months.

If my youngest requires more milk, then he can have it...no matter what time of day..or night.

Floxxie

Cullumpster

Mine is the bed time bottle ds is 2 and a half now it's the only one he has and it's a comfort thing any ideas on how to get it off him sorry to hijack the thread

lynnexxxo

Cullumpster wrote: »

Mine is the bed time bottle ds is 2 and a half now it's the only one he has and it's a comfort thing any ideas on how to get it off him sorry to hijack the thread

Sounds like my son! He's two and a half too. The way I see it, he likes a bottle of milk, it calms him down and helps him sleep. My nearly 5 year old also sometimes likes a bottle at bedtime (just don't dare tell his friends!). Call me a sluimmy mummy but if it makes them happy then why bother changing things - I prefer to choose the fights I really have to win!

They both drink it within minutes so don't really think the teeth arguement is valid .

jellyhead

Cullumpster wrote: »

Mine is the bed time bottle ds is 2 and a half now it's the only one he has and it's a comfort thing any ideas on how to get it off him sorry to hijack the thread

Mine is nearly 3 and a half and I was wondering the same thing, he's really not happy though when I try taking it away and hates milk from a cup - it's the bottle for milk and everything else in a cup, as far as he's concerned.

I could just get rid of the bottles but I know that he'd just have water to drink at bedtime instead of milk and then I'd worry about his calcium intake.

Sorry this isn't what the OP was asking. Um, I had dropped at least one of the daytime bottles before he was 1 but it depended on appetite. He carried on having a breakfast bottle for quite a while after dropping the daytime ones, and still has his night bottle now. It was the mid-morning bottle we dropped first, as has been suggested.

3KIDSNOMONEY

my son is nearly 11 months and i want to phase out the bottle.

he has 8 oz first thing, 8oz after lunch and 8oz at bed. he loves his milk and has extra on cereals, etc.

as i am stll giving formula and need to measure it out i am going to try an avent cup with soft teat tomorrow for his lunch. he has water out of a very soft top nuby cup so hoping he won't turn his nose up at milk in a beaker.

don't get too stressed over it

Katyag

My DS2 is nearly 18 months and he has one bottle in the morning, occasionally one before bed if we think he needs it.

We dropped his day time feeds before he was 1, he was having morning, mid afternoon and then bedtime but he was a sicky baby so we dropped the mid afternoon bottle as he eats really well and he wasnt bothered by it.

OP I would drop the mid morning bottle, dont reduced it down etc just drop it out completely and see how she goes and if no complaints I would drop the mid afternoon one a few weeks later. She might drop some of her own accord, my DS2 did with his bedtime ones.

Cullumpster

lynnexxxo wrote: »

Sounds like my son! He's two and a half too. The way I see it, he likes a bottle of milk, it calms him down and helps him sleep. My nearly 5 year old also sometimes likes a bottle at bedtime (just don't dare tell his friends!). Call me a sluimmy mummy but if it makes them happy then why bother changing things - I prefer to choose the fights I really have to win!

They both drink it within minutes so don't really think the teeth arguement is valid .

Do you think we all get sort of pressured to do it ... i mean it's not causing any harm, he gets off to sleep and i have a good nights sleep he's still on about santa at the moment so we've said at the weekend we're going to send a letter to him to say thank you for the presents he got and send him a present ....his bott bott

Sounds good but i'm not hold out any hopes really bless him but he seems up for it, i'll try it and see how we get on saturday night :eek:

Juliepink26

Just wanted to say my dd is 2 and a half and some mornings she asks for a milky milk and some mornings she doesnt, she still has a dummy and I have no problems with either, I had a dummy and bottel till I was 7 and I have always been complemented on my teeth, they are perfectly straight so the bottel and dummy had no effect at all.

She also sleeps in our bed, as I did when i was little girl, I have to say it was the safest warmest cuddlest place to sleep and Iam happy for her to do the same, my mum said at around 5 I just got out and got in to my own bed, there was no screaming crying locking doors etc..I moved into my bed when I was ready, and I turned out ok..lol

lynnexxxo

I totally agree with Juilepink, as a society we seem obsessed with getting our babies to grow up as fast as possible- taking away their comfort things (be that a bottle, dummy or blanket) and making them sleep apart from us from an early age.

Then when they become teens and want to be independant we (as a society) moans that they should be acting as children and not wearing makeup/dating/going to the cinema alone etc.

The only reason to get rid of bottles is to encourage them to eat more food and a more varied diet. Maybe giving smaller amounts of milk so the baby is not to full to eat (particularly during the day) would be a good idea?

jellyhead

Juliepink I was thinking of starting a thread to see if anyone else thought it was okay to keep the dummy and bottle at bedtime for longer. My eldest had a bedtime bottle until around his 5th birthday, and also decided to sleep in his own bed at around that age.

My youngest has his own bed which he has preferred from around age 2, but he likes me to get in with him sometimes - he doesn't like being in our bed in the middle of 2 adults though, but he is an enormous child, probably the same size now at 3 as my youngest was at age 7.

They are separate threads really - getting rid of bottles around 12 months, and then after 2-3ish.