Bottle feeding mamas

[Nemmer]

I have a question for you bottle feeding mamas. I had always planned on treating bottle feeding as much like breastfeeding as I possibly can. Today my ped mentioned that I should try to wean ds from the bottle by 15 months! I found that odd since she is rather pro-breastfeeding, anti-circ, and generally at least a little receptive to non-mainstream parenting practices. I asked if that was due to the teeth problem. She stated yes, the tooth decay, but also the risk of ear infections, and "they just don't need it any more, developmentally."

So I'm just wondering about your thoughts on this. What age did/will you wean your babies from the bottle? Is it really that horrible to let ds self-wean from the bottle like I would from the breast?

[Elphaba]

hey, i'm a breastfeeder, but my sister is a bottlefeeder. her daughter self-weaned from the bottle at around 16-18 months, if i remember correctly. she just stopped wanting it and wanted a big girl cup. and that was that.
and i used a bottle until i was 3!!!!!!! my mom says i just wasn't giving it up.
i think they definitely still need to suck as toddlers, look how many want their pacis or thumbs or nursies or bottles!
i think you are right to let your ds self-wean. my only concern would be the orthodontic ramifications, but even then you can't predict what will happen. my husband was bottle-fed and has a perfect mouth with room for all his wisdom teeth.
so you just stay the course and tell your doctor "we're working on it" and just don't let her see the bottles!

:thumb

[bunny's mama]

hi there! i'm also a breastfeeder, but i wanted to tell you about the avent soft-spout cup. it's a nice trnasition form bottle to cup and i don't believe it has the bad orthodontic ramifications long-term use of a bottle can have.

[lilyka]

I think one of the concerns with self weaning from a bottle i that that they can walk around with it. I know one of the things that has contributed to my children weaning frm the breast is that they had to choose between sitting still and nursing right or getting up and playing. there just comes a point where being off and about was more important. My second one especially would have nursed a lot longer if she could have taken my boob with her. When I was doing daycare I made the children have thier bottles on my lap or in the high chair. All of them weaned from a bottle at my house long before they did at thier house (6 months to a year earlier) I am sure it is because they weren't allowed to carry it aroiund with them at my house and they were at thiers. I think most people envision this three year old walking around all day with a bottle in thier mouth. And that just might not be the case especially if you are making bottlefeeding a lot like breastfeeding.

[Nemmer]

Originally posted by lilyka
And that just might not be the case especially if you are making bottlefeeding a lot like breastfeeding.

Exactly. I don't plan to let him walk/run around with his bottle -- he only gets it when Daddy or I is holding him. :)

On a side note: I knew there was a 'support for moms who can't breastfeed' tribe, but couldn't seem to find it yesterday. So I'm going to post this question on that thread too. Thanks everyone for your replies so far! They have helped me feel better.

[mingber]

Hi there - my DS is 19 months and still LOVES his bottle. He weaned from the breast at 14 months and would never take a sippy cup, but would take a bottle. He refuses the sippy cup and straw cups, even now. So, I let him have his baba. He doesn't walk around the house with it and day care only gives it to him at nap time. He can drink from a regular cup with and without a straw, but spills most of it, so I don't let him have it very much.
I plan on letting him wean himself unless it really gets out of hand. I know at the day care center I use, once they move into the 2 year old room, they are not allowed to have bottles, only sippy cups or regualr cups, so that should help the weaning process. He also sucks on a pacifier, which I don't take away from him either. As for orthodontics, I am not worried, since he only just got his 5th tooth on Mother's Day.

[The Lucky One]

Hey there!

My ds who just turned 16 months still takes 5 bottles a day of half formula/half whole milk. He has NEVER EVER walked around with a bottle, nor has he even held his own bottle for a feeding. He does great with a sippy cup, though. He gets a cup of water with each meal and I generally let him keep his cup of water with him throughout the day to encourage hydration.

IMO, he's just not ready to give up the bottle. I've tried giving him his milk in the sippy cup and he wants nothing to do with it. I'm sure that will change with time. I really still believe that he has valid sucking needs and also he feels comfort from being held while drinking his bottle. (And yes, I've tried holding him in the same way with the sippy cup of milk).

They'll give up the bottle when they're ready, within reason. If ds hasn't given it up by 21-24 months, then maybe I'll step in and see if I can respectfully wean him from them, but until then I see nothing wrong with it.

lisa

[LuvMy2Kidz]

I am also a breast feeder. My ds took a paci until about age 2.5. His ped told me not to worry about his teeth getting misaligned. That as long as he didn't take it when he lost his baby teeth, that his permenant teeth would come in fine. He was starting to get buckteeth from the paci, but when he finally gave it up they straightened within a month. Babies can also get tooth decay from bf, my son has a cavity in one of his front teeth fron nursing to sleep every night for 3 years :LOL

[geekmom]

I'm a bottle feeder. So far all my kids have just stopped taking the bottle at around a year old and wanted the sippee cup. It's not like the bottle has any extra benefits like the skin to skin contact and all. My kids, of course, get all the hugs and cuddles unrelated to feeding so it was easy to give up the bottle. Since even extended breast feeding isnt' meant to provide a ton of nutrition, it's for all the other benefits it provides, it makes sense for kids to give up the bottle when they are eating table food.

As far as weaning, though, I don't know. I've never had to wean a child. All my kids just stop on their own. I guess if they insisted on a bottle up to age 2 or something I'd try to see what kidn of extra sucking or comfort they needed.

I've never been allowed to breastfeed any of my 6 babies (I'm a foster parent) so I don't know what it would be like to do ebf, but I just can't see a reason for parent led weaning unless the parent wanted to for their own reasons. It's certainly fine nutrition-wise to wean a breast fed or formula fed baby after about 12 months, but if you don't have a reason to why do it? So many people think that children have to develop "habits" early so that they will do what we want, but I don't believe that. Children are not puppy dogs. First, developmentally they won't want a bottle past a certain point, especially if they're not allowed to carry it around or it's filled with water, and second if it becomes a problem later it's no harder to wean at 24 months than at 12 months. Do what feels comfortable to you, but don't tell your doctor I said that :D

[heket]

...but if you don't have a reason to why do it? So many people think that children have to develop "habits" early so that they will do what we want, but I don't believe that. Children are not puppy dogs.

My thoughts exactly!

We're bottlefeeders (:LOL sounds funny) and I've started to think about the same thing. Dd is 10 1/2 mon., and becoming more and more formula fed. I've started to wean from the pump (I'm an EPer), so it's brought it forward in my mind. But my gut keeps telling me that when she's ready, we'll know.

Besides, dd takes most of her bottles around night and nap times, so I'd hate to wean her off since I'm certain that part of this is a comfort issue.

[abimommy]

here it is. :)

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=48728

[bobica]

DD is 14 months and LOVES her bottle! She gets 3 a day- 6 oz milk 2 oz water mixed and is VERY happy with them. She uses sippys & straw cups for water/juice but only wants milk in her bottle. I'm surprised that your doctor wants them weaned already! My feeling is she still needs to suck & she'll just suck her thumb more & more if we take away her bottles. For now, we're sticking with the bottle- always sitting with someone- never walking around with it. Same goes for thumb sucking- it's for sleeping or being held. She's happy so we are too. We'll wean her before 2.

[Nemmer]

That's how my son is too -- won't drink milk from a cup, but will drink juice or water just fine from a cup. We have the same rule about bottles, he has to be held by someone to have it. We use a binky instead of thumb, but also restrict that to sleep-times, or extremely overwhelming situations when he needs some relaxation (like being somewhere noisy) and we can't just leave. That happens rarely, though, and usually he just gets it for nap and bedtime. We've started a slow weaning process (he just turned 2 a month ago), where we're using a 4 oz bottle instead of 8 oz. and I'm trying to encourage more milk-drinking from a cup, but he's not very interested. :LOL

[zaftigmama]

I'm not a bottle feeder, but my sister was. I saw something in an earlier post I wanted to comment on, I hope it won't sound like criticism - it's not meant to be.

I saw mention that a mom wasn't concerned about orthodontics and the bottle because her child has only a few teeth. Both my nephews have bottle-mouth, and it concerns the formation of the jaw and soft palate. Cavities are a seperate issue, and are attributed to breastmilk as well.

My nephews baby teeth didn't touch in the front when their mouths were shut. Now that they are getting adult teeth, you can see that their jaws and mouths are narrow and not formed correctly. The family prac. and pediatric orthodontist both attribute this to using bottles. Each used a bottle for about 18 -20 months (maybe one was closer to 2 years, I'm not 100% sure).

They are going to have orthodontic procedures and have their jaws corrected so that all their adult teeth will grow in. Obviously this isn't something that always happens - both my sister and I and both our dh's were bottle fed and our mouths are fine. My sister and I never needed braces. But, there is a possible concern, and I just wanted to throw the info out there. Bottle feeding doesn't only concern teeth.

Take care,

[Heavenly]

This is an old thread but in case you're still reading I bottle-nursed my son and I ALWAYS held him for bottles, he never held his own ever. He just self-weaned at 3.5 years (he was still taking them at nap and nightime since about 2 years old). I felt very strongly that he should be given the choice of when to wean just as he would had I been able to nurse him. And by the way his teeth are absolutely perfect and his breastfed sister's teeth are really crooked and she has an overbite. So 6 of one, half a dozen of the other I say.

[DaryLLL]

geekmom, I agreed with much of what you said but wanted to clear up a misperception.

Since even extended breast feeding isnt' meant to provide a ton of nutrition, it's for all the other benefits it provides, it makes sense for kids to give up the bottle when they are eating table food.

This is incorrect. Extended bfing, that is past one year or even two yrs, does provide a "ton" of nutrition, not to mention antibodies.

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/ebf-benefits.html

In the second year (12-23 months), 448 mL[per day] of breastmilk provides:
29% of energy requirements
43% of protein requirements
36% of calcium requirements
75% of vitamin A requirements
76% of folate requirements
94% of vitamin B12 requirements
60% of vitamin C requirements
-- Dewey 2001

My ds was still receiving at least 24 oz of breastmilk in 24 hours at age 2 1/2, so was getting all of the above dietary requirments from his milk. I know he was getting that much becasue I went away for a day and pumped that much.

As to the OP, I agree with most of the posters. Give the bottle in lap only and let child wean when ready.