A few of my friends have told me that you're "supposed" to wean babies off the bottle between 12 and 15 months old, and seem surprised that DS "still" enjoys a bottle.
This doesn't seem right to me. I mean, if I could have BF, we'd be aiming for 2+ years of nursing, and everyone would be cheering me on. It's the same need to suck in bottle-fed babies, right?
Does anyone know if there's a real reason for my son not to have his bottles? Or is this society rushing to make babies grow up?
Re: Bottle weaning question
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That's what I was told. Catie still has a bottle with WCM before her nap and bed, but I'm slowly trying to switch those to water. She has a strong bottle sleep association that we can't seem to peacefully break.
David has his bottle at night, and that's it. Everything else is sippy cup, and the bottle is half water and half cow's milk. And he likes to have the bottle if he's not feeling well. I have enough guilt about not breastfeeding; my best friend is still happily nursing her almost-3 year old. We both enjoy the bottle snuggles, and I would hate to have to take it away from him.
If you don't want to take it away then don't! There's no bottle police. I think the problem comes from parents who still give their 2 year olds several bottles full of milk each day and let them take it to bed, etc.
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I think the link between bottle use and tooth decay is related more to babies who are allowed to go to sleep and keep sucking on the bottle in their sleep. If you are giving the bottle before sleep and not letting him keep it, I don't see how that 5 minutes could be detrimental.
I am fortunate to be able to nurse, but my DS started refusing bottles around 11 months. Now all liquids are in a sippy cup, aside from nursing sessions. It's possible your DS will outgrow the bottle, so my personal opinion would be to let it stay in your routine for now.
I always thought the "no bottles after one year" made up rule was ridiculous.
A better rule is - no taking bottles to bed - no bottles full of sugary anything - and for older babies/toddlers - maybe only having a bottle at night to relax (and then brushing teeth.) As long as you're monitoring milk intake and staying around 15 ounces max in a given day - who cares? It's soothing and NORMAL for a toddler (ETA: a toddler who isn't breastfed) to want to suck on bottle - as you said - many toddlers continue to breastfeed and are soothed by that practice.
And whoever said that breastmilk doesn't cause tooth decay in toddlers? HAHHHAAAA - tell that to my poor little niece who has silver caps on ALL of her front teeth (well, silver in back, white in front, but all of her visible front teeth are totally covered with caps due to decay.) Having any milk pooling and sitting in a mouth full of teeth - whether it's breastmilk or cow's milk - can lead to decay. Milk is full of natural sugars - and bacteria LOVE to feed on sugars. (Again, I'm talking about milk pooling in the mouth so a baby or toddler taking a bottle of milk to bed and falling asleep with nipple and milk in mouth - same goes for a breast and falling asleep with nipple and a mouthful of unswallowed milk. In both instances - as long as all of the milk is swallowed and not pooling in the mouth - the risk of decay is greatly lowered.)
"When it comes to sleeping, whatever your baby does is normal. If one thing has damaged parents enjoyment of their babies, it's rigid expectations about how and when the baby should sleep." ~ James McKenna, Ph.D., Mother Baby Behavioral Sleep Center, University of Notre Dame