Tell me again why you should wean from bottles?

At our recent 18 month visit to the MCHN, she was not pleased to hear that DS still has two bottles a day- not that the milk is a problem, but the fact he drinks it from a bottle, not a sippy cup.

She mentioned it was bad for his ears- I understand that because at this age they have a very short eusatian <sp?> tube, fluid can easily get into their ears, and this is a concern for us since DS has problems with his ears. But from what I understand, that is about LYING DOWN and having a bottle, not having a bottle in itself. Would having a bottle in a more sitting up position pose the same problems?

Are there other problems I don't know about?

I think we would be in for a struggle to replace the bottle, and I need to be armed with the reasons why so I stay strong if I need to do it!

oh hun, my ds is still on bottles too at 18m. I have tired so hard to get him to drink milk from a sippy cup or straw cup, but he flatly refuses. I am currently on transitioning from ff to milk, which we will be on 100% next weekend, then from then I am going to try my hardest to get rid of the bottle. Maybe I will find some tips in here to help... DS really loves his bottle, and I know it is a comfort thing for him, and I really don't want to take that away from his routine, but I know I have to...

Lets hope we get some tips in here on making this move...

you could change the teat, so it is one of those spouts, like the same as a sippy cup.... my dd is 2.5 years old and still has a 'bottle' a day, but it is using one of the avent sippy cup spouts.... she resisted quite a bit initially, then one day i cut up all the teats, and pulled them from the dishwasher and showed her how the dishwasher ruined them.... from then on she begrudgingly drank from the green spout, and i pretended i was going to buy some more of the teats but never did....

i wouldn't worry too much about it, once they are a bit older you can make things up (ie the dishwasher ruining the bottle teats) to get them to give up things.... i wouldn't push it... its more important that they are drinking milk, i don't agree that it matters so much how they are getting it at such a young age....

when my mum got rid of bottles with us lot we stopped drinking milk all together.... refused to drink it from any sort of cup.... i definitely don't want to make that mistake... i prefer to explain things so that they sort of choose to give things up themselves... well at least they think they have chosen!!

Jess, I'm definitely no expert on bottles, but I think the main problems they are worried about are the ear thing and teeth decay. But those are both mainly a problem if the bottle is taken to bed and sucked on laying down or in their sleep (same applies to bf'ing too), or if they are walking around with a bottle for most of the day, especially if there is something like juice in it, instead of milk.

I think it's one of those things they try and discourage altogether, to avoid those problems. But personally i think if your ds has the bottle sitting up, finishes it then it's over, iykwim, then it really isn't a problem.

And all that is just my personal opinion, don't take it as gospel ;)