2 Year Old Still on the Bottle

I know you have more then likely have gotten excellent advices. My daughter is 3 and we found that the cows milk has been causing her excemza.I put her on a dairy free diet and it cleared things up. For the bottle most of the times you should just take it away..:):)

Yes - I transitioned as well, took one bottle away each week... Last one was night bottle, seems to be most sacred - my little girl went until 2yr also. My lucky charm - was favorite character sippy cups, those really helped the transition. They are really cheap too - come in a pckg of 4 (Like this but come in 4's)
http://www.target.com/First-Years-Disney-Princess-Variety...

Hi there, I have a son that was allergic to corn, shellfish, peanut butter, eggs, chocolate and more plus he had eczema & asthma real bad. I had to monitor everything that went into his mouth. He had to go to Stanford for shots and check-ups and I met with a dietician, what I learned is how to read a label which is soooooo important cuz companies can be tricky. I wouldn't worry so much about the bottle right now if I were you. I would read and read somemore and learn what your child can eat. My son also couldn't have chocolate so we used carob and had fun making cookies. It was a challenge but I'm actually glad because I really know my labels. One trick is the shorter the label, the better for everyone. But when allergies are the problem, you have to learn what certain things mean and what is in them. I used to get apple butter instead of peanut butter and things like that. Now with the internet, you can search all night long. It's very interesting. With the eczema I used to put oatmeal in a plastic dishtub and let him play with his hot wheels in it, it's great for the skin as is aveeno products. You can put oatmeal in the bath too and make a paste and put it directly on the bad spots on the skin. Let him shop with you to pick things out like apples, veggies, etc and let him help to cook them or prepare them. Stay away from processed foods, buy the real deal. My son would help me, then he wanted to eat it. I use to buy real 100% juice and make my own popsicles, Northland has a great cranberry juice sold at Longs now. The others are just full of sugar. You will also have a calmer child with eating real food. With my sons eczema, I kept his hair short so he wouldn't sweat and itch so much. He would bleed sometimes, it was so bad. You may have to be careful with what you wash his clothes with too. There are good books as well, the library is free. Just think how healthy you all will be and feel better too. Maybe he is clinging to his bottle cuz he just doesn't feel right inside. And if people stare or make rude comments, that's there problem. That's how I feel anyway. Good Luck ~~ J.

I have a 2 year old and started to get rid of the bottle (so far successfully) as follows:

-first eliminated the bottle at nap (actually school started this process and it was very easy).
-talked to my little one a lot about it - and he does understand.
-of course I focus on his special blanket and read a favorite book everynight to replace the bottle with other special things.

So far now, we are doing naps without the bottle, he is not getting up at night for the bottle and he is on his 6th night without the bottle. However, with that said, he still gets one bottle when he gets up in the morning. But the baby steps are working fine for me and I am happy as long as milk is not sitting on his teeth and in his mouth while he sleeps. I had a $2,000 dental bill with my other son and refuse to have these dental issues with my little one.

Good luck!!!

We just went through this with our 2 1/2 yr old and it was much easier than expected. However before you begin make sure you have the resolve to follow through in the face of 1-2 days of protests and possibly not drinking. Unless your child has a medical condition this poses little threat to their health.

We starting by all having milk/juice/water out of the same Born Free training sippy cup each night a dinner (it has a soft spout like a bottle) and "cheers"ing before each sip. It became like a game. We did this for about a week until we knew our DD was capable of drinking from the cup, even if it was just one sip a night. During this we rarely got more than a few sips in her but we knew she got the idea.

Then we packed up all the bottles and gave them to our neighbor with a baby. I had heard about doing this and tried many times before to no avail. THis is not the solution itself but you'll be suprised that it makes it easier for your child to accept loss of the bottle in the next step.

Finally you have to dive in and yank the bottles cold turkey. FIrst explain that they are a big boy/big girl and ready for cups and that the baby really needed all the bottles. Offer the Born Free cup in place of your usual bottles. With my DD we started this process on a Saturday morning. SHe had virtually nothing to drink Saturday but then woke up Sun morning, grabbed the cup I handed to her and drank the whole thing. After 1 1/2 years of my worry her thirst overcame her objections (my pediatrician had been telling me this for sometime but I think I had to believe is first before any attempt would be successful. You can movce to the Born Free hard spouts once they're used to the soft spouts and then eventually phase in straws/cups.

BTW I tried every other short cut in book previously to no avail. I've come to appreciate that with toddlers it just takes resolve to tackle things head on.

Dear S.,
I do not think 2 years old is too young to get your child off the bottle. If it's a comfort thing, you can slowly introduce a different comfort thing.
Drinking milk/formula/cereal/juice from bottles past 2 years old can have devastating results on a child's teeth.
Let him pick out some sippy cups, or at least one favorite. Give him his formula only in the sippy or a big boy cup. If you have to give in during the transition and give him a bottle, put only water in it. Nothing to sugar it up, nothing to get him to take it....the point is trying to get him to drink from something else. And if he wants the comfort of the nightime bottle, let him have it. At night, with water only.
He may cry a bit about it at first, because it's change, but it's a simple matter of trying convince him that the REALLY good stuff comes in big boy cups.
He may learn to like water and want that in a sippie cup too.
Another trick is putting ice in the sippie cup. There is something about it that makes it fun for kids if it rattles.
You can also fill ice trays with juice and then put water and a few frozen juice cubes in the sippie. I don't know a little kid who hasn't loved that.
Like I said, if he wants the bottle, only put plain water in it and at night only. If it's a comfort/sucking thing, he will still do it with plain water. If it's a taste thing, let him have all the other stuff in a sippie.
I knew my kids were done with their bottles when they didn't care if it was completely empty. They just wanted to hold it. So, I gave them a different cozy to hold.
Just start with a little transitioning, sticking with it, and your little one will sail through it just fine.

I'm trying to switch my toddler right now from bottle. I've been trying sports bottle tops - both of my kids love them and I've read they're actually better for your kids than switching to sippy cups for mouth muscles and speech development. Also a straw - the disposable cups with short straws at Target are fairly spill proof. My daughter is still getting the hang of that but can even tip it up enough that some of the milk comes into her mouth without really sucking. My son figured out a straw by drinking my husband's chocolate smoothy - although your son may not be able to have that. Also we're trying the juice boxes where you can squeeze a little of the juice into the child's mouth to help them get the hang of sucking themselves. Also you can probably try a cup - although if your son is like my daughter it will be messy for a long while so be prepared unless you want to hold the cup the whole time. I know it's frustrating ... hope some of this helps!

Our son was around that age when we "forced" him off the bottle. He had GI issues and was drinking lots of Pediasure (on doctor's orders) so that we could be sure he was getting enough calories. He was slow to eat much solid food because he had some oral motor skill difficulty (though not w/ speaking, so we had no idea). The occupatonal therapists we worked with at the developmental clinic at CPMC said to go straight to cups w/ pop-up straws because sippy cups do not introduce new oral motor skills. Also, the valves on those things can make it really difficult to drink from them. At first our son would only drink from the straw cup when he was with his sitter. When we found out that she had gotten him to use the cup, we started giving him his morning "milk", when he was the hungriest, from a straw cup. At first he was mad, but all in all it worked well. Pretty quickly, we were only feeding him from a bottle before bed time. Then we just had to bite the bullet. We told him around mid-day that he no longer had any bottles in the house because he was a big boy who knew how to use a cup. He certainly protested, and we told him that we understood that he was upset with us and that that was okay. I don't remember going through much of a struggle, though. As for Pediasure, it has a lot of sugar in it (as glucose, maybe?) but it was a lifesaver for us. Our son did not become overweight (far from it) and did not turn into a sugar freak. He is now 5.5. I would ask his pediatrician for advice before using it, especially with his allergies, but it might be a solution for you.

My guy, now 4 years old, was taking a bottle before bed till he was three. It wrecked his teeth. Now I'm guarenteed dental problems with him all through life. The bottle was Shaklee brand soy protein and shaklee powdered multi vitamin (which we still drink daily). Way better for you than formula. less expensive too. It's good for mommies too. I finally had him give his bottles to the bottle fairy (we hung them in a tree) and in return he got some really cool sippy cups. (hanging in the same tree the next morning). Since it was his project to give them, he never looked back. My two boys, 4 years and 8 months, often end up in bed with me (almost every night at some point) and I Love that.

S.,
My two year old is also still drinking his milk out of a bottle. We had said that he was to stop and use a sippy cup when he turned two, but that happened a couple of weeks ago. When i do trials, he simply doesn't drink any milk for as many days as we try a sippy cup. I keep giving up at five. No ideas, but I can relate!

Hi S., while it has been awhile since my kids were 2, I do remember those days. What we did, was first take them to the store to pick out a sippy cup. Then at the time my son's favorite cartoon charactors were the Ninja Trutles. They were at Great America. We took him there one day with the bottles, and said we were leaving them there for the Ninja Turtle family. He cried once, but reminded him where they were and he was fine. We did the same with our daughter, left them all at Disneyland. Maybe you can find somewhere that he likes to go, even the park, and leave them there for maybe the squirl family. I know that sounds strange but it worked for us. Good Luck

S.,
If you want dental bill out of the roof continue with the bottle.

Children need to be transitioned to a cup at 1 year of age. NO MORE bottles!!! It ruins their teeth due to the sugars sitting at the base of the teeth at the gum lines.

Throw the bottles in the garbage, and be strong! You are the parent. Formula is no longer needed unless a physician states it is necessary.

Be the mom your child needs...

A. A

He's only two, and stil quite a baby, can't he stay a bit longer on the bottle? Say until age three? I completely weened mine off the bottle at about 3 1/2 years, no problem. Just don't go much later, as it can cause teeth problems.

Truthfully, I would be more worried about his sleeping with you. That's a habit you'll have to eventually break, excema or not. Sleeping in your bed should be saved for special occassions (when he's sick, or on weekend mornings) and for his own independence he will need to learn to sleep alone.

I would help him learn to sleep alone first, then ween him off the bottle. Just my opinion.

Hi S.,

Our 26 mo still drinks 1-2 cups of formula per day also because of food allergies. He had been drinking water from a sippy cup, but really resisted going from the bottle to cup for milk. We did it by going cold turkey. After three days of refusing to drink milk from a cup, he gave in and took. It does mean a few days of extra fussing, because of the loss of the bottle for comfort as well as probably being more hungry. So try to time it for a period when you can handle the extra stress.

By the way, there is a great on-line support group for parents of kids with food allergies. www.kidswithfoodallergies.org They were incredibly helpful when our now 6yo was a baby and suffered from multiple, severe allergies. It really helps to read about the experiences of others with similar issues. And you can post specific questions or concerns and get advice...

-D.

Hi S., Have the bottle fairy come and pick up all the bottles in the house. Tell him the fairy takes them for the next baby that needs to drink from a bottle. He might cry once or twice after but tell him about the other babies that need his bottles. He will feel like he is helping someone. Goodluck...

S.,
When the time is right, and you feel he has enough things he can eat you need to get him off the bottle ASAP. Our dentist told us to cut an 'X' in the nipple of his bottles, then a couple days later cut the 'X' bigger, then actually cut part of the nipple off. I thought it was going to be a horrible experience for both of us but he just quit asking for it. Good Luck!

I found a transition cup by Gerber that worked for my daughter. I also have only used it for milk, so she knows her sippy cups are for water or the occasional juice.

However, I can't get her off her night time bottle. If you hear of any good advice there, let me know.

Hi S.,

We just recentely got our 2yo son off of the bottle. We made several "soft" attempts over the past year or so, but this time we were just firm about it. We let him have his milk in a sippy cup instead of a bottle. He was taking a bottle before bed and upon waking in the morning, and we just repalced it with milk in a sippy cup. He did not liek it and there was a lot of crying, but we just dealt with it. It's hard to let your little one cry, but it's part of life that he cannot be on the bottle forever. It's a hard transition for any little one, so I can almost garuntee you will have to deal with tears. We just told our little guy that he is not a baby anymore and bottles are for babies. (we also have a 9mo at home, so he knows the difference between himself and babies...)

For you, I'd just give him the formula in a cup instead of bottle. Give it to him on the same schedule as his bottles, just switch from bottle to cup. They don't like the cup as much, so he'll probably start drinking less formula. I'm not sure if that is a concern of yours, but just be prepared for that.

Good luck and I hope this helps.
K.

Hi S.,

When I tried to have my then 13 month old change over to a sippy cup, he refused to drink milk (or any other fluids!) so my pediatrician recommended using a cup with a straw built in. It did the trick and he loves being able to carry it around and not have to tilt it back. Just an idea...good luck!