Why Suri Cruise Should Drop the Bottle

Aug. 8, 2008 — -- In an era when young celebrity mothers are coming under increasing public scrutiny for how they are treating their kids, Katie Holmes' decision to let 2½-year-old Suri Cruise suck away on her bottle may seem like a minor infraction.

But pediatricians say kids who continue to feed from a bottle past the recommended age may be at higher risk of a number of ills including speech problems, tooth erosion and deformation, and, not surprisingly, trouble letting the bottle go.

Although breast-feeding for 12 months is the gold standard in infant nutrition, pediatricians say introducing a sippy cup between 6 months and 12 months is fine and can be followed by drinking from a regular cup.

"You use different muscles in the mouth" using a cup, compared with a bottle, said Dr. Jennifer Kaplan, a pediatrician in private practice in Washington, D.C. "It helps with speech development."

But some doctors are more concerned with how bottles can promote a dangerously dirty mouth. Dr. Miriam Labbok, director of the Center for Infant and Young Child Feeding and Care at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, points out that a child with a bottle will often hang on to the nipple and hold milk longer in the mouth where the sugars can cause tooth and gum damage. Sucking on the nipple can, over time, cause the position of teeth to shift in the gums.

In addition, long, slender bottles can be more difficult to clean than cups, causing bacteria to build up in crevices.

"Bottles are not innocuous," Labbok said. "I don't think it's a healthy habit to continue for a long period of time... as early as a child can handle a cup the better."

Experts also recommend dispensing with bottles early, around age 1, because of attachment. The longer a child uses a bottle and incorporates it into their routine, the more difficult it can be to finally give it up.

Holmes isn't the first mom to be slow to wean her kid off the bottle, however. Lynette Ciervo, a 46-year-old mother of two daughters living in Rockville, Md., said she let both of her children continue to drink from bottles until they were age 3.