When to ditch the bottle??

[xav's mum]

Hi,

My son is 16 months old and is currenlty having a bottle first thing in the morning and at night, after dinner. At lunch time he has milk from a cup with his meal. When should I get rid of the bottles altogether and just have him drinking from the cup?  The only thing at the moment is when he has milk from the cup, he doesn't have much at all but when he has a bottle he drinks the whole thing.  His dairy intake also consists of yogurt at lunch and cheese with dinner.

Basically I am also worried that if I stop with the bottle, will he still be getting enough calcium?

I am having another baby in 3 months also, so I don't know if I should have him off the bottle before that or wait til things settle down after that. 

So many questions! So sorry! Look forward to hearing your advice.

Thanks in advance,
xav's mum

[Seona1973]

We stopped bottles completely by 14 months as I think the recommendation is to stop them by 1 year. At that point dd only had 2 bottles, 1 in the morning and 1 at night. I did it gradually and stopped the morning bottle first while still giving the bedtime one - I offered a drink of milk in a cup instead along with breakfast.  Once dd was doing ok with the morning milk I started offering the night time milk from a cup as well. She didnt take much the first few nights but then her intake increased again.

She doesnt take much milk at all now - in her cereal, and sometimes some along with dinner. The rest of her intake is made up of dairy products such as yoghurt, cheese, ice cream, etc and also calcium fortified fresh orange juice.

From 1 year the minimum intake is only 350mls (around 12 ounces) which doesnt all need to be taken as a drink so I am not too fussed that she doesnt take much milk any more.

You should find it easier to get rid of the bottle as your lo already has milk from a cup. I would probably do it now and then he will be totally finshed with them by the time the new bubba arrives.