FertilityZone

Hi Jen

I didn't use bottles but understand you're supposed to try and wean them off them from a year. She can still have the milk at that time but from a different type of cup. Yep, its completely safe to completely change over to cows milk at a year and it's fine to stop boiled water from 6 months.

Hope that helps.

DD1 had a bottle of cows milk morning and evening from a year until erm... around 2 1/12 I think from memory. Like Bubble I knew the advice was to get them off a bottle from a year but I tried a few times and found it difficult. The reason for stopping bottle is that there is sugar in milkand even though its a tiny amount, over time, sucking drinks with sugar in causes horrendous tooth damage. There is a very scary poster in my dentists waiting room with a picture of this damage so I asked him about it. He said the ideal is to get them off the bottle from a year old but as her only other drink was water in a sippy cup and she had very few sugary snacks, the risk was low and he wouldn't be concerned until she was around 3 1/2 years old. So I stopped stressing about that particular thing. She actually stopped very quickly. She had a bit of a virus once and didn't want her night time bottle and never wanted it again, so she did that one herself. In the day time, I just started giving her milk in a sippy cup, she refused it for a couple of days but once she realised that she wasn't getting milk any other way, she was fine. If you are being careful about her teeth in every other way (no juice, no sweets, brushing twice a day etc...) then she will be fine for a bit longer.

I bit the bullet when my son was 1 and just changed over to a sippy cup - he never blinked an eye and the bottles were thrown out from then. Take your lead from your baby and just introduce the sippy cup and see what the reaction is - good luck xx

I think you're 'supposed' to start weaning them off bottles when they're about 1. BUT, DD1 was still having her bedtime milk in a bottle at about 2 1/2 and DD2 is still having her morning and evening milk in bottles, although she's getting fed up with it in the morning so I may well start using a cup very shortly!

If she's ready then do it, if she's not it won't do any great harm to let her have them for a bit longer!

x