Beware The Baby Bottle

Using a baby bottle to comfort your older toddler, might be setting them up for obesity.

According to a new study, 15 months seems to be the cutoff point for the bottle.

Researchers looked at the diet of over 6,000 children and found that more than 20% of them still used a baby bottle. When these same children were looked at three years later, when they were 5 1/2, more of the late bottle users ended up being obese children. Prolonged bottle users were much more likely to be obese children even if they were breastfed early on and regardless of when they started solid foods or even if they spent more time in front of the television or video games. In this study, late bottle feeding seemed to be the big issue.

Part of the reason is because at this stage, beyond 15 months, using a bottle sets up bad food management habits that children use later in life. It lets them get food, in this case from a baby bottle, for behavior reasons and not because of hunger or appetite.

The researchers involved in this study, from temple university have a couple of recommendations when it comes to bottle feeding. Weaning them by 12 to 14 months could help fight this obesity issue. Also, instead of using the bottle to calm children, parents should instead address their underlying hunger and nutritional needs. And, of course, switch them to a cup as soon as you can.