When to give up the bottle?

Hi ladies, I was told by my health visitor that babies should start to be weaned off the bottle at 12 months (although she said that's going by the test book but she knows lots of babies that still have a night bottle before bed a lot older). My babe is 14 months old and i am starting to think about switching them onto adult/regular milk and also switch the baby bottle to a beaker. Am I doing this too soon? Can I get your experiences - when did you switch from formula to milk and when did you switch from a bottle to a beaker or straw bottle? Also, did you do it one feed at a time or a cold turkey switch. Thanks 🙏🏻

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You do it in your own time. You will know when she’s ready. My first had formula until she was two then transitioned to cows milk. A little bit older to me is a bit better as their tummies can struggle a little when going into cows milk. If was much better for her and she had no tummy issues. I will be doing the same with my LB, my daughter said goodbye to her bottles at 18 months but she had a cup for water on the day. then just went onto a spill proof cup for milk. I hope this helps x

It really depends on your baby. My LG was entirely off formula and bottles a week or two past 1 - I wasn’t concerned about dropping formula as she’s a really good eater. Also we’d introduced cows milk gradually and had no tummy issues etc. But if she’d been a poor eater or cows milk didn’t agree with her I’d have kept going with formula as long as I felt it was necessary. They say to swap bottles for their oral health/teeth as a lot of babies feed to sleep. But I know babies who’ve still had at least one bottle up til 2/3. My LG took really well to tum tum straw cups for milk and water, but if she hadn’t I wouldn’t have pushed it until she was ready. So I think it’s something to bear in mind and work towards, but unless it works for your baby it doesn’t have to be immediate.

We did a straight swap to cows milk when he was about 11.5 months as we ran out of formula. Then after about a week or so we swapped it into a straw cup that was the same as the one he had for his water and it was no issue at all

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