how many bottles??

[taiyasmum]

My daughter is 15 months and is currently having 3 bottles of milk per day. 1 after breakfast, 1 after lunch and 1 after dinner. After she has her bottle she usually goes to sleep......She is now starting to have only 1 sleep per day.

When should I cut her bottles down? Should she be having bottles at all??

[the pero clinic]

Dear Taiyasmum,

It is important that your little girl continues to have milk each day. Ideally, she should be having 4-6 serves of dairy food every day. So, if she has three serves of milk (125mL), she should also have something like yoghurt or custard or cheese to eat during the day as well.

I would suggest, however, that she does not continue to drink the milk from a bottle. She is old enough to learn to manage a cup or straw. Prolonged use of bottles can increase the chance of tooth decay, altered mouth shape, delayed speech and language development, and, if taken while lying down, bottles cause middle ear problems in toddlers. While, at 15 months, it is certainly not terrible that your little girl is still having bottles, the earlier you make the transition to cups, the easier and more tantrum-free it is likely to be.

Have a look at the Cup Drinking section of this forum for lots of ideas on how to teach and encourage cup drinking in babies and toddlers.

the pero clinic