Baby Bottles: When to Wean

     

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends weaning a child from the bottle at 15 months.  That doesn’t seem too unreasonable considering most babies are ready to eat solid foods at 4 to 6 months and most doctors recommend transitioning from a bottle to a cup at 12 months.  In fact, the AAP states that kids at 12 month don’t require nighttime feeding at all.  But, need and want are two separate things.  A lot of kids use their bottles (and the contents) for comfort.  That’s why, when weaning a baby from a bottle, it’s the before bedtime one that is most difficult for them to relinquish.  They want the comfort of the bottle before sleep.  And, because so many parents don’t want to deal with a crying or cranky kid before bedtime, they continue allowing the bottle and formula (or milk) well after the kid should have given it up.  Complacency however can lead to serious health problem as tooth decay and obesity are two side effects of the sugars in milk (or any kind of sugar given in excess).         

Of Particular Concern to Low Income Families     

Richard Kahn, a nutritionist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who works with low income families in the Bronx, says babies are capable of holding and using a cup by 6 months.  He also says the 8 or 9 bottles of milk or formula per day that a lot of low income families allow their kids is a major cause of anemia.  Too much casein (a protein in milk) blocks iron absorption and causes anemia which, in turn, affects brain development.  Mr. Kahn continues to say that if there is no intervention by 24 months, cognitive functions take a permanent hit.  You can see how this is a circular problem for society.  Education and good nutrition are the pillars of upward mobility, but people who don’t get education hold bad jobs which causes them to not be able to buy good food or spend time educating themselves and their families about nutrition.  And that causes this generational cycle of failure. Clearly Mr. Kahn has a useful societal function.  Educating people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to this sort of information might someday be a factor in their ability to move up the social and economic ladder.  Nutrition is the foundation of a healthy life, and it starts in infancy.   

Breast Feeding:     

One of my favorite organizations is La Leche League.  They were a great help to Mely when she started breastfeeding Neil (and later Alan) as both kids had trouble latching on.  Mely and I knew that breast feeding was going to be the healthiest way to feed the kids, and we didn’t want to accept failure, but neither of us had family nearby who could give us advice.  We turned to La Leche League for help and they came through with a lactation consultant and all the advice and support we needed.  However, our success is not other people’s success.  While reading Mr. Kahn’s bottle feeding recommendation I begin to wonder how many low income families in the US are breastfeeding.  The health benefits of breastfeeding are well documented.  It seems intuitive then that the best way to avoid over feeding and tooth decay is by breastfeeding.  While I agree with Mr. Kahn’s recommendations for bottle feeding families, I think time would be perhaps better spent, where a shortage of time and resources exist, encouraging breastfeeding education.  As it is though, good advice is still good, and Mr. Kahn is saying relevant things.