About a month or so ago I was thinking how I never changed the nipple on my now 8 months old babys bottles to a differant size.So I went and bought the stage 3 which according to his age was what he needed. When I changed the nipples he drank down his bottle so fast I could hear him almost throwing up I tried the nipples a couple of times and decided to change back to the stage 1 .Now my boy is getting his first teeth they have just popped through so I am wondering if the nipple is going to affect anything with the growth of his teeth cause I am assuming he must suck much harder on the stage 1 ?
It shouldn't. I know a lot of people that never changed the nipple size and had no issues like that. The nipples are so soft that he'd have to be sucking on that for long time in order to inhibit growth.
I wouldn't worry about it.
I'm in a similar situation. I haven't transitioned to the next stage nipple, we're still at stage 1. It seems to work well for us, but JT is teething now too.
The stage 1 nipples are shorter and much softer with tiny holes. He is eventually going to have to adjust to the larger opening or a tippy cup so I would go ahead and move up to a 2. Just be right there in case he is sucking to fast, you can remove the bottle and distract him for a moment.
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Tooth rot happens when the child holds their bottle in their mouth for EXTENDED amounts of time, like all night or all day. Normal bottle feeding does not cause tooth rot. Children with very soft enamel may get cavities from the milk but that doesn't really happen as often as people think. Slaiva rinses the mouth and washes the milk away. Most people only brush their teeth befor bed and in the morning. They don't run brush teir teeth every time they eat a snack or meal. It's the extended time that keeps the residue on the teeth.
It's like sucking on a sucker all night and then again all day. If you eat a sucker and it's just a short time it has much less impact on the teeth. If you drink the milk and remove the bottle the milk residue naturally rinses away in a few minutes.
I never changed the size of the nipples for any of my children and never had a problem.
I know quite a few moms who never switched nipple size. As long as hes not sleeping with the bottle in his mouth I've never heard of harm being done to a babies teeth by having the smaller size. You can always check with your Dr or maybe try the stage 2? If hes happy with stage 1 then I personally wouldn't worry.
