Pacifiers and Bottles

My son did not take a pacifier and was off the bottle at 1. My daughter LOVED her pacifier, she had constant ear infections from 6 months old so I never let it bother me and let her have it. She was 2 when she gave it up because she wanted to go to preschool ( I told her she was a big girl now) However, I did not allow her to walk around with it or take it out of the house, she only used it for sleep. She was also 1 when she gave up the bottle. She had a bad cold and couldn't take it anyway so I just substituted her sippy and she was fine.

Whenever you think they're ready. If you are also moving (leaving his daddy, like you say in your other post) I wouldn't make any other changes in his life for quite some time.

My daughter drank from a bottle, at nap and bedtime, until she was three. She drank from a regular cup, not sippy cup, at mealtimes. She was never allowed to keep the bottle with her day or nighttime. She is 10 now and the dentist just again this week proclaimed her as having "perfect teeth".

She never would take a pacifier, so I didn't have to deal with that.

I think that if you look at it logically milk is milk is milk. It truly does not matter if it comes out of a bottle or a cup of some sort. If your child needs that sucking action he will find it another way.

Giving a child a bottle when they are in bed so they can hold it in their mouth while they sleep is where tooth rot comes from. Not from drinking milk out of the bottle but instead the action of milk sitting on their teeth all night without a break. Holding the bottle in their mouth letting it drip and drip and drip all night long. It keeps the saliva from rinsing the milk off the teeth and they start to rot.

My daughter was taken off the bottle very early in my opinion. She fell and jammed a front tooth up into the gums. She had to stop all sucking motion that day. She started sucking her fingers and ended up making her jaw grow crooked. It is recessed. From the side she has no chin but from the front she looks okay. If I had known about pediatric dentists and proper care back then she would have most likely just had that tooth pulled and then she would have been back on the bottle or introduced to a pacifier so she would not have found her fingers.

To this day if she is stressed or worried she will wake up and be sucking her fingers. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself to do things differently.

Taking a bottle even after they are 2 years old is not a wrong choice if it is the one that will keep your child from finding a different way to find something to suck.

With my grandson that lives with us came up to me one day and handed me his bottle. He was 2, maybe 2 1/4. He never wanted it again. Could I have taken it away sooner? Yes, would it have been so simple? No, it might have been a royal battle.....I think I made the right choice for him.

Never dealt with the paci (we had a thumb-sucker who quit on her own at 24 mos.) but our first had a bottle. Took it away at 15 months and went cold-turkey. It was about 3 days of night-time fits but after that, she was fine and we never looked back.

My guy's pediatrician told us when he was 13 months (he was late for his 12 month checkup) that he should have been off the bottle at 12 months. I breastfed my first two so asked her how, she said cold turkey is the fairest way for a child, no "teasing" them by allowing it sometimes and not others. I asked about the paci and she looked at me, and I said, "Oh, OK, now?" and she smiled and nodded yes.

That was his last day of bottles, the next day we went to just sippys and he did good. I planned to do the paci in a couple of weeks but couldn't find it at bedtime (the only time he used it) so he went without both. He cried and had a hard time settling down that night, fussed around a half hour before falling asleep, then fussed but didn't cry the second night, then on the third night he asked and when I told him he didn't use the "suckie" anymore he looked sad but didn't cry or fuss. Never asked for it again and in retrospect he missed the suckie more than the bottle.

my kids were both 2 when we took the pacifier away.

10mo. gave both kids a little water in the sippy cup & by the time they were 12mo they were off the bottle.

Our boy did not take a paci, and was off the bottle at 1. We introduced the sippy at around 10 months. Just before his first birthday he refused to take a bottle, we thought something was wrong, but he was otherwise in good health. He had just figured out he could get more milk more easily from a sippy and was expressing his preferences. We got rid of all the bottles and haven't looked back.

Now working on making the cup the prefered vehicle for drinking.

In response to your question, our ped had said 1 years old.

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

DD never took a paci and I stopped the bottle at 1. DS had his paci until 15 months, he loved that thing :) and never used a bottle. He was drinking from cups at 7 months ( although that is not the norm). I say use your best judgement for the bottle, keeping in mind what is for, a means of nutrition when they are too young to eat solids, don't have the skills needed to manage a cup/sippy/straw, when your child is able to do those things, stop the bottle. The pacifier go with what your DR suggests.