Bottle weaning

[lilac83]

I'm not ready to wean M off bottles. She still happily has 3 bottles per day and I love the cuddles. She's my last baby and I'm just not ready to give up that last bit of babyhood. Anyone else planning to allow baby to self wean bottles or btdt?

[Lolly]

If you are happy for her to have bottles for a while longer then that's up to you. I would say though that neither of my two would have self weaned, as long as I offered it they would have taken it so it probably depends on the temperament of your LO.

How much is she having in her bottles? From 1 they only need 12/14oz of dairy to get their needs met and that doesn't need to be liquid milk, dairy in their food counts. If they are filling up on milk it can have an impact on their solids intake and milk needs to be a drink now, not a food.

I dropped DD's morning bottle around 13 months as she wasn't eating breakfast, I swapped it to a sippy of milk as a mid morning snack and then just swapped her bedtime bottle to a cup at 18 months and she was happy with that. My DS still had his bedtime bottle at 2.5 and that was a bit of a fight to get rid of as he was really attached to it by then.

You do need to make sure that bottles are done with quickly so they are not carrying them around sucking frequently and make sure teeth are cleaned after, especially at bedtime (which I'm sure you know anyway ).

Laura

[Buttonbobs]

Hi there, I didn't really think that I'd let E wean from bottles as such, but when I read this through I started to realise that perhaps that is what we did.

E was always a big milk drinker. At 14 months she started nursery and was still on 3 bottles of about 7oz a day, plus had a really good appetite for solids. She is a bigger than average child in height and weight so I just went with it. At nursery they offered more solid snacks so she stopped taking the midmorning one at that time.

Then we continued with the morning and evening bottles until she stated waking slightly later and t was a rush to get to nursery on time, they already gave cows milk at breakfast and mid morning (although she never drank any at home) and so I just stopped the morning bottle. This happened around 18 months I think (although I can't be sure as I didn't write it down).

The BT bottle (before teeth brushing) continued until about two months ago (31 months of age). She was still eating really well and not gaining weight above her curve and I too enjoyed the cuddles. I made sure she was brushing her teeth afterwards and it was a little while before her window started. A couple of evenings we were out and she fell asleep after dinner in the car before milk and we out her into bed and she STTN. This have me confidence to begin a period where I didn't offer the bottle but if she asked me for it I didn't refuse. I also gave cows milk with dinner too which we still do but she often won't drink any.

This worked really well for us. I know there are lots of reported negatives about bottle feeding beyond a year, but I feel I took those into account and cared for her teeth and made sure she was eating well and not gaining weight too quickly and I'm happy we did it this way. It worked for us.

I hope that helps.

[lilac83]

I definely don't let M take her bottle around with her, there would be milk dripped all over the place! Right now she's doing 6oz before breakfast, still eating a substantial breakfast, 4-6oz after lunch before nap and 8oz formula before bed. I guess she is getting more than the recommended 12-16oz but she's eating well too, imo anyway.

Naomi - I love how you phased out bottles. That's how I'm hoping to do it as well, wait until such a time as they won't really be missed. Did you start offering milk in a cup when she turned 1 as well or did you wait for her to phase out bottles first? Right now I'm just offering water in a cup at her 2 snacks and dinner.

[Buttonbobs]

If I remember I offer her milk with breakfast and dinner, E will sometimes drink loads of it, sometimes none. She does well with eating dairy generally though so gets her allowance from food. I didn't offer her milk to drink when she was still having morning and lunch bottles but once these phases out I offered it to her.