At what age can a baby stop using a bottle? How to wean your baby off the bottle

Parents will feed their babies with bottles, so we often see babies drinking milk from bottles. Babies will develop a habit of drinking from bottles, and once the habit is formed, it is difficult to change. The following will teach parents how to correctly deal with the problem of children drinking from bottles.

1. How old is the baby when he can no longer use a bottle

1. Tooth decay. If your baby sleeps with a pacifier in his mouth, the unswallowed formula will remain in his mouth. The sugar in the formula can cause tooth decay, and the American Academy of Pediatrics believes that this practice also increases your baby's risk of ear infections. If your baby lies down while drinking milk, the milk may flow down his mouth into his Eustachian tube, forming stagnation and causing infection. Therefore, be sure to remove the bottle before your baby falls asleep. It is best for children of this age to drink some boiled water after drinking formula milk to dilute the milk in their mouths.

2. Malocclusion. If babies over two years old continue to use bottles, it will cause deformation of the upper gums and palate, leading to malocclusion and buck teeth.

If your toddler is still using a bottle, it is best to go to the hospital to check for changes in his teeth. If there are any problems with his teeth, it is best to stop using the bottle as soon as possible. Generally speaking, most babies have the motor skills to drink from a cup by the time they are about 9 months old, and by the time the baby is about 13 to 14 months old, it is time to fully transition from a bottle to a cup. The longer your baby uses a bottle, the more dependent he or she will become.

2. How to wean your baby off the bottle?

1. Let your baby practice drinking water with a training cup, but you must be prepared for his mouth to leak and spill water. In fact, this will also make him feel fun. After a few weeks, your baby should be able to drink. Then, before you know it, he'll be willing to drink anything he can from a cup.

2. When your baby is transitioning from formula to whole milk, give him milk from a cup only. That way, when he's weaned off formula, he can also be weaned off the bottle.

3. Don’t wait until your child is 2 years old to start weaning from the bottle. It is relatively easy to wean babies from bottles when they are between 12 and 18 months old, as the habit of drinking from bottles has not yet been formed.

4. Don’t let your baby drink from the bottle while walking. Not only does this stain your floor, it's also bad for your teeth and it's a bad habit that's hard to break.

3. How old is the baby when you should stop using a bottle

A one-year-old baby should start training to drink water from a cup. You can use a duckbill cup instead of a bottle. Drinking from a bottle for a long time is not good for the development of the child's upper and lower jaws and teeth. In dental clinics, most cases of malocclusion are related to prolonged use of pacifiers. In addition, long-term use of pacifiers will cause the upper palate and tongue to be squeezed due to strong sucking in the mouth, and the teeth will be pushed backwards when they develop. After the age of one, it is a critical period for children's tooth development and language learning. If they are still not weaned from the bottle at this time, it may cause unclear speech. Therefore, it is recommended that parents slowly train their children to drink from a cup after they are 10 months old until they can stop using the bottle.