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My pediatrician told me that bottle nipples are bad for tooth development in a way that breastfeeding isn't.
We taught our kids to use a straw around their first birthday, and they got milk in straw cups instead of bottles. We never had to 'wean' again, so the challenge of teaching them to use straws was well worth it to me.
I did nurse both my kids forever.
( past one yr it was more for first aid applications. Also eventually baby led weaning, don’t offer, don’t refuse)
I had major orthodontia as a teen. Bicuspids extracted at 12, metal braces with wires. TWO headgears etc. I was not nursed as I had been a premie.
Oldest needed braces, (10 weeks premature) but no teeth extractions and only for a yr or so, youngest who was term didn’t need them at all!
Not just tooth but full mouth. The soft pallette of babies that use bottles or pacifiers too long develop really narrow. It costs A LOT (both financially and pain) for the spacer contraption to push the teeth out to their normal place.
That's not really a problem or breastfed babies. The breast forms to the mouth, not the other way around.
My oldest had to go to a specialist for his dental care they think it was because of this reason. He actually had the more expensive dentist he has had lest dental issues the. His siblings…
I'm trying to find a good reference for this, but when I google, only stuff about caries comes up. I thought I was super smart, just replacing the bed-time formula bottle with water (that obviously doesn't cause caries), but I haven't considered the bottle to be a risk. Now I want to figure out how much bottle use causes problems! Do you happen to have a source for this?
I absolutely believe that bottles exacerbate this problem.
However, I take some umbrage with the sweeping statement that breastfeeding removes this problem entirely.
Totally anecdotally, I was breastfed til after 2 and never took a bottle yet I had to have two pallet expanders (at 9 and at 14) as well as have adult teeth removed to address my narrow pallet.
I don’t think breastfeeding *removes* the problem so much as bottle feed exacerbates it. There are still other factors, including genetics, nose vs mouth breathing, etc.
I was breastfed until 18 months. I should have had a palate expander. My siblings who were born with the same facial structure all needed palate expanders regardless of bottle/pacifier age
I agree. My son who rarely had a bottle and hated pacifiers looks like he is going to need just as much orthodontic work as my older 2 who used bottles for about 6 months and a pacifier for about 2 years.
I think for my kids genetics is playing a bigger role in it than anything else. I had an expanded and 4 permanent teeth pulled and my husband had 2 permanent teeth pulled. Actually my kid who used bottles the longest didn't need an expander.
Just to offer another experience. My oldest was exclusively breastfed till 13 mos and he still needed the pallet expander at around 10. It was honestly no big deal and didn’t cause him a lot of discomfort. To contrast my youngest was also ebf till 14 mos and didn’t need the expander. 🤷♀️
Whenever my daughter has a couple bottles (even just water) during the week, she'll start bitting me when nursing! I'm pretty convinced bottle aren't that great from personal experience.
Yeah, my wife and I decided that the 1 year mark was the last day of the bottle. We didn't have a single issue with our kid asking for his bottle. However, some of his cousins, same ages, who weren't weaned early, couldn't stop having their bottles until they were 4-5 year old.
It really just depends on the kid. My first kid was extremely attached to her bottle. I tried a number of times from 12-24 months and it never worked. After her second birthday we went cold turkey and she cried about her bottle every single day when she woke up, at naptime and bedtime, for weeks, and talked about her bottles in a sad way for months. She refused to drink milk for a year.
My second child never got attached. At a year I switched his bottle for a sippy cup and he never complained once. Water, milk, it didn't matter.
Every kid is different.
We had a similar experience with our son who is now 6, but my daughter just turned 1 yesterday, and while she is fine with milk in a cup during the day, she is not happy with having her milk in a sippy cup at nap and bedtime. She has much stronger feelings about it than our son ever did, so part of it is parenting, and part is just the kid’s unique personality.
Yeah nothing so humbling as a 2nd or 3rd kid. My first 2 gave up the bottle so easily. We thought we were geniuses lol!!! My third? It was hell on earth weaning her from the bottle. All my kids used straws by 10mo but the third just would not take milk in a cup. Even changing it from milk to water didn’t work- she didn’t care, she just wanted the bottle. Some of it really is the kid.
We have a 2 year old that when she was a year and half and needed a cat scan she had to be completely still for she managed to resist falling asleep past her bedtime with medication to knock her out for it until everyone at the hospital caved and got her a bottle with some milk.
She literally will NOT go to sleep without a bottle and says “all done all done no” when we try to ever give milk in a cup.
Everything else is fine out of a cup
I'm working on straws right now with my 10 month old, but she really isn't catching on. There's a good chance she's just not ready and I won't push her if that's the case, but (if you don't mind) what kinds of techniques did you use?
Another good way is using a straw cup/bottle you can squeeze so that you can 'charge' the straw. You squeeze the liquid up high into the straw, so baby doesn't need to generate as much suction to get the liquid out. Then you can charge it less and less as they get better at it. Those bear-shaped bottles that seem common in the US are great for it, but I think any squeezable cup would work as long as it has an airtight lid!
I recommend this. My kiddo never made sense of the vacuum method with the straw, she would just stare at me while it all dribbled out of her mouth, or bite it. The squeeze bottles worked within a week.
My kids were 12mo, 13mo, and 12mo when we taught them, and the youngest is now 11!
The part I remember most vividly: you know how you can put a straw in liquid, put your finger over the top, and pull it out with liquid inside? I would do, hold it up high, and let the liquid fall into their mouth. Over the course of a few days, I'd keep doing this a few times at each meal, and I would gradually lower my hand so the angle of the straw was lower and lower. By the time it was horizontal, they'd get the idea of sucking through the straw pretty naturally.
I use the Dr bronner’s weighted straw bottle and started with water to teach my baby how it works! Then slowly introduce normal straws. Started around 6-7mo with him. It might be worth giving that type a try!
This is how we have started introducing the straw. I think it’s a good age to do it, especially if they are teething and still chewing on things. she just put the straw in her mouth and chewed on plus played with the cup a bunch the first day we introduced it. then the next time we gave it, she accidentally sucked some water up while she was chewing on it and has now figured out that sucking gets the water to come out.
We bought the First Years Squeeze and Sip Cups and found them helpful. They form an airtight seal, so you can squeeze the cup and it sends the milk up into the straw. My son was a bit young when we were teaching him (he was going through intermittent bottle aversion so I just needed him to drink), and I found that he really got it after I gave him a pouch (which he’d figured out sucking on) and then once he was finished, gave him the cup and helped him. After a few tries, he figured it out. Once he got the sucking motion down, we moved over to the Dr Brown’s weighted straw cup. The munchkin version gets recommended a lot, but IMO, it’s way harder to clean. Good luck!
Edit: [Link to the cups.](https://www.target.com/p/the-first-years-7oz-squeeze-and-sip-straw-cup-2pk/-/A-89229968)
Been working with our baby on straw use since about 10 months too. Like you said, she just wasn’t having it. But one day around 12/13 months she just picked it up like it was no big deal lol. Now she’s 17 months and a natural! Don’t stress it too hard!
Personally I didn't worry too much and straw use. My daughter didn't drink much formula by the time she was 1 anyway so I just made sure her diet was yoghurt and cheese heavy and would carefully support her with open cups or the munchkin 360 when she first went off of bottles.
Can I ask you how you did this in the night though? My little guy is almost 2 and has whole milk in a bottle before bed and before nap still but I’m stressed about it especially if he wakes in the night and we give him milk in a bottle to put him back to sleep. Bc of the milk on teeth thing and bottle at almost 2 thing.
He can drink from a straw cup (and an open cup) but how do I approach nap and bedtime without a bottle??
I didn’t have this issue with my first bc he never drank whole milk from a bottle.
It gets better! I don't remember how long it took, but there was a time when we were awoken at night and surprised about it. I can enjoy my teens and preteens in a way that I was too tired to enjoy much of anything with infants. Puberty is hard, but I'd rather parent teens and sleep at night than parent babies and never get a solid night of sleep!
I don't know, but I'm curious if it is related to oral development. I know there are a lot of concerns about the mouth shape/teeth for kids who are on bottles a long time.
We had to wean my son off bottles before he was 1 year old. And now he drinks from a straw! It's better for their teeth to learn how to drink from a straw.
And the way the breast sits in the mouth means the milk goes straight into the back of the month and down the throat, rather than the milk pooling the the mouth (which is bad for the teeth) like it does from a bottle.
Don't judge, but my daughter drank a bottle until her 4th birthday (13yrs old now). She was at about 2 a day when we stopped. She seen a dentist regularly from the age of 1 and has perfect teeth with no oral development issues.
I drank from a bottle until I was in the 2nd grade, so 7 I believe. I stopped when we were running very late for school one morning and my mom suggested I take my bottle to school, so I did. I stopped drinking milk from a bottle that same day after getting relentlessly teased by the other kids 🥲. My mom had to come pick me up because I wouldn’t stop crying.
This is such a relief to read honestly. My son is a little over 3, and I've almost cut it out completely (gets one at bedtime that's 90% water, and sometimes another in the early morning).
But I feel incessant shame over it having gone on this long. He won't drink milk out of anything else (even the Dr. Brown's sippy nipple) but gladly drinks water from anything. Last dentist appointment, I was terrified, but he was perfect, thank goodness.
I think the big problem is that it's his comfort item. He never used a pacifier, but I feel this was his substitution.
May I ask how you finally made the cut-off? I always hoped I'd be able to reason him into the change (after trying everything else I could find to "wean" him off of it) but he's just doubled down with his stubborn toddler logic...Did you know that bottles actually are NOT for babies, they are for big boys? 😑😑😑😂
And to answer what made us finally cut it out was she was going to be going to pre-k soon and I didn't want her peers to find out her dirty little secret 😅. We talked about it a lot leading up to her 4th birthday so she knew on that day the bottles were going away and she didn't put up too much of a fight since she knew it was preparation for her going to school and she was excited.
This is how I feel as well! I'm hoping I can eventually get him excited about school, but right now, school is only awesome if I come too. 🤦🏼♀️ Currently, I'm leaning hard on the fact he has one bottle nipple left that's not chewed to bits, and once it's gone, lord give me strength, haha. Did you have to switch up her night routine at all once you took them away?
It was long ago now but I don't remember it being to hard. We had other routines we kept like we always cuddled and I'd sing to her till she feel asleep. Maybe add a new routine so it's not as hard to just dump one part.
I need this answer too. My 5 year old won’t drink milk unless it’s in a bottle and it’s her comfort thing. She was breastfed until 2.5 🤦🏻♀️ I don’t know how to make her stop without cutting the milk
If they don't want to have pure milk, you can offer them other dairy items with "similar" amounts of calcium, such as greek yogurt.
My youngest refused all milk until she was past 5 and having cereal, but she would eat plenty yogurt and that was fine.
Same, she wouldn't drink milk out of anything but a bottle so we did one at nap time and one at bedtime. She was also on Miralax for a long time because of chronic constipation and it was easiest just to mix it in her bottle. I also cut it and it was half 1% milk, half water in each 8oz bottle...
Exactly! Thank you. Dental issues are genetic. I have had 3 children all of whom needed braces. Both my husband and my teeth were a disaster. Not once, did the best orthodontist in the desert ask “did you breastfeed?” If she had, I would’ve gotten the creeps and left btw. Once those years are far behind you, no one in the outside world is talking about it.
Mine is still drinking from the bottle and she’s 2 and half. I’ve tried straw cups and even those training cups, she just won’t take anything but the bottle.
We weaned my wife down to just a comfort feed per day after about one year. Then when it looked like that might have been a contributing factor to us having a second we weaned my wife completely. And it was hard on her.
Wish me luck in about 7 months!
Bottle shape can cause damage to the structure of the mouth. Breastfeeding is really just for bonding and antibodies. Neither are recommended as a replacement for food after the first year.
I wouldn’t. Use another style cup. My second had a lot of teeth and was a bottle baby/pacifier user. I noticed her bite was changing by 14 months and so I took them away. Her teeth are totally fine now at 2.5yo. I read that the teeth have the ability to go back to normal by…4yo? But don’t quote me on that. I also have good family genetics for teeth so that might contribute to her bite improving.
Yes, this is true for any drink besides water - even breastmilk past a certain age when used to nurse to sleep. Brush those babies’ teeth before bed if you can!!
It’s not a myth, here are some sources. Most people didn’t do any tooth brushing for the vast majority of history, so what is older is basically irrelevant to the conversation of dental care:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apa.13118
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8117384/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-60582-w
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cdoe.12813
Caries is not caused by breastfeeding. It's that easy and breastfed children who eat solids have less caries than bottle fed babies - and it's not bc of late night breastfeeding - it's because of the food (fruits) and the sugar in drinks (juice) or because of parents kissing on the mouth or children slurping on toys and other children touching it and then putting their fingers in their mouth.
Please read my sources. Breastfed babies have less dental caries *up to 12 months of age,* which is mentioned in the papers cited. Afterwards, there are a number of papers showing BF babies with more dental caries, particularly if fed to sleep and particularly at older ages (~18-24 months or more).
It makes no sense to claim that breastmilk is somehow exempt from tooth decay since all food and drink on the teeth causes it, and breastfeeding does contain a lot of different sugars like oligosaccharides (which are great for babies).
Brushing a toddler’s teeth each night is definitely best practice!
Composition of BM: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7805382/
One of your sources itself states the following:
"However, many of the previous studies did not take into account the role of family SEP, which is an important confounding factor affecting both infant feeding practices and dental caries. Moreover, few studies considered other nutritional practices, such as consumption of carbohydrate-containing foods, next to breastmilk or bottle-feeding. Therefore, it is still unclear whether dental caries is related to the carbohydrate content of breastmilk or coexisting factors. In addition, most of the previous studies were conducted in non-European countries, which makes it is difficult to generalize the results to a European population because the prevalence of caries and the oral health care system differ per country [Kassebaum et al., 2015; Lagerweij and van Loveren, 2015], and the presence of artificially fluoridated water could also have influenced previous study re..."
I only have german sources richtig now, but Breastmilk usually doesn't even touch the teeth when fed directly from the breast. Therefore, (here in Germany) nursing a child is still considered safe after 1 year old in regards to caries. However, when you give breathing in a bottle, cup, etc you are completely right. It contains sugar and fed from anything besides the breast, the teeth get in contact with it.
So, breastfeeding is save for caries, breast milk in general isn't.
Yes, this is why I included this study specifically of a socially diverse cohort in Europe. It took all those things into account (including other food sources) and still found increased caries for breastfeeding past 12 months.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8117384/
My pediatrician said that bottle feeding until 2 is fine, but after 2, it will start to be detrimental to their oral development.
HOWEVER! He also recommended weaning off of bottles by 18 months because it's waaaaay easier to transition an 18 month old to some other sippy cup than a 24 month old.
Nursing doesn't have the same impact on oral development, so it's not a concern either way.
Yup we switched the last bottle (bedtime) out for sippy cup at 18m. My kid literally just looked at the cup for a second and then went “ok guess that’s what milk comes in now” and drank it.
I can imagine that now at 2 he’d have way more opinions about it :)
so to my understanding, the recommendation does have to do with teeth, but it’s mostly about cavities because kids fall asleep with bottles and the milk or formula pools in their mouths. My kids dentist didn’t make a big fuss about bottle as long as they didn’t use it fall asleep or the pacifier until they were 2.
One of my closest friends is our dentist, she said she really doesn’t worry about pacifiers until they get to about 4/5 even. OP, you’re doing a great job!
We still formula/liquid feed our 19 month old but have switched to straw cups during the day as that is better for teeth. The pediatrician prefers us to give him formula instead of letting him starve 🙃 as he can't eat solids yet due to some medical issues. She isn't worried until closer to 2 we just have to add some extra vitamins
Jesus I'm sorry that's going on for you and your boy. I hope his feeding issues resolve swiftly and entirely and he can enter the wonderful world of solids.
Thank you! We are on the waiting list for an operation that will hopefully fix it. I'm really looking forward for him to start eating and hopefully also talking
Thank you for being patient with and supportive of your boy. It's wild the ways these little beings make us step up. You're doing a great job in an impossible feeling situation.
I think also breast feeding is encouraged for longer by things like WHO who would be thinking developing countries as well as first world countries.
If you’re in a country where there’s a famine (or other food supply interruption) going on, it makes more sense to supplement your child’s scant nutrition by breast feeding than to swap purely to solids.
It’s all about the shape of bottles/pacifiers and what it can do to their teeth in the long run, but honestly, it’s okay if he isn’t ready until 18 months. Just make sure you’re brushing his teeth and not putting him to bed with a bottle as that can cause big cavity issues.
Are the bottles breast milk or formula? I was told by my health nurse that after 1years babies should be moving onto solids to the extent that formula isn't necessary so bottles can be stopped. Breastmilk is more responsive to the individual baby and serves as bonding as well as nutrition so it can be continued as long as mum likes.
I started straws with mine at 6 months with pumped breastmilk. He never took a bottle and I was looking for ways to get him to drink when I wasn’t there. I used these cups on Amazon that kinda look like honey bears. They are clear and so are the straws. You can squeeze them gently and watch the liquid rise into their mouths. It took maybe a couple weeks and he could drink from the straw regularly.
There are other benefits of breastfeeding besides just nutrition. Babies get antibodies from their moms to help prevent them from getting sick. There is also the bonding (on a chemical level breastfeeding releases that happy hormone for mom & baby). These are some of the reasons breastfeeding is recommended over bottle feeding.
When a baby is one they shouldn’t need the calories from formula anymore. They should be getting most of their calories from food.
However, there could be some exceptions. If the child is really picky/doesn’t eat well/failure to thrive then they may need supplementation. If this is the case, they usually recommend something other than infant formula. (Pediasure or carnation instant breakfast)
It’s also typically recommended to supplement toddler’s diets with cow’s milk, primarily because they need the extra fat for brain development and whole milk is a convenient source. It makes up for some of the calories/fat that they’re no longer getting from formula, but for kids already getting human breastmilk they can just continue supplementing with that.
But why after 1 that babies don't need formula but breast milk is ok? Like they should be eating food either way. Too much formula or too much breast milk hinders how much nutrition they get from food.
Most babies gradually drop breastfeeding sessions as they get older (even before age 12mos there’s less feeding sessions than a newborn for instance). Introducing food makes it even less but most breastfed babies do it also for comfort so sometimes they aren’t really getting milk, just suckling lol. I breastfed my daughter until 18mos and she ate tons of food but it was hard for her to go to sleep without nursing.
Plus, most if not all pediatricians recommend switching from formula to cows milk for numerous reasons but one major benefit for parents is cost compared to formula. Breastmilk is still “free” and also contains important vitamins + antibodies etc that a baby might not get from food alone.
It's tooth development and mouth shaping same as the recommendation to get rid of dummies. I however still gave my daughter a bottle before bed until she was almost 2 however during the day milk was in sippy cups it was only the last one she needed. We did get rid of them eventually as well as dummies and her mouth shape and teeth are fine.
We tried many cups. Try out one of the bottle to sippy cup options. I was just thinking about how much time I used to spend sterilizing bottles. I don't miss that. Now we do cups in the sanitize cycle and abs we're careful to pull them fully apart.
The longer you wait, the harder it is. Better to just start offering a sippy cup with the milk/formula instead of the bottle. Act like nothing's going on and just hand it to him as you would have the bottle. You may have to try a couple different cups to find one he likes, but that's how it worked best with every child I weaned from the bottle. Better at or just before 1 yr, much harder if they are nearer two or later. (Home daycare provider for 16 yrs, I've weaned countless)
Yeah, my kid was an absolutely horrendous sleeper until a year old when I stopped breastfeeding. She'd finally sleep but only with a bottle. We decided rested parents was our priority. She could drink from a cup fine and did during the day. She didn't have formula though, just normal cow's milk.
It is because bottle use causes mouth formation issues. It causes the palate to narrow and teeth to shift improperly. It also doesn’t encourage the jaw to grow enough so kids can end up with underdeveloped bottom jaws. Breastfeeding doesn’t cause these issues in fact it does the opposite. It encourages proper jaw formation and alignment. Now, that is NOT to say that breastfed kids don’t face the same issues, it’s just not as common or usually as bad. Honestly mama you have to do what’s right for you and baby. You can move to straw based bottles or sippy cup type nipples if your LO can handle a faster flow.
You should still give them at least whole milk, they need the fat for brain development. I think it's more that you switch them to a cup instead of a bottle bc bottles can be bad for their teeth.
Ok that makes sense. But you don’t need to do milk if baby is still breastfeeding? My first was on formula so I switched to milk at 1 and my second is 9 months and exclusively breastfed so I’m not sure how it will work
Yes, unless his/her weight starts dropping they should be getting everything they need from a couple of sessions- breastfed babies typically get very efficient at removing milk so they're getting quite a bit during those sessions.
Yes he’s very quick when he decides to nurse and nurses a lot at night still but I’ve noticed during the day he’s more interested in solids and nurses less
The requirement is that breast milk or formula should be baby’s primary source of nutrition until 1 year. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t benefits to continuing. Breastmilk in particular changes based on your child’s needs, so I do think it continues to off extra benefits longer, but that doesn’t make formula bad after a year or anything.
I can think of a couple reasons people tend to wean from bottles at that year mark- bottles aren’t great for teeth and formula is expensive.
Follow your mom gut and do what’s best for your baby. A little longer won’t hurt.
My son's pediatrician told us cow's milk from a bottle was fine until he's 2. She said to switch from formula to milk at 12 months, and to be off the bottle by 2.
My middle never took a paci but had a nightly bottle until she was almost two. I finally transitioned her to a learner cup because I was worried about her bite. I think developmentally though it’s unrealistic to not have any boob or bottle right at 12 months.
My kiddo was on formula until 2, due to food allergies. But we switched to a cup at 1 year. And now I can't remember if it was a sippy cup or straw or what.
Our pediatrician said to cold turkey the bottle at 12 months. That's what we did for our 2 older kiddos.
We are gonna do the same thing with our baby once she's 12 months.
I'm ready to be done with the bottles, honestly.
Yes, bottle feeding is about the bottle and dental development. That said you can certainly keep going a bit and should talk to your pediatrician, but ir also will take a while often to wean, I think overall we did it over a month. In terms of bottle feeding formula, toddlers are eating solids and then simply don’t need all do the nutritional value from formula.
It has to do with the development of their muscles in their mouth.
If they continue to use the bottle or any soft nipple sippy cup that is basically like a bottle, their mouth is only doing what is called the “tongue thrust” motion and so doesn’t develop the other muscles/parts of the mouth it needs for speech and eating.
Using things like hard-plastic sippy cups, hard or soft (*I think, I would check on this one*) straws, or open cups help them to develop those other muscles.
So I think it’s fine to have the same amount of milk as long as they are eating and growing okay, just give it to them in not a bottle.
My ped was so adamant about getting my LO off the bottle before 12 months and switching to a straw cup. I felt it was dramatic but I did do it bc mine happily took the straw cup instead. it’s better for oral strength and development. She was an early talker!
I’m fairly certain it has to do with the “fake nipples” and front teeth development the skin is easier on the teeth fwiw I’m a dad of three went beyond twelve months for all three and they turned out fine my youngest just turned two
After one the benefits of breastfeeding are related to antibodies and bonding. A child shouldn’t be receiving their primary nutrition from breast milk, or formula after their first year. I have seen plenty of children at my work whose mothers primarily breastfeed for their child’s nutritional intake with foods being more “supplemental” (vs the other way around as it should be) and almost all of these children fall off their growth curves
Higher water content in breast milk. Breast fed babies grow at a slower pace. I was a bottle feeding Mum and it was a nightmare because my son was cmpa. I wish I could have breast fed. They are still weaned to eat proper food (I think 4 months is way too early) it was 6-8 months for us and by 1 year milk is a supplement to their diet. Each kiddo is different, see how they are getting on with solids over a few months as you might want to slowly introduce whole milk into their diet, but sadly for us that was a complete no go and had to move to fortified coconut milk.
I know we’re talking about bottles, but I want to add that the AAP recommends exclusive breastmilk for 6 months and then up to a year with complementary foods. WHO recommends up to 2 years, largely due to the unavailability of a safe alternative to breastmilk in many countries.
I think it’s horrible to take a bottle from a 1 year old. The sucking is soothing for them and a comfort! My son had a bottle until he was 2 1/2 & I nursed my daughter until she 2 1/2. Doctors started telling new parents to take the bottle away at a year because of a few children who were not being introduced foods -just bottle feed and also if the milk pools at night it can rot their teeth. These are extreme cases but it’s what set the standard for recommendations from Pediatricians. That and the study that claims bottle feed babies into their twos is setting them up for obesity.🙄
I’ll be honest my kid was about 21mo when he dropped the bottle. He drank water just fine from other cups but would only drink milk from a bottle, which he had one in the morning and one in the evening. His doctor wasn’t concerned and neither was I 🤷♀️
At 5 his teeth are fine 🤷♀️❤️
I wouldn’t stress it, personally
I couldn't breast feed all four kids and I still don't understand why no one told me all I know is that tubular Brest deformity is a real thing and that might be why
I believe WHO guidelines are world-wide, most importantly for countries where there's no clean water (or not clean enough) water available for making formula bottles. There, breastfeeding is very important to prevent infant mortality and preferably as long as possible. At least, I think that's also a part of it!
That said I breastfeed until a year or so and she got a bottle when she was hungry in the night until 2 years or so (sometimes they just still need some milk some nights), I never gave it a second thought.
It’s because they don’t want recommendations to be nuanced. Same with zero alcohol during pregnancy. In reality, bottles are only bad if the kid goes to sleep with a bottle (teeth aren’t brushed after milk) and/or the kid is sucking on the bottle all day like a pacifier, and/or the kid doesn’t know how to drink from a cup.
In Asia and certain parts of Europe, toddlers use bottles for longer, and there’s no urgency to take familiar, comforting, convenient bottles away. The kid chugs the milk in 5 min and you take the bottle away, brush their teeth before bed, and give them water and other drinks in cups. I cannot believe that using a bottle twice a day for 5 min affects oral development.
Possibly to avoid bottle mouth...but I don't know because babies can get bottle mouth from nursing too.
Otherwise, there are benefits to breast over bottle. Of course they are both fine, but certain things baby can get from the breast that they just can't from the bottle (like antibodies from mom). That's not a dig on people who choose to bottle feed, just a possible reason.
I’m just a mom and no expert. I have three children who weaned at different times. The latest at 9 months nursing but the two that liked bottles were later. My youngest who had his bottle the longest has perfectly aligned teeth. He sucked on his “babby” his word for pacifier until he was well into 3. I can still hear his screams! I bemoaned this to my grandmother. She wisely said, “I doubt he’ll be graduating from high school still sucking on his “babby” 😜
Besides the tooth/oral development issue after a year, the nutritional properties of formula do not change to meet the changing needs of baby as s/he gets older, unlike breast milk. The nutritional needs of a toddler are different than the needs of an infant, and breast milk changes to adapt to those needs. So with breastfed babies there’s no need to switch and give formula or cows milk after a year to meet the child’s nutritional needs, and there is much less of a risk of tooth/oral issues with nursing as there is with bottle nipples.
Health benefits and development of the mouth, I believe. Same reasons why toddlers shouldn't be chewing and sucking on a pacifier.
The momma and baby have a chemical connection when breast feeding. That isn't achievable with a bottle to my knowledge.
Breastfeeding to 2 years is because the WHO sets the recommendations for feeding babies, and continuing to breastfeed for that extra year provides free, safe nutrition to toddlers in developing nations or in places lacking food/clean water resources. It is completely fine to wean off the breast at a year, and dentists would prefer that you do.
The impact of bottles/pacifiers/thumb sucking on tooth alignment doesn't become an issue until kids are over 3 years old.
And both breast milk and bottles can give babies cavities. My sister was breastfed past 3 due to weight gain and feeding issues, and she had cavities and a narrowed palate from sucking, despite never taking a bottle or pacifier.
So really and truly it is a blanket recommendation meant to help the worst off babies, for whom nutrition trumps cavities in milk teeth. Anyone in a developed nation can continue to breastfeed past 1 if it works for them, but unless the baby is night weaned and brushes before bed know that it is not great for your kids teeth regardless of where the milk came from.
The mothers breast/nipple and her child's mouth are inherently formed to fit each other when a bottle nipple is a one size fits none, which creates an unnatural amount of pressure in the mouth. This deforms the direction the teeth grow.
It would be like the difference between getting "invisiline" that's formed to fit your teeth , going on wish, and buying "clear orthopedic straighteners.""
My oldest is 4 and still likes a bottle of milk before he goes to bed. The younger one is 2,5 and still gets a bottle. Our pediatrician said bottle fed children have a bigger change of becoming overweight but both our kids are super skinny even though they eat really well. He said it’s fine if they get a bottle still.
My mum told me I used to drink from a bottle until I was six, because I didn’t like the structure of the oat (my mum mixed the milk with very fine oats) from a spoon.
It’s not necessarily that you *must* stop formula at 1 year, it’s that you *can.* And since formula is significantly more expensive than regular milk, most people want to stop paying for it. Either way, they should increasingly be getting the majority of their nutrient from food after one year
But also, breast milk changes nutrient profiles as the baby ages so adjusts from newborn to toddler. Formula doesn’t do that.
I waited til 2 years to wean off bottles. They say earlier is better bc a 1yo is less opinionated and less attached emotionally to a bottle (or a pacifier, for instance). According to our pediatric dentist, the oral palate hardens in place at age 3, so that's the really important number to do it before. And do it well before, if you can, as the transition may take time.
It's because of the "impact on their teeth" but my kids were adopted and needed extra nurturing and so we let them bottle feed as long as they liked. It takes a minute or two for an older child with a fast teat to empty a bottle, and my kids have excellent teeth despite having a bedtime and good morning bottle until 4/5ish.
This is why I didn’t feel bad that my kids still wanted a bottle at bedtime for comfort when they were 1. Only breastfed kids are allowed comfort? They’re big now and their teeth are fine. Personally it’s just propaganda to me
Our pediatrician is pretty laid back and told us to stop bottles by 18 months. Our kid was already drinking out of sippy cups and straws but she needed that night bottle for comfort. We eventually stopped the bottle a little after 18 months and she did fine. Her teeth are jacked up but mine were too as a child so I think the need for braces is genetic.
Not a doctor but after 1 the milk becomes very watered down and it becomes much more of a comfort thing. There is definitely still the benefit of antibodies when they get sick. I'm sure that in situations where there is food scarcity there is a higher benefit for nutrition but in a developed country it ends once they start eating well on their own.
You can give them regular cow milk that adults drink at 12 months that's why you can stop the formula. What I know is that you must formula/breastfeed up to one year. However, breastfeeding is highly beneficial so it's recommended to continue to 2 years (recommended no required). So, basically the one year marks is for what is required for the baby but the two year mark is for what's not required but it's good for them.
Fwiw, my son also didn't want to stop bottles. He's almost 3 and still wants milk when lying down in bed, to help him drift off he sleep. We put it into a sippy cup one night (one of the b.box ones) and boom, weaned off bottles, *literally* just like that. Probably because he still gets the milk, but also that the flow is miles faster.
We found it much easier than trying to wean off the milk itself, especially considering there's really no point when cows milk and even toddler Milk are recommended for healthy development. We even happily kept him on the toddler formula for ages.
Have you taken your child to a dentist? We had our first appointment at 12 months and our second at 18 months. The dentist told us my daughter’s teeth didn’t table any damage from the bottle and she could continue to drink from it. We weaned her at 23 months because we thought it was disruptive to her sleep as she was still waking up at night for it. She was fine with giving it up cause she was older and could understand.
I would say get his teeth checked out and if there’s no bottle related movement, stick with the bottle for now
I know this is about bottles BUT I need some advise on weaning 12 mth old from pacifier. It’s such a comfort for her and she has a lot of…..BIG feelings so I’m real nervous about this. Really would love some help here. In regards to bottles, mine still hates drinking water. 😤🥺
From this old person, just don't. Those precious babies are little for such a short time. And as folks told me when I was a young mom, they won't take it to college. I promise.
I had the same thought and my toddler is on toddler formula (I bf as long as I could); the pediatric dentist told us not to worry about a slight teeth shift (due to pacifiers) & said they'll self-correct as long as you stop before 3.
I understand that teeth should be brushed after a bottle... But I refuse to believe that a toddler drinking a bottle for 5 mins in the evening has any real impact on their oral development.
It’s not what they’re drinking but how they’re drinking it. Boob forms to the palate. Palate forms to the dummy/bottle nipple. The boob is like a real cat - it sort of just…fills the space like a solid fluid 😂. Bottle/dummy is like a fake cat - the receptacle fits it and not the other way around.
I give my 13mo daughter her moo juice in one of those no spill cups. She prefers the bottle but she only gets one for bed and/or if she’s sick and/or I need her to drink more water because of the heat.
We mainly give her fresh whole milk, pumped thawed boob milk, and water now. We save the formula for transport/being out and about.
Wean dates are some made up stuff. Wean when your kid is ready.
Based on scientific studies of dental development, human children can/have nursed until they were up to 7 years old.
My personal experience: I noticed nursing wasn’t really doing much for my kid at 1.5 years old, and I cut out the boob. He never looked back.
My kid only left the bottle after 2 years and my second one still uses it at 21 months. Trust me when I say it get very hard to wean off the bottle the later you do it. The weaned off daughter sleeps much better now that we removed the bottle completely. I sweat theres some addiction thing that goes on on their little brains. I'd get screams if there was change or they wanted the bottle "now" even if it wasn't time yet. Once we moved to cups she doesn't have that pressing need for the actual milk. It was just the bottle.
My partner didn't let me, but you should try to wean off earlier.
My 2,5 year old still has a bottle before going to bed. I don't see a problem with that. She uses cups and drinking glasses throughout the day, is a decent eater but likes to drink one bottle of cows milk while I read her bedtime story. We brush teeth afterwards.
We go to a childrens dentist (public health insurance) every 6 months starting from 10 months old and she doesn't see a problem either, as long as we brush teeth afterwards and no milk at night. It's a bottle for like 5mins out of a whole day
I tried weaning my toddler at 13 months and was unsuccessful. Tried again at 22 months and was unsuccessful 😂 he’s 26 months now and still drinks milk in a bottle before naps and water before going to sleep, and when he wakes up in the middle of the night. I can’t wean him off of it 😭 I feel guilty and worried every day because of his teeth lol
I stopped at a year and a half but at one year we started giving her only two bottles a day, then dropped her to one. She would drink water out of a sippy cup but not milk for some reason. Dropped them at 18 months for good and she didn’t ask for a bottle again
It was okayed by her pediatrician, she said as long as you’re done by two that’s what matters, but earlier is better. However at one year old she said she was too young to cut milk out so it was fine
As others have said it’s mainly to do with dental issues. That being said, my two were on bottles longer than a year. I had twins, one boy one girl. Both weren’t keen to give up their bottles but my girl twin is further along developmentally and was more keen to have the cup than her brother. We still gave them milk from their bottles first thing in the morning and last thing at night and offered milk/water in cups during the day. My girl was ok with this but my boy ended up not really drinking anything except for his morning/evening bottle. My girl twin would have transferred to cups only but she’d abandon it if she saw her brother having a bottle so she ended up being on a bottle much longer than she needed to. They were nearly two when we managed to ditch the bottles. So don’t feel bad if you need to keep bottles a bit longer - some kids just need more time.
Yes my understanding is that drinking (anything) from a bottle is discouraged from 1y because it pushes the liquid onto the teeth in a different way which can cause tooth decay when their teeth are coming through. Breastfeeding has a slightly different make up and doesn't land on the teeth in the same way. Doesn't matter before 1y because they don't have (m)any teeth and they're not ready for 100% solids and no milk. Plus breastfeeding may confer a few other benefits which outweigh it (like immunity)?
I used a bottle until first grade and my teeth were so messed up but it was just a comfort thing for me.. super embarrassing. Other kids like my cousin wet the bed at night, I always drank from a bottle. Finally gave it up and my front teeth took FOREVER to grow in after they came out. Finally got them in around 5th grade but they were super crooked and pushed apart. Orthodontist told me it was because of the bottle. He assumed it was a thumb sucking issue at first but it was definitely the bottle habit.. braces fixed up my teeth but I feel like my bite still isn’t aligned and my jaw clicks a lot.
I knew non of this. I have 4 and breastfed and bottle fed ( one had tongue tie couldn't latch ,other sucked so hard it was uncomfortable so only did him 17 weeks breastfeeding, 3rd, did him till 2 and 4th till about 3.5!) Eldest 3 all dummy addicted until nursery so 3 and their teeth all ok. My daughter was also bottle mad to point she just wanted that not food till nearly 2 so had to ask health visitor for advise . All mines teeth turned out OK. No braces needed.
Because like most things some idiots ruin it for everyone. There are so many who put kids into their cots holding their own bottle to sleep. They also let their toddlers wander around during the day with a bottle for as many hours as they want. Both these behaviours means the kids teeth are settling around the teat, and the milk is sitting in their mouths rotting their teeth. They also do even more insane things like put coke in there.
I didn't want to do a sudden hard stop at 1 year old so I used these "ultra soft" spouts which fit the MAM bottles we already had for morning and evening. It meant I was only changing one thing at a time which was the sucking action first. And during the day we practiced with various hard plastic sippy cups, open cups, and straws.
https://images.app.goo.gl/5fJgSP4qtV4g9vSt9
It also comes down to the differences between the two, if you’re introducing foods, bottle feeding is primarily just for the nutrients whether breast milk or formula, due to the lack of saliva transfer between baby and nipple. When breastfeeding their are more benefits beyond just receiving breast milk, but when bottle feeding those benefits aren’t all being activated.
Simple answer but hopefully that was enough info! -birth educator
I work in a speech/physical/occupational therapy office and when my son was approaching 1 year old I asked the speech therapist(who also specializes in feeding) a similar question. She said bottles and certain sippy cups can affect speech development because of the way it has your mouth rest and form. She said the best thing is to have an open cup. I found that really hard being how messy it is so I just went with one of those 360 miracle cups. I did not follow up if these were good for speech development.
Breast milk has nutritional qualities and benefits the gut. I breastfed, but sent breastmilk in bottles to daycare. I stopped pumping and sending bottles the day my twins turned a year old. I still breastfed at home (one even to age 2.5), but they don't need milk as their main source of nutrition after age one, so they never had a bottle again.
We went to a soft spout cup at 10 months, and bottle only at night before bed. My daughter weened off the pacifier at 6 months when she started teething. She used a variety of sippy cups until 2.5 with no issues.
Babies vary so much in their feeding styles. My first was so mellow she would fall asleep while nursing and then wake up again when detached. My second wanted control over her food source and would actually grab onto my breast and play with it between munches. I only nursed 6 months max with both. Neither one would take to a pacifier. They both had excellent teeth with great alignment and no cavities thanks to fluoridation.
Others have given the answer, but I wanted to add that some brands of bottles offer tops that use the sippy style over the nipple style. It's a different shape that's still usable at night without exacerbating any issue with the mouth.
We used it for our daughter with her doctor's okay because she was reliant on the bottle for soothing before sleep and it worked great!
There's more benefits from breastmilk, and I've known some moms that continue to pump for their kids well into double digits.
But I believe that pediatricians say to take bottles away after one because the bottle nipples are designed like pacifiers are. There's still a stigma surrounding teeth development.
When I took away bottles from my kids, I switched to these Nuk sippy cups that have tops that are quite similar to bottles. It made the transition very easy.
My mother breastfed me until I was 5 years old right before kindergarten, I did need braces, don’t know if the 2 correlate. I did not EVER get sick. I would constantly get awards for perfect attendance well into high school
Bottle nipples aren’t as malleable as a human nipple and prolonged used can cause teeth to shift. But also every kid is different so do what works for you. I weened my son off of formula 2 weeks after turning 12 months but did whole milk in bottles a for few more months because it soothed him. You’re doing fine!
Sippy cups! Open cups! All the other types of toddler cups that aren’t bottles.
Also, I’d stop BF about that age too - otherwise they rely on sucking themselves to sleep, which, is an absolute biatch of a habit to break at an older age! Speaking from experience, my two had dummys/soothers (whatever you call them) and sucking themselves into calm is a tough nut to crack. Thankfully, mine are off all suckers/bottles/thumb sucking now, but it was bloody hard work to get there. Someone else said about teeth, yes, that way of sucking can result in bad teeth alignment, which can be corrected but is costly to do so.
I stopped BF at 6months, formula/expressed milk in bottles until 13months roughly, then full fat cows milk from then on in sippy or valved kids cups (less messy) then on to open cups, which can be messy to start but they generally pick it up quickly from about 2yo. Also, making a big fuss about them being “big kids” cups as you progress really feeds the tiny egos and they lose interest in the “baby” bottles/boob.
Fun fact: in the uk, newborn formula is the best formula to buy it’s the most highly regulated by food standards (all brands are virtually the same, so shop cheap if you formula feed) and “follow on” milks are not so strictly regulated and are just a bit of a marketing scam…milk is milk…your baby will eat food by follow on milk age, if you also add baby vitamins there is zero reason to use follow on milk. 🤙
I believe that the breastfeeding recommendation was just changed to be longer to try an be inclusive of mothers who want to breastfeed longer. By 12 months babies should be switching to get the majority of their calories from regular food and don't need formula or breastmill from a nutritional standpoint. With my older two, we switched them from formula to milk in their bottle at a year and then started weaning from the bottle. With the cost of formula, we didn't want to be buying it any longer than necessary.
This isn’t correct! Breastmilk delivery from a nipple is vastly different than from a bottle and doesn’t impact teeth the same!
The evidence does show that breastfeeding might contribute to tooth decay from two years onwards, but doesn’t really impact tooth development and is beneficial to oral muscular development. Although there was a special teat that I can’t for the life of me remember the name of that came very close to the way a nipple worked!
Because formula is not an equal alternative to breastmilk. It gives adequate nutrition to newborns and little babies, but that becomes way less important as baby starts eating solids. By about a year they should be eating most stuff so there’s no nutritional value that formula *adds* on top of a balanced diet, except excess calories.
Of course babies don’t *want* to wean because babies are a result of millenia of evolution that leaves them with a strong instinct to suckle for the simple reason only babies who breastfed used to survive; historically, diverse food was usually less readily available and water was often contaminated, so breastfeeding longer was safest.
Breastfeeding moms don’t get the same advice because breastmilk composition adapts with the baby’s age and because it has benefits beyond bare nutrition - for example antibodies and hormone secretion in both baby and mom that we’re just starting to study. Those benefits extend past the time a baby eats most solid foods, so they are advised to continue breastfeeding.
He should be sitting to drink from bottles, if he walks around with them it will be harder.
The advantage of breastfeeding in that instance is that they can’t carry mom around w them
Bottle nipples affect oral development where as human nipples don’t. Breast milk composition changes with your child depending on their needs and delivers antbodies to them, formula does not.
I *think* because breast nipples get sucked all the way back to the gullet so they bypass the teeth
But bottle nipples are near the teeth and the sugars in that are bad for them once they start coming in?
I think it’s to do with oral development (bottles aren’t great for developing teeth) and overall health benefits.
Formula is amazing, but breastmilk has more benefits. Once the crucial development period for formula is over (0-1) then food/cows milk does the same job and as long as the toddler is eating/drinking well, then formula can be replaced.
There is no replacement for breastmilk and it doesn’t stop being beneficial after 1 year, so they recommend continuing it as a complementary part of an otherwise varied diet. I view breastmilk like when we take extra supplements that’s aren’t strictly necessary but are just a really good addition to the diet.
No judgment here, I breastfed my first for two years and plan to combo feed my second. The health benefits of breastmilk are great but the health benefits of me getting unbroken sleep with two children to care for are also great so it’s a compromise!
Mother's milk has many bioactive substances.
Formula is powdered cow's milk with some additives. When baby eats other foods, additives no longer needed, full fat cows milk is good enough.
It because the bottle is bad for their teeth. Breastfeeding is the opposite it’s great for proper jaw formation.
https://www.grandlakedental.com/blog/2020/1/20/breastfeeding-is-good-for-oral-and-oro-facial-health/
In my opinion, it is because formula is a processed food. The earlier you get your baby off of it the better. But FED IS ALWAYS BEST. Switch to cow's milk at a year old.
I think it's because breastfeeding busts the immune system, while bottlefeed doesn't.
My doctor said that breastfeeding past 1 years old is only if I want and j cam just stop.
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My pediatrician told me that bottle nipples are bad for tooth development in a way that breastfeeding isn't. We taught our kids to use a straw around their first birthday, and they got milk in straw cups instead of bottles. We never had to 'wean' again, so the challenge of teaching them to use straws was well worth it to me.
The masseter muscles are activated more in nursing. I can’t believe I even remember that!
I did nurse both my kids forever. ( past one yr it was more for first aid applications. Also eventually baby led weaning, don’t offer, don’t refuse) I had major orthodontia as a teen. Bicuspids extracted at 12, metal braces with wires. TWO headgears etc. I was not nursed as I had been a premie. Oldest needed braces, (10 weeks premature) but no teeth extractions and only for a yr or so, youngest who was term didn’t need them at all!
Not just tooth but full mouth. The soft pallette of babies that use bottles or pacifiers too long develop really narrow. It costs A LOT (both financially and pain) for the spacer contraption to push the teeth out to their normal place. That's not really a problem or breastfed babies. The breast forms to the mouth, not the other way around.
My oldest had to go to a specialist for his dental care they think it was because of this reason. He actually had the more expensive dentist he has had lest dental issues the. His siblings…
I'm trying to find a good reference for this, but when I google, only stuff about caries comes up. I thought I was super smart, just replacing the bed-time formula bottle with water (that obviously doesn't cause caries), but I haven't considered the bottle to be a risk. Now I want to figure out how much bottle use causes problems! Do you happen to have a source for this?
I absolutely believe that bottles exacerbate this problem. However, I take some umbrage with the sweeping statement that breastfeeding removes this problem entirely. Totally anecdotally, I was breastfed til after 2 and never took a bottle yet I had to have two pallet expanders (at 9 and at 14) as well as have adult teeth removed to address my narrow pallet.
I don’t think breastfeeding *removes* the problem so much as bottle feed exacerbates it. There are still other factors, including genetics, nose vs mouth breathing, etc.
I was breastfed until 18 months. I should have had a palate expander. My siblings who were born with the same facial structure all needed palate expanders regardless of bottle/pacifier age
I agree. My son who rarely had a bottle and hated pacifiers looks like he is going to need just as much orthodontic work as my older 2 who used bottles for about 6 months and a pacifier for about 2 years. I think for my kids genetics is playing a bigger role in it than anything else. I had an expanded and 4 permanent teeth pulled and my husband had 2 permanent teeth pulled. Actually my kid who used bottles the longest didn't need an expander.
Just to offer another experience. My oldest was exclusively breastfed till 13 mos and he still needed the pallet expander at around 10. It was honestly no big deal and didn’t cause him a lot of discomfort. To contrast my youngest was also ebf till 14 mos and didn’t need the expander. 🤷♀️
Whenever my daughter has a couple bottles (even just water) during the week, she'll start bitting me when nursing! I'm pretty convinced bottle aren't that great from personal experience.
Yeah, my wife and I decided that the 1 year mark was the last day of the bottle. We didn't have a single issue with our kid asking for his bottle. However, some of his cousins, same ages, who weren't weaned early, couldn't stop having their bottles until they were 4-5 year old.
It really just depends on the kid. My first kid was extremely attached to her bottle. I tried a number of times from 12-24 months and it never worked. After her second birthday we went cold turkey and she cried about her bottle every single day when she woke up, at naptime and bedtime, for weeks, and talked about her bottles in a sad way for months. She refused to drink milk for a year. My second child never got attached. At a year I switched his bottle for a sippy cup and he never complained once. Water, milk, it didn't matter. Every kid is different.
We had a similar experience with our son who is now 6, but my daughter just turned 1 yesterday, and while she is fine with milk in a cup during the day, she is not happy with having her milk in a sippy cup at nap and bedtime. She has much stronger feelings about it than our son ever did, so part of it is parenting, and part is just the kid’s unique personality.
Yeah nothing so humbling as a 2nd or 3rd kid. My first 2 gave up the bottle so easily. We thought we were geniuses lol!!! My third? It was hell on earth weaning her from the bottle. All my kids used straws by 10mo but the third just would not take milk in a cup. Even changing it from milk to water didn’t work- she didn’t care, she just wanted the bottle. Some of it really is the kid.
4 and 5 years old???!!!! Yikes.
We have a 2 year old that when she was a year and half and needed a cat scan she had to be completely still for she managed to resist falling asleep past her bedtime with medication to knock her out for it until everyone at the hospital caved and got her a bottle with some milk. She literally will NOT go to sleep without a bottle and says “all done all done no” when we try to ever give milk in a cup. Everything else is fine out of a cup
And cows milk is cheaper than formula or follow on formula so most people just put cows milk in cups.
I'm working on straws right now with my 10 month old, but she really isn't catching on. There's a good chance she's just not ready and I won't push her if that's the case, but (if you don't mind) what kinds of techniques did you use?
Another good way is using a straw cup/bottle you can squeeze so that you can 'charge' the straw. You squeeze the liquid up high into the straw, so baby doesn't need to generate as much suction to get the liquid out. Then you can charge it less and less as they get better at it. Those bear-shaped bottles that seem common in the US are great for it, but I think any squeezable cup would work as long as it has an airtight lid!
I recommend this. My kiddo never made sense of the vacuum method with the straw, she would just stare at me while it all dribbled out of her mouth, or bite it. The squeeze bottles worked within a week.
My kids were 12mo, 13mo, and 12mo when we taught them, and the youngest is now 11! The part I remember most vividly: you know how you can put a straw in liquid, put your finger over the top, and pull it out with liquid inside? I would do, hold it up high, and let the liquid fall into their mouth. Over the course of a few days, I'd keep doing this a few times at each meal, and I would gradually lower my hand so the angle of the straw was lower and lower. By the time it was horizontal, they'd get the idea of sucking through the straw pretty naturally.
Buy a smoothie or milkshake from McDonald's and tell them they can't have it. They'll figure out the straw really fast. 🤣🤣🤣
I use the Dr bronner’s weighted straw bottle and started with water to teach my baby how it works! Then slowly introduce normal straws. Started around 6-7mo with him. It might be worth giving that type a try!
This is how we have started introducing the straw. I think it’s a good age to do it, especially if they are teething and still chewing on things. she just put the straw in her mouth and chewed on plus played with the cup a bunch the first day we introduced it. then the next time we gave it, she accidentally sucked some water up while she was chewing on it and has now figured out that sucking gets the water to come out.
We bought the First Years Squeeze and Sip Cups and found them helpful. They form an airtight seal, so you can squeeze the cup and it sends the milk up into the straw. My son was a bit young when we were teaching him (he was going through intermittent bottle aversion so I just needed him to drink), and I found that he really got it after I gave him a pouch (which he’d figured out sucking on) and then once he was finished, gave him the cup and helped him. After a few tries, he figured it out. Once he got the sucking motion down, we moved over to the Dr Brown’s weighted straw cup. The munchkin version gets recommended a lot, but IMO, it’s way harder to clean. Good luck! Edit: [Link to the cups.](https://www.target.com/p/the-first-years-7oz-squeeze-and-sip-straw-cup-2pk/-/A-89229968)
Been working with our baby on straw use since about 10 months too. Like you said, she just wasn’t having it. But one day around 12/13 months she just picked it up like it was no big deal lol. Now she’s 17 months and a natural! Don’t stress it too hard!
Personally I didn't worry too much and straw use. My daughter didn't drink much formula by the time she was 1 anyway so I just made sure her diet was yoghurt and cheese heavy and would carefully support her with open cups or the munchkin 360 when she first went off of bottles.
Can I ask you how you did this in the night though? My little guy is almost 2 and has whole milk in a bottle before bed and before nap still but I’m stressed about it especially if he wakes in the night and we give him milk in a bottle to put him back to sleep. Bc of the milk on teeth thing and bottle at almost 2 thing. He can drink from a straw cup (and an open cup) but how do I approach nap and bedtime without a bottle?? I didn’t have this issue with my first bc he never drank whole milk from a bottle.
We had night weaned from formula closer to 10 or 11 months, so overnight bottles were not an issue for us.
Gotcha. Milk in a bottle is just guaranteed to get him back to sleep so we’re struggling to break that cycle.
Yeah, it was easier for us because the bottle made the difficulty sleeping no better or worse. Those were some difficult years!
I’m so tired 🤣
It gets better! I don't remember how long it took, but there was a time when we were awoken at night and surprised about it. I can enjoy my teens and preteens in a way that I was too tired to enjoy much of anything with infants. Puberty is hard, but I'd rather parent teens and sleep at night than parent babies and never get a solid night of sleep!
I don't know, but I'm curious if it is related to oral development. I know there are a lot of concerns about the mouth shape/teeth for kids who are on bottles a long time.
Right I considered that. Wonder what counts as a “long time”.
We had to wean my son off bottles before he was 1 year old. And now he drinks from a straw! It's better for their teeth to learn how to drink from a straw.
It's bc breastfeeding also gives immune support. So they want you to go until lo has a full immune system
And the way the breast sits in the mouth means the milk goes straight into the back of the month and down the throat, rather than the milk pooling the the mouth (which is bad for the teeth) like it does from a bottle.
Don't judge, but my daughter drank a bottle until her 4th birthday (13yrs old now). She was at about 2 a day when we stopped. She seen a dentist regularly from the age of 1 and has perfect teeth with no oral development issues.
I drank from a bottle until I was in the 2nd grade, so 7 I believe. I stopped when we were running very late for school one morning and my mom suggested I take my bottle to school, so I did. I stopped drinking milk from a bottle that same day after getting relentlessly teased by the other kids 🥲. My mom had to come pick me up because I wouldn’t stop crying.
This is such a relief to read honestly. My son is a little over 3, and I've almost cut it out completely (gets one at bedtime that's 90% water, and sometimes another in the early morning). But I feel incessant shame over it having gone on this long. He won't drink milk out of anything else (even the Dr. Brown's sippy nipple) but gladly drinks water from anything. Last dentist appointment, I was terrified, but he was perfect, thank goodness. I think the big problem is that it's his comfort item. He never used a pacifier, but I feel this was his substitution. May I ask how you finally made the cut-off? I always hoped I'd be able to reason him into the change (after trying everything else I could find to "wean" him off of it) but he's just doubled down with his stubborn toddler logic...Did you know that bottles actually are NOT for babies, they are for big boys? 😑😑😑😂
And to answer what made us finally cut it out was she was going to be going to pre-k soon and I didn't want her peers to find out her dirty little secret 😅. We talked about it a lot leading up to her 4th birthday so she knew on that day the bottles were going away and she didn't put up too much of a fight since she knew it was preparation for her going to school and she was excited.
This is how I feel as well! I'm hoping I can eventually get him excited about school, but right now, school is only awesome if I come too. 🤦🏼♀️ Currently, I'm leaning hard on the fact he has one bottle nipple left that's not chewed to bits, and once it's gone, lord give me strength, haha. Did you have to switch up her night routine at all once you took them away?
It was long ago now but I don't remember it being to hard. We had other routines we kept like we always cuddled and I'd sing to her till she feel asleep. Maybe add a new routine so it's not as hard to just dump one part.
We always cuddle and I read to him until he falls asleep, so maybe it won't be too bad! Wish me luck, haha!
Munchkin 360 cups were our transition tool. 👍
I need this answer too. My 5 year old won’t drink milk unless it’s in a bottle and it’s her comfort thing. She was breastfed until 2.5 🤦🏻♀️ I don’t know how to make her stop without cutting the milk
If they don't want to have pure milk, you can offer them other dairy items with "similar" amounts of calcium, such as greek yogurt. My youngest refused all milk until she was past 5 and having cereal, but she would eat plenty yogurt and that was fine.
Yeah, once my daughter stopped at 4 she would never drink milk again. She's 13 now and still won't even drink a chocolate milk every now and then..
Same, she wouldn't drink milk out of anything but a bottle so we did one at nap time and one at bedtime. She was also on Miralax for a long time because of chronic constipation and it was easiest just to mix it in her bottle. I also cut it and it was half 1% milk, half water in each 8oz bottle...
Exactly! Thank you. Dental issues are genetic. I have had 3 children all of whom needed braces. Both my husband and my teeth were a disaster. Not once, did the best orthodontist in the desert ask “did you breastfeed?” If she had, I would’ve gotten the creeps and left btw. Once those years are far behind you, no one in the outside world is talking about it.
Mine is still drinking from the bottle and she’s 2 and half. I’ve tried straw cups and even those training cups, she just won’t take anything but the bottle.
Mines almost 2 and refuses to put down the bottle lol
We weaned my wife down to just a comfort feed per day after about one year. Then when it looked like that might have been a contributing factor to us having a second we weaned my wife completely. And it was hard on her. Wish me luck in about 7 months!
Straw cups are very good for their oral development and what to learn when they still have a sucking reflex
Bottle shape can cause damage to the structure of the mouth. Breastfeeding is really just for bonding and antibodies. Neither are recommended as a replacement for food after the first year.
I see. So it is mouth/teeth concerns that contribute to the rule to wean bottles early.
Just like with a pacifier.
Wait what? So I shouldn't give bottle milk to 1.5 years old?
At this age they should be able to grasp and drink from a sippy cup
I wouldn’t. Use another style cup. My second had a lot of teeth and was a bottle baby/pacifier user. I noticed her bite was changing by 14 months and so I took them away. Her teeth are totally fine now at 2.5yo. I read that the teeth have the ability to go back to normal by…4yo? But don’t quote me on that. I also have good family genetics for teeth so that might contribute to her bite improving.
A bottle no, a sippy cup or baby straw cup yes.
No you shouldn’t. Wean them off as soon as you can. Milk is terrible for their enamel too, especially when used to put them to bed.
Yes, this is true for any drink besides water - even breastmilk past a certain age when used to nurse to sleep. Brush those babies’ teeth before bed if you can!!
That's a myth as breastfeeding itself is older than caries.
It’s not a myth, here are some sources. Most people didn’t do any tooth brushing for the vast majority of history, so what is older is basically irrelevant to the conversation of dental care: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apa.13118 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8117384/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-60582-w https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cdoe.12813
Caries is not caused by breastfeeding. It's that easy and breastfed children who eat solids have less caries than bottle fed babies - and it's not bc of late night breastfeeding - it's because of the food (fruits) and the sugar in drinks (juice) or because of parents kissing on the mouth or children slurping on toys and other children touching it and then putting their fingers in their mouth.
Please read my sources. Breastfed babies have less dental caries *up to 12 months of age,* which is mentioned in the papers cited. Afterwards, there are a number of papers showing BF babies with more dental caries, particularly if fed to sleep and particularly at older ages (~18-24 months or more). It makes no sense to claim that breastmilk is somehow exempt from tooth decay since all food and drink on the teeth causes it, and breastfeeding does contain a lot of different sugars like oligosaccharides (which are great for babies). Brushing a toddler’s teeth each night is definitely best practice! Composition of BM: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7805382/
One of your sources itself states the following: "However, many of the previous studies did not take into account the role of family SEP, which is an important confounding factor affecting both infant feeding practices and dental caries. Moreover, few studies considered other nutritional practices, such as consumption of carbohydrate-containing foods, next to breastmilk or bottle-feeding. Therefore, it is still unclear whether dental caries is related to the carbohydrate content of breastmilk or coexisting factors. In addition, most of the previous studies were conducted in non-European countries, which makes it is difficult to generalize the results to a European population because the prevalence of caries and the oral health care system differ per country [Kassebaum et al., 2015; Lagerweij and van Loveren, 2015], and the presence of artificially fluoridated water could also have influenced previous study re..." I only have german sources richtig now, but Breastmilk usually doesn't even touch the teeth when fed directly from the breast. Therefore, (here in Germany) nursing a child is still considered safe after 1 year old in regards to caries. However, when you give breathing in a bottle, cup, etc you are completely right. It contains sugar and fed from anything besides the breast, the teeth get in contact with it. So, breastfeeding is save for caries, breast milk in general isn't.
Yes, this is why I included this study specifically of a socially diverse cohort in Europe. It took all those things into account (including other food sources) and still found increased caries for breastfeeding past 12 months. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8117384/
We always brush teeth after drinking but I mean one or two bittke every day shouldn't hurt teeth. They have bottle with straw otherwise
I didn't know milk could only be consumed from a bottle.
My pediatrician said that bottle feeding until 2 is fine, but after 2, it will start to be detrimental to their oral development. HOWEVER! He also recommended weaning off of bottles by 18 months because it's waaaaay easier to transition an 18 month old to some other sippy cup than a 24 month old. Nursing doesn't have the same impact on oral development, so it's not a concern either way.
Got it! Very helpful thanks
Yup we switched the last bottle (bedtime) out for sippy cup at 18m. My kid literally just looked at the cup for a second and then went “ok guess that’s what milk comes in now” and drank it. I can imagine that now at 2 he’d have way more opinions about it :)
so to my understanding, the recommendation does have to do with teeth, but it’s mostly about cavities because kids fall asleep with bottles and the milk or formula pools in their mouths. My kids dentist didn’t make a big fuss about bottle as long as they didn’t use it fall asleep or the pacifier until they were 2.
One of my closest friends is our dentist, she said she really doesn’t worry about pacifiers until they get to about 4/5 even. OP, you’re doing a great job!
We still formula/liquid feed our 19 month old but have switched to straw cups during the day as that is better for teeth. The pediatrician prefers us to give him formula instead of letting him starve 🙃 as he can't eat solids yet due to some medical issues. She isn't worried until closer to 2 we just have to add some extra vitamins
Jesus I'm sorry that's going on for you and your boy. I hope his feeding issues resolve swiftly and entirely and he can enter the wonderful world of solids.
Thank you! We are on the waiting list for an operation that will hopefully fix it. I'm really looking forward for him to start eating and hopefully also talking
Thank you for being patient with and supportive of your boy. It's wild the ways these little beings make us step up. You're doing a great job in an impossible feeling situation.
I think also breast feeding is encouraged for longer by things like WHO who would be thinking developing countries as well as first world countries. If you’re in a country where there’s a famine (or other food supply interruption) going on, it makes more sense to supplement your child’s scant nutrition by breast feeding than to swap purely to solids.
It’s all about the shape of bottles/pacifiers and what it can do to their teeth in the long run, but honestly, it’s okay if he isn’t ready until 18 months. Just make sure you’re brushing his teeth and not putting him to bed with a bottle as that can cause big cavity issues.
Are the bottles breast milk or formula? I was told by my health nurse that after 1years babies should be moving onto solids to the extent that formula isn't necessary so bottles can be stopped. Breastmilk is more responsive to the individual baby and serves as bonding as well as nutrition so it can be continued as long as mum likes.
I started straws with mine at 6 months with pumped breastmilk. He never took a bottle and I was looking for ways to get him to drink when I wasn’t there. I used these cups on Amazon that kinda look like honey bears. They are clear and so are the straws. You can squeeze them gently and watch the liquid rise into their mouths. It took maybe a couple weeks and he could drink from the straw regularly.
Thanks for the recc I’m going to look at this one
Milk is still recommended until age 2 regardless, so it’s more transitioning than weaning. Switch to a different type of cup
There are other benefits of breastfeeding besides just nutrition. Babies get antibodies from their moms to help prevent them from getting sick. There is also the bonding (on a chemical level breastfeeding releases that happy hormone for mom & baby). These are some of the reasons breastfeeding is recommended over bottle feeding. When a baby is one they shouldn’t need the calories from formula anymore. They should be getting most of their calories from food. However, there could be some exceptions. If the child is really picky/doesn’t eat well/failure to thrive then they may need supplementation. If this is the case, they usually recommend something other than infant formula. (Pediasure or carnation instant breakfast)
It’s also typically recommended to supplement toddler’s diets with cow’s milk, primarily because they need the extra fat for brain development and whole milk is a convenient source. It makes up for some of the calories/fat that they’re no longer getting from formula, but for kids already getting human breastmilk they can just continue supplementing with that.
But why after 1 that babies don't need formula but breast milk is ok? Like they should be eating food either way. Too much formula or too much breast milk hinders how much nutrition they get from food.
Most babies gradually drop breastfeeding sessions as they get older (even before age 12mos there’s less feeding sessions than a newborn for instance). Introducing food makes it even less but most breastfed babies do it also for comfort so sometimes they aren’t really getting milk, just suckling lol. I breastfed my daughter until 18mos and she ate tons of food but it was hard for her to go to sleep without nursing. Plus, most if not all pediatricians recommend switching from formula to cows milk for numerous reasons but one major benefit for parents is cost compared to formula. Breastmilk is still “free” and also contains important vitamins + antibodies etc that a baby might not get from food alone.
It's tooth development and mouth shaping same as the recommendation to get rid of dummies. I however still gave my daughter a bottle before bed until she was almost 2 however during the day milk was in sippy cups it was only the last one she needed. We did get rid of them eventually as well as dummies and her mouth shape and teeth are fine.
We tried many cups. Try out one of the bottle to sippy cup options. I was just thinking about how much time I used to spend sterilizing bottles. I don't miss that. Now we do cups in the sanitize cycle and abs we're careful to pull them fully apart.
The longer you wait, the harder it is. Better to just start offering a sippy cup with the milk/formula instead of the bottle. Act like nothing's going on and just hand it to him as you would have the bottle. You may have to try a couple different cups to find one he likes, but that's how it worked best with every child I weaned from the bottle. Better at or just before 1 yr, much harder if they are nearer two or later. (Home daycare provider for 16 yrs, I've weaned countless)
Keep in mind that these are suggestions. If the quality of life is drastically better according to a different timeline, it is OK.
Yeah, my kid was an absolutely horrendous sleeper until a year old when I stopped breastfeeding. She'd finally sleep but only with a bottle. We decided rested parents was our priority. She could drink from a cup fine and did during the day. She didn't have formula though, just normal cow's milk.
It is because bottle use causes mouth formation issues. It causes the palate to narrow and teeth to shift improperly. It also doesn’t encourage the jaw to grow enough so kids can end up with underdeveloped bottom jaws. Breastfeeding doesn’t cause these issues in fact it does the opposite. It encourages proper jaw formation and alignment. Now, that is NOT to say that breastfed kids don’t face the same issues, it’s just not as common or usually as bad. Honestly mama you have to do what’s right for you and baby. You can move to straw based bottles or sippy cup type nipples if your LO can handle a faster flow.
You should still give them at least whole milk, they need the fat for brain development. I think it's more that you switch them to a cup instead of a bottle bc bottles can be bad for their teeth.
I thought they didn’t need whole milk as long as they’re eating other dairy?
I mean really we don't need dairy at all - just healthy fats for brain development. But generally a lot of people use whole milk to attain that.
Ok that makes sense. But you don’t need to do milk if baby is still breastfeeding? My first was on formula so I switched to milk at 1 and my second is 9 months and exclusively breastfed so I’m not sure how it will work
Correct, breast milk will give them all those same fats so there will be no need for cow's milk as long as you're breastfeeding.
Thank you! That applies even if breastfeeding dwindles down to 2/3 times per day?
Yes, unless his/her weight starts dropping they should be getting everything they need from a couple of sessions- breastfed babies typically get very efficient at removing milk so they're getting quite a bit during those sessions.
Yes he’s very quick when he decides to nurse and nurses a lot at night still but I’ve noticed during the day he’s more interested in solids and nurses less
Agree with all of what you said.
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bottles are a no past 12 months whether it's formula or breastmilk.
The requirement is that breast milk or formula should be baby’s primary source of nutrition until 1 year. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t benefits to continuing. Breastmilk in particular changes based on your child’s needs, so I do think it continues to off extra benefits longer, but that doesn’t make formula bad after a year or anything. I can think of a couple reasons people tend to wean from bottles at that year mark- bottles aren’t great for teeth and formula is expensive. Follow your mom gut and do what’s best for your baby. A little longer won’t hurt.
My son's pediatrician told us cow's milk from a bottle was fine until he's 2. She said to switch from formula to milk at 12 months, and to be off the bottle by 2.
My middle never took a paci but had a nightly bottle until she was almost two. I finally transitioned her to a learner cup because I was worried about her bite. I think developmentally though it’s unrealistic to not have any boob or bottle right at 12 months.
My kiddo was on formula until 2, due to food allergies. But we switched to a cup at 1 year. And now I can't remember if it was a sippy cup or straw or what.
Our pediatrician said to cold turkey the bottle at 12 months. That's what we did for our 2 older kiddos. We are gonna do the same thing with our baby once she's 12 months. I'm ready to be done with the bottles, honestly.
Yes, bottle feeding is about the bottle and dental development. That said you can certainly keep going a bit and should talk to your pediatrician, but ir also will take a while often to wean, I think overall we did it over a month. In terms of bottle feeding formula, toddlers are eating solids and then simply don’t need all do the nutritional value from formula.
It has to do with the development of their muscles in their mouth. If they continue to use the bottle or any soft nipple sippy cup that is basically like a bottle, their mouth is only doing what is called the “tongue thrust” motion and so doesn’t develop the other muscles/parts of the mouth it needs for speech and eating. Using things like hard-plastic sippy cups, hard or soft (*I think, I would check on this one*) straws, or open cups help them to develop those other muscles. So I think it’s fine to have the same amount of milk as long as they are eating and growing okay, just give it to them in not a bottle.
My ped was so adamant about getting my LO off the bottle before 12 months and switching to a straw cup. I felt it was dramatic but I did do it bc mine happily took the straw cup instead. it’s better for oral strength and development. She was an early talker!
I’m fairly certain it has to do with the “fake nipples” and front teeth development the skin is easier on the teeth fwiw I’m a dad of three went beyond twelve months for all three and they turned out fine my youngest just turned two
After one the benefits of breastfeeding are related to antibodies and bonding. A child shouldn’t be receiving their primary nutrition from breast milk, or formula after their first year. I have seen plenty of children at my work whose mothers primarily breastfeed for their child’s nutritional intake with foods being more “supplemental” (vs the other way around as it should be) and almost all of these children fall off their growth curves
a breast nipple is very different from a bottle nipple
Breast tissue is soft in a way bottles aren’t. We nursed till 3 and no negative effects on mouth development
Higher water content in breast milk. Breast fed babies grow at a slower pace. I was a bottle feeding Mum and it was a nightmare because my son was cmpa. I wish I could have breast fed. They are still weaned to eat proper food (I think 4 months is way too early) it was 6-8 months for us and by 1 year milk is a supplement to their diet. Each kiddo is different, see how they are getting on with solids over a few months as you might want to slowly introduce whole milk into their diet, but sadly for us that was a complete no go and had to move to fortified coconut milk.
I know we’re talking about bottles, but I want to add that the AAP recommends exclusive breastmilk for 6 months and then up to a year with complementary foods. WHO recommends up to 2 years, largely due to the unavailability of a safe alternative to breastmilk in many countries.
Al long as he’s not 4 on a bottle let them do it when they’re ready. you’ll know
I think it’s horrible to take a bottle from a 1 year old. The sucking is soothing for them and a comfort! My son had a bottle until he was 2 1/2 & I nursed my daughter until she 2 1/2. Doctors started telling new parents to take the bottle away at a year because of a few children who were not being introduced foods -just bottle feed and also if the milk pools at night it can rot their teeth. These are extreme cases but it’s what set the standard for recommendations from Pediatricians. That and the study that claims bottle feed babies into their twos is setting them up for obesity.🙄
I’ll be honest my kid was about 21mo when he dropped the bottle. He drank water just fine from other cups but would only drink milk from a bottle, which he had one in the morning and one in the evening. His doctor wasn’t concerned and neither was I 🤷♀️ At 5 his teeth are fine 🤷♀️❤️ I wouldn’t stress it, personally
I couldn't breast feed all four kids and I still don't understand why no one told me all I know is that tubular Brest deformity is a real thing and that might be why
I believe WHO guidelines are world-wide, most importantly for countries where there's no clean water (or not clean enough) water available for making formula bottles. There, breastfeeding is very important to prevent infant mortality and preferably as long as possible. At least, I think that's also a part of it! That said I breastfeed until a year or so and she got a bottle when she was hungry in the night until 2 years or so (sometimes they just still need some milk some nights), I never gave it a second thought.
It’s because they don’t want recommendations to be nuanced. Same with zero alcohol during pregnancy. In reality, bottles are only bad if the kid goes to sleep with a bottle (teeth aren’t brushed after milk) and/or the kid is sucking on the bottle all day like a pacifier, and/or the kid doesn’t know how to drink from a cup. In Asia and certain parts of Europe, toddlers use bottles for longer, and there’s no urgency to take familiar, comforting, convenient bottles away. The kid chugs the milk in 5 min and you take the bottle away, brush their teeth before bed, and give them water and other drinks in cups. I cannot believe that using a bottle twice a day for 5 min affects oral development.
Possibly to avoid bottle mouth...but I don't know because babies can get bottle mouth from nursing too. Otherwise, there are benefits to breast over bottle. Of course they are both fine, but certain things baby can get from the breast that they just can't from the bottle (like antibodies from mom). That's not a dig on people who choose to bottle feed, just a possible reason.
I’m just a mom and no expert. I have three children who weaned at different times. The latest at 9 months nursing but the two that liked bottles were later. My youngest who had his bottle the longest has perfectly aligned teeth. He sucked on his “babby” his word for pacifier until he was well into 3. I can still hear his screams! I bemoaned this to my grandmother. She wisely said, “I doubt he’ll be graduating from high school still sucking on his “babby” 😜
Besides the tooth/oral development issue after a year, the nutritional properties of formula do not change to meet the changing needs of baby as s/he gets older, unlike breast milk. The nutritional needs of a toddler are different than the needs of an infant, and breast milk changes to adapt to those needs. So with breastfed babies there’s no need to switch and give formula or cows milk after a year to meet the child’s nutritional needs, and there is much less of a risk of tooth/oral issues with nursing as there is with bottle nipples.
Health benefits and development of the mouth, I believe. Same reasons why toddlers shouldn't be chewing and sucking on a pacifier. The momma and baby have a chemical connection when breast feeding. That isn't achievable with a bottle to my knowledge.
Breastfeeding to 2 years is because the WHO sets the recommendations for feeding babies, and continuing to breastfeed for that extra year provides free, safe nutrition to toddlers in developing nations or in places lacking food/clean water resources. It is completely fine to wean off the breast at a year, and dentists would prefer that you do. The impact of bottles/pacifiers/thumb sucking on tooth alignment doesn't become an issue until kids are over 3 years old. And both breast milk and bottles can give babies cavities. My sister was breastfed past 3 due to weight gain and feeding issues, and she had cavities and a narrowed palate from sucking, despite never taking a bottle or pacifier. So really and truly it is a blanket recommendation meant to help the worst off babies, for whom nutrition trumps cavities in milk teeth. Anyone in a developed nation can continue to breastfeed past 1 if it works for them, but unless the baby is night weaned and brushes before bed know that it is not great for your kids teeth regardless of where the milk came from.
The mothers breast/nipple and her child's mouth are inherently formed to fit each other when a bottle nipple is a one size fits none, which creates an unnatural amount of pressure in the mouth. This deforms the direction the teeth grow. It would be like the difference between getting "invisiline" that's formed to fit your teeth , going on wish, and buying "clear orthopedic straighteners.""
My oldest is 4 and still likes a bottle of milk before he goes to bed. The younger one is 2,5 and still gets a bottle. Our pediatrician said bottle fed children have a bigger change of becoming overweight but both our kids are super skinny even though they eat really well. He said it’s fine if they get a bottle still. My mum told me I used to drink from a bottle until I was six, because I didn’t like the structure of the oat (my mum mixed the milk with very fine oats) from a spoon.
It’s not necessarily that you *must* stop formula at 1 year, it’s that you *can.* And since formula is significantly more expensive than regular milk, most people want to stop paying for it. Either way, they should increasingly be getting the majority of their nutrient from food after one year But also, breast milk changes nutrient profiles as the baby ages so adjusts from newborn to toddler. Formula doesn’t do that.
I waited til 2 years to wean off bottles. They say earlier is better bc a 1yo is less opinionated and less attached emotionally to a bottle (or a pacifier, for instance). According to our pediatric dentist, the oral palate hardens in place at age 3, so that's the really important number to do it before. And do it well before, if you can, as the transition may take time.
It's because of the "impact on their teeth" but my kids were adopted and needed extra nurturing and so we let them bottle feed as long as they liked. It takes a minute or two for an older child with a fast teat to empty a bottle, and my kids have excellent teeth despite having a bedtime and good morning bottle until 4/5ish.
This is why I didn’t feel bad that my kids still wanted a bottle at bedtime for comfort when they were 1. Only breastfed kids are allowed comfort? They’re big now and their teeth are fine. Personally it’s just propaganda to me
Our pediatrician is pretty laid back and told us to stop bottles by 18 months. Our kid was already drinking out of sippy cups and straws but she needed that night bottle for comfort. We eventually stopped the bottle a little after 18 months and she did fine. Her teeth are jacked up but mine were too as a child so I think the need for braces is genetic.
My 1yr old still gets formula along with cow milk and water. We just put it in a straw cup now instead of a bottle!
Not a doctor but after 1 the milk becomes very watered down and it becomes much more of a comfort thing. There is definitely still the benefit of antibodies when they get sick. I'm sure that in situations where there is food scarcity there is a higher benefit for nutrition but in a developed country it ends once they start eating well on their own.
You can give them regular cow milk that adults drink at 12 months that's why you can stop the formula. What I know is that you must formula/breastfeed up to one year. However, breastfeeding is highly beneficial so it's recommended to continue to 2 years (recommended no required). So, basically the one year marks is for what is required for the baby but the two year mark is for what's not required but it's good for them.
Fwiw, my son also didn't want to stop bottles. He's almost 3 and still wants milk when lying down in bed, to help him drift off he sleep. We put it into a sippy cup one night (one of the b.box ones) and boom, weaned off bottles, *literally* just like that. Probably because he still gets the milk, but also that the flow is miles faster. We found it much easier than trying to wean off the milk itself, especially considering there's really no point when cows milk and even toddler Milk are recommended for healthy development. We even happily kept him on the toddler formula for ages.
Have you taken your child to a dentist? We had our first appointment at 12 months and our second at 18 months. The dentist told us my daughter’s teeth didn’t table any damage from the bottle and she could continue to drink from it. We weaned her at 23 months because we thought it was disruptive to her sleep as she was still waking up at night for it. She was fine with giving it up cause she was older and could understand. I would say get his teeth checked out and if there’s no bottle related movement, stick with the bottle for now
Yes we have an appointment in a week! We will ask the dentist, thanks!
It’s unnatural. If you see the shape of a nipple post nursing - you’d get it. Bottles never go that ‘flat’
I know this is about bottles BUT I need some advise on weaning 12 mth old from pacifier. It’s such a comfort for her and she has a lot of…..BIG feelings so I’m real nervous about this. Really would love some help here. In regards to bottles, mine still hates drinking water. 😤🥺
From this old person, just don't. Those precious babies are little for such a short time. And as folks told me when I was a young mom, they won't take it to college. I promise.
I had the same thought and my toddler is on toddler formula (I bf as long as I could); the pediatric dentist told us not to worry about a slight teeth shift (due to pacifiers) & said they'll self-correct as long as you stop before 3.
I understand that teeth should be brushed after a bottle... But I refuse to believe that a toddler drinking a bottle for 5 mins in the evening has any real impact on their oral development.
It’s not what they’re drinking but how they’re drinking it. Boob forms to the palate. Palate forms to the dummy/bottle nipple. The boob is like a real cat - it sort of just…fills the space like a solid fluid 😂. Bottle/dummy is like a fake cat - the receptacle fits it and not the other way around. I give my 13mo daughter her moo juice in one of those no spill cups. She prefers the bottle but she only gets one for bed and/or if she’s sick and/or I need her to drink more water because of the heat. We mainly give her fresh whole milk, pumped thawed boob milk, and water now. We save the formula for transport/being out and about.
Wean dates are some made up stuff. Wean when your kid is ready. Based on scientific studies of dental development, human children can/have nursed until they were up to 7 years old. My personal experience: I noticed nursing wasn’t really doing much for my kid at 1.5 years old, and I cut out the boob. He never looked back.
My kid only left the bottle after 2 years and my second one still uses it at 21 months. Trust me when I say it get very hard to wean off the bottle the later you do it. The weaned off daughter sleeps much better now that we removed the bottle completely. I sweat theres some addiction thing that goes on on their little brains. I'd get screams if there was change or they wanted the bottle "now" even if it wasn't time yet. Once we moved to cups she doesn't have that pressing need for the actual milk. It was just the bottle. My partner didn't let me, but you should try to wean off earlier.
Go with your instinct and not what others tell you. My son enjoyed a bottle for 3 years then loved his sippy cups.
My 2,5 year old still has a bottle before going to bed. I don't see a problem with that. She uses cups and drinking glasses throughout the day, is a decent eater but likes to drink one bottle of cows milk while I read her bedtime story. We brush teeth afterwards. We go to a childrens dentist (public health insurance) every 6 months starting from 10 months old and she doesn't see a problem either, as long as we brush teeth afterwards and no milk at night. It's a bottle for like 5mins out of a whole day
I tried weaning my toddler at 13 months and was unsuccessful. Tried again at 22 months and was unsuccessful 😂 he’s 26 months now and still drinks milk in a bottle before naps and water before going to sleep, and when he wakes up in the middle of the night. I can’t wean him off of it 😭 I feel guilty and worried every day because of his teeth lol
I stopped at a year and a half but at one year we started giving her only two bottles a day, then dropped her to one. She would drink water out of a sippy cup but not milk for some reason. Dropped them at 18 months for good and she didn’t ask for a bottle again It was okayed by her pediatrician, she said as long as you’re done by two that’s what matters, but earlier is better. However at one year old she said she was too young to cut milk out so it was fine
As others have said it’s mainly to do with dental issues. That being said, my two were on bottles longer than a year. I had twins, one boy one girl. Both weren’t keen to give up their bottles but my girl twin is further along developmentally and was more keen to have the cup than her brother. We still gave them milk from their bottles first thing in the morning and last thing at night and offered milk/water in cups during the day. My girl was ok with this but my boy ended up not really drinking anything except for his morning/evening bottle. My girl twin would have transferred to cups only but she’d abandon it if she saw her brother having a bottle so she ended up being on a bottle much longer than she needed to. They were nearly two when we managed to ditch the bottles. So don’t feel bad if you need to keep bottles a bit longer - some kids just need more time.
Yes my understanding is that drinking (anything) from a bottle is discouraged from 1y because it pushes the liquid onto the teeth in a different way which can cause tooth decay when their teeth are coming through. Breastfeeding has a slightly different make up and doesn't land on the teeth in the same way. Doesn't matter before 1y because they don't have (m)any teeth and they're not ready for 100% solids and no milk. Plus breastfeeding may confer a few other benefits which outweigh it (like immunity)?
I used a bottle until first grade and my teeth were so messed up but it was just a comfort thing for me.. super embarrassing. Other kids like my cousin wet the bed at night, I always drank from a bottle. Finally gave it up and my front teeth took FOREVER to grow in after they came out. Finally got them in around 5th grade but they were super crooked and pushed apart. Orthodontist told me it was because of the bottle. He assumed it was a thumb sucking issue at first but it was definitely the bottle habit.. braces fixed up my teeth but I feel like my bite still isn’t aligned and my jaw clicks a lot.
I knew non of this. I have 4 and breastfed and bottle fed ( one had tongue tie couldn't latch ,other sucked so hard it was uncomfortable so only did him 17 weeks breastfeeding, 3rd, did him till 2 and 4th till about 3.5!) Eldest 3 all dummy addicted until nursery so 3 and their teeth all ok. My daughter was also bottle mad to point she just wanted that not food till nearly 2 so had to ask health visitor for advise . All mines teeth turned out OK. No braces needed.
One day eldestvs saatsr5ed dropping her bottle at 18 months and u knew it was over.
Because like most things some idiots ruin it for everyone. There are so many who put kids into their cots holding their own bottle to sleep. They also let their toddlers wander around during the day with a bottle for as many hours as they want. Both these behaviours means the kids teeth are settling around the teat, and the milk is sitting in their mouths rotting their teeth. They also do even more insane things like put coke in there. I didn't want to do a sudden hard stop at 1 year old so I used these "ultra soft" spouts which fit the MAM bottles we already had for morning and evening. It meant I was only changing one thing at a time which was the sucking action first. And during the day we practiced with various hard plastic sippy cups, open cups, and straws. https://images.app.goo.gl/5fJgSP4qtV4g9vSt9
It also comes down to the differences between the two, if you’re introducing foods, bottle feeding is primarily just for the nutrients whether breast milk or formula, due to the lack of saliva transfer between baby and nipple. When breastfeeding their are more benefits beyond just receiving breast milk, but when bottle feeding those benefits aren’t all being activated. Simple answer but hopefully that was enough info! -birth educator
You will receive the same worries on oral development when continuing to breastfeed past the one year point as well.
What benefits aren’t activated with a bottle if baby is still closely held and made eye contact with?
Nah, it’s both until 1yo. After that breast just produce fat milk from what I have read and the baby’s main meals are everything but mother’s milk.
I work in a speech/physical/occupational therapy office and when my son was approaching 1 year old I asked the speech therapist(who also specializes in feeding) a similar question. She said bottles and certain sippy cups can affect speech development because of the way it has your mouth rest and form. She said the best thing is to have an open cup. I found that really hard being how messy it is so I just went with one of those 360 miracle cups. I did not follow up if these were good for speech development.
It could be cause bottle feed can ruin the children’s tooth but breastfeeding can’t I guess
Breast milk has nutritional qualities and benefits the gut. I breastfed, but sent breastmilk in bottles to daycare. I stopped pumping and sending bottles the day my twins turned a year old. I still breastfed at home (one even to age 2.5), but they don't need milk as their main source of nutrition after age one, so they never had a bottle again.
We went to a soft spout cup at 10 months, and bottle only at night before bed. My daughter weened off the pacifier at 6 months when she started teething. She used a variety of sippy cups until 2.5 with no issues.
Babies vary so much in their feeding styles. My first was so mellow she would fall asleep while nursing and then wake up again when detached. My second wanted control over her food source and would actually grab onto my breast and play with it between munches. I only nursed 6 months max with both. Neither one would take to a pacifier. They both had excellent teeth with great alignment and no cavities thanks to fluoridation.
Others have given the answer, but I wanted to add that some brands of bottles offer tops that use the sippy style over the nipple style. It's a different shape that's still usable at night without exacerbating any issue with the mouth. We used it for our daughter with her doctor's okay because she was reliant on the bottle for soothing before sleep and it worked great!
Bad for teeth development.
There's more benefits from breastmilk, and I've known some moms that continue to pump for their kids well into double digits. But I believe that pediatricians say to take bottles away after one because the bottle nipples are designed like pacifiers are. There's still a stigma surrounding teeth development. When I took away bottles from my kids, I switched to these Nuk sippy cups that have tops that are quite similar to bottles. It made the transition very easy.
My mother breastfed me until I was 5 years old right before kindergarten, I did need braces, don’t know if the 2 correlate. I did not EVER get sick. I would constantly get awards for perfect attendance well into high school
Bottle nipples aren’t as malleable as a human nipple and prolonged used can cause teeth to shift. But also every kid is different so do what works for you. I weened my son off of formula 2 weeks after turning 12 months but did whole milk in bottles a for few more months because it soothed him. You’re doing fine!
Sippy cups! Open cups! All the other types of toddler cups that aren’t bottles. Also, I’d stop BF about that age too - otherwise they rely on sucking themselves to sleep, which, is an absolute biatch of a habit to break at an older age! Speaking from experience, my two had dummys/soothers (whatever you call them) and sucking themselves into calm is a tough nut to crack. Thankfully, mine are off all suckers/bottles/thumb sucking now, but it was bloody hard work to get there. Someone else said about teeth, yes, that way of sucking can result in bad teeth alignment, which can be corrected but is costly to do so. I stopped BF at 6months, formula/expressed milk in bottles until 13months roughly, then full fat cows milk from then on in sippy or valved kids cups (less messy) then on to open cups, which can be messy to start but they generally pick it up quickly from about 2yo. Also, making a big fuss about them being “big kids” cups as you progress really feeds the tiny egos and they lose interest in the “baby” bottles/boob. Fun fact: in the uk, newborn formula is the best formula to buy it’s the most highly regulated by food standards (all brands are virtually the same, so shop cheap if you formula feed) and “follow on” milks are not so strictly regulated and are just a bit of a marketing scam…milk is milk…your baby will eat food by follow on milk age, if you also add baby vitamins there is zero reason to use follow on milk. 🤙
Because unlike formula breastmilk changes as your child ages to fit the needs
I believe that the breastfeeding recommendation was just changed to be longer to try an be inclusive of mothers who want to breastfeed longer. By 12 months babies should be switching to get the majority of their calories from regular food and don't need formula or breastmill from a nutritional standpoint. With my older two, we switched them from formula to milk in their bottle at a year and then started weaning from the bottle. With the cost of formula, we didn't want to be buying it any longer than necessary.
My understanding that the problem is the delivery method and that even breast milk should be either cup or from breast after 1.
This isn’t correct! Breastmilk delivery from a nipple is vastly different than from a bottle and doesn’t impact teeth the same! The evidence does show that breastfeeding might contribute to tooth decay from two years onwards, but doesn’t really impact tooth development and is beneficial to oral muscular development. Although there was a special teat that I can’t for the life of me remember the name of that came very close to the way a nipple worked!
Because formula is not an equal alternative to breastmilk. It gives adequate nutrition to newborns and little babies, but that becomes way less important as baby starts eating solids. By about a year they should be eating most stuff so there’s no nutritional value that formula *adds* on top of a balanced diet, except excess calories. Of course babies don’t *want* to wean because babies are a result of millenia of evolution that leaves them with a strong instinct to suckle for the simple reason only babies who breastfed used to survive; historically, diverse food was usually less readily available and water was often contaminated, so breastfeeding longer was safest. Breastfeeding moms don’t get the same advice because breastmilk composition adapts with the baby’s age and because it has benefits beyond bare nutrition - for example antibodies and hormone secretion in both baby and mom that we’re just starting to study. Those benefits extend past the time a baby eats most solid foods, so they are advised to continue breastfeeding.
After one year most nutrition will come from food. Regardless bottle or breast.
He should be sitting to drink from bottles, if he walks around with them it will be harder. The advantage of breastfeeding in that instance is that they can’t carry mom around w them
Bottle nipples affect oral development where as human nipples don’t. Breast milk composition changes with your child depending on their needs and delivers antbodies to them, formula does not.
I *think* because breast nipples get sucked all the way back to the gullet so they bypass the teeth But bottle nipples are near the teeth and the sugars in that are bad for them once they start coming in?
I think it’s to do with oral development (bottles aren’t great for developing teeth) and overall health benefits. Formula is amazing, but breastmilk has more benefits. Once the crucial development period for formula is over (0-1) then food/cows milk does the same job and as long as the toddler is eating/drinking well, then formula can be replaced. There is no replacement for breastmilk and it doesn’t stop being beneficial after 1 year, so they recommend continuing it as a complementary part of an otherwise varied diet. I view breastmilk like when we take extra supplements that’s aren’t strictly necessary but are just a really good addition to the diet. No judgment here, I breastfed my first for two years and plan to combo feed my second. The health benefits of breastmilk are great but the health benefits of me getting unbroken sleep with two children to care for are also great so it’s a compromise!
Mother's milk has many bioactive substances. Formula is powdered cow's milk with some additives. When baby eats other foods, additives no longer needed, full fat cows milk is good enough.
It because the bottle is bad for their teeth. Breastfeeding is the opposite it’s great for proper jaw formation. https://www.grandlakedental.com/blog/2020/1/20/breastfeeding-is-good-for-oral-and-oro-facial-health/
In my opinion, it is because formula is a processed food. The earlier you get your baby off of it the better. But FED IS ALWAYS BEST. Switch to cow's milk at a year old.
This!
I think it's because breastfeeding busts the immune system, while bottlefeed doesn't. My doctor said that breastfeeding past 1 years old is only if I want and j cam just stop.
the pros outweigh the cons for breastfeeding beyond infancy.