Hi! I'm poking my nose in from the first year forum...

Sorry to intrude in your forum, but I have a question... I saw another thread where people had posted their feeding schedules. I noticed several included bottles 2,3 or 4 times a day at 14 months of age or older. I thought they were done with bottles at a year? I'm still nursing, which I will have to handle the weening decision in a few months, but I thought after a year they were just on "regular" food and juice or milk from a cup.
Do they still use the bottles as a source of nutrition? What is offered in these bottles? Are they more for comfort than anything?
Sorry, but it has been several years since my older girls were babies so I seem to have forgotten!
Thank you for any answers you have!
Helen

 

Formula or breastmilk is for nutrition, how they get it doesn't really matter. We switched the twins from bottles of formula to sippies of formula at 10.5 mos. Then just changed the sippies to milk at a year old. I was so ready to be done with the bottles! I think alot of people just aren't ready to take away the bottles from their little ones so they put it off. In my experience watching friends who made this choice, making the switch only gets harder the longer you wait. They get more stubborn! LOL

eta...feel free to "intrude" whenever you'd like! Everyone is welcome!

 

Taking your babies/baby off the bottle is a personal decision. I don't think there is a certain rule book where they say it's a must to be off by a year. Many mothers decided to take them off at a year for several reasons. 1) They get depended upon a bottle and it's harder to take them off of it as they get older 2)It's bad for their teeth 3) Some are worried about other opinions (others seeing their 18month old baby with a bottle and worried about what others will say). 4)Learning. They want to transitioin to sippies to learn to drink from a "big girl/boy" cup. I'm sure there are more reasons, but these are the main ones I've heard of.

I think this is something you will have to decide. I'm in the minority here. I did not take away the bottles at 12months. I just couldn't do it. They were not ready. Around 15 months they showed started to wean themselves and that's when we transitioned. Hannah is 13months and have not taken her off the bottle She drinks well from a sippy cup during the day, but needs the extra comfort of the bottle at bed time to go to sleep. We will probably take her off around 15 months as well.

After 12 months we did switch to whole milk, so if they recieved a bottle it was cows milk, not formula. Milk is still an important part of their nutrition at 12months+. They can recieve it either from a bottle or a sippy, just as long as they get it.

For my children it was more of a comfort thing! I choose not to take it away until they showed signs of being "too big" for a bottle.

My SIL took my nephew off the bottle cold turkey at 11 months (currently). He is not doing so well with it. I just want to give him a bottle, but I am not his mother. He is struggling terribly with this transition. I feel like he is not ready. Then I have known babies who do not have any problem what-so-ever with the transitioin. Then I have seen some 2 yr olds who still recieve a bottle. Every baby is different.

Our pedi. recommends being completly off the bottle by 18months. I think as long as you have yours weaned by then, it's fine.

 

I agree with above mentioned -- Mine was ready for transition from bottle to sippy cup just around their 1st birthday. However, I noticed my daughter, Rianna prefer bottle whenever she is sick. And of course, if my son Justin see that he want one that day too. :winking0009:

 

We started getting rid of bottles around 10.5 months by switching to cold formula in sippies at meals, dropping bottles one by one. At a year we were down to just one bedtime bottle, everything else in sippies, and we cold turkey switched to milk at 12 months. By 12.5 months, we were done with the bedtime bottle and on all sippies of milk with meals.

I do think, at least with my girls' personalities, the longer we let them have the bottle, the harder it would have been to take it away.

 

Everyone is different. My two were done with bottles, except for the bedtime bottle at 14 months. We got rid of bottles at 12 months and I was so glad to see them go. The bedtime bottle stopped at 15 months.

 

With my oldest, I thought the rule was at 1 year as well, so I did it. Fortunately, he was a breeze.
With the twins, I just could not see taking it from them at 1. I mentioned it to my doc at their 1 year check up & he told me 18 months was a fine time table, so I went with it & it worked out well.

 

We did it at 1 year, but I see many people still giving thier children bottles at age 2.

 

Great post. I was just lurking to see about this question and here it is!!

 

After mine reached one year, they started losing interest in their bottles and started prefering sippy cups. Pretty quickly we were down to only a bedtime bottle. But I didn't actually wean them off that one until their pediatrician told me she wanted to see them off the bottles by their next visit at 15 months. Two weeks prior to that visit, I started offering a sippy at bedtime instead and they (thankfully) were just fine with it.

K

 

As we decreased the number of bottles, they seemed to lose interest. I started to use sippies of milk at 12 months and were completed weaned off bottles by 14 months. Part of the trick is to find a sippy that they will like and use. Lots of people on this site use the Nuby straw sippy. Once I bought these, we were off the last bottle in a day.

 

I think that the way you give them a bottle plays its part, as well. Some babies walk around with theirs and it becomes almost a comfort toy. Other people feed their babies a bottle them take it away. In that case it is just a way to get food.

Personally, I just gave them a bottle to eat and then took it away. They never played with them or held on to them for any reason other than eating. Switching to sippies was a breeze for us. Sippies were just another way to get food. We "practiced" with them once a day, then twice, and so on, until they were able to handle them easily. Within a few days the bottles were gone. This was around 10.5 months. I switched from formula to D milk at 1yo because this is what the pedi recommended. Plus, milk was a lot cheaper!

I don't think there is anything wrong with doing things another way. It just depends on you and your kids. But, I will try to do the same thing with my cousin's son whom I babysit. It just seems to prevent a lot of tears.

 

My older daughter was off the bottle by a year. She was ready & I was very anal about her nutrition and since she was my only I had all the time to fuss over exactly what & when she was eating. Hannah & Natalie still get 2 bottles every day & sometimes 3. To be honest, it's not a comfort thing with them, I'm sure they would be fine if we stopped tomorrow. We still give them for convenience & I feel more comfortable they are getting all their nutrition this way. For ex - they are usually up between 6:45-7. It's been 12 hours since they ate, so we give a bottle right away. Our older daughter isn't up & ready to sit down for breakfast until 8 or 8:15. All four of us sit down and eat together, but I don't want to make them wait that long after waking. Then depending on what's going on that day they may get a bottle before lunch if we are having a late lunch or before afternoon nap if we have an early lunch. They are such messy eaters if we are on the go I don't want to give them a solid snack & a sippy - a bottle works much better. They sometime get a bottle before bed & sometimes not. It depends on how much they ate at their afternoon snack & dinner. I know the majority of TSers are on a strict schedule but our days are pretty varied and it works for us :winking0009: It's funny because DH & I were just discussing before I logged on that we really *ought* to get rid of the bottles soon...I admit, it's largely a convenience thing for me, especially since DH is in charge or bottle washing!!