Bottle - Perry, MI

My son is a little over 18 months. He was off bottles at a year. We just replaced them all with sippy cups. It was not a problem at all. he didn't miss his bottles one bit.

He still gets a sippy before bed though. So, i guess i can't say much about weening him from night time milk.

I suggest just keeping one bottle around ~if you want~ and replacing the other with a transitional cup :)

Good luck! I know how hard it can be. I miss the snuggles sometimes too.

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Hi S.,
You are right, it will be harder on you than her. I feared the day that I had to take the bottle away from my son because I, too, loved the cuddle time. I just changed his bedtime routine and started reading more books. He would cuddle up on my lap and we would reading for awile. When the day came he didn't even fuss. It was like he didn't remember it. The older they are the harder it will be to take it away. I have a friend that didn't want to take it away that early and at about 2 she took it and he had a REALLY hard time with it. It took weeks for him to stop crying at night. Good luck.
Chris

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It's so much easier to do at this age then when they are older. When they're older they have more of an emotional attachment to the bottle. Just replace the bottles with sippy cups, you'll be surprised at how easy it goes.
good luck!
D.

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Hi Sarah,
I know exactly how you feel. It was so hard for me to take my daughter off her bottle (which I did at 11 months) She really didn't seem to mind at all. She is a big snuggler and I thought that it would stop too. Well, we still snuggled while she drank her sippy cup. I think if you continue snuggling her while she drinks her cup, it will just be routine and she won't fall out of the habit. My daughter is now 2 1/2 and she is almost off the sippy cup even, but we make time to snuggle.

Good luck to you!

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Hi S.,

It was absolutely harder on me than my son. I avoided it for as long as I could! Then we found out he was allergic to milk at 16 months (I wasn't happy it took that long) but anyhow, I switched him to soy milk one day in a sippy cup & he never even asked for a bottle or freaked out that he wasn't having one. I think it's us parents that are worried about what their reaction is going to be. You may be surprised by your little girl not caring that she has milk in a sippy rather than a bottle. You can still cuddle w/ her while she drinks her milk!!
I wish you luck!!
T.

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I took the bottle away from my kids cold turkey the day they turned 1 year old (Happy Birthday to them). The older the kids get the harder it is to take it away from them.

Good luck!

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When my children are 9 months old, I start offering the sippy as often as I can. If she'll take it all the time, great. If not, offer it as much as possible. Eventually, she will take it more and more often. But when my kids turn 1, I only give the bottle with water in it. That really makes them want the sippy with the milk or juice in it. Then, they pretty much wean themselves.

I would definitely cut out a couple more now. 4-5 seems like a lot. She should be getting 3-4 bottles a day. If she will drink milk out of a sippy cup, I would just transition to that all together once she's a year old, because then you can give her cow's milk.

Just give her a sippy cup. you can still cuddle with the sippy cup. My now 16 month old gave up the breast at 10 months and went straight to sippy cup with soy milk. We still cuddled in morning and at night while he drank his milk and still do now. We both love it.

I broke my son of the bottle by one year old by allowing him to go to the store with me and pick out sippy cups. We packed all his bottles up in a bag and said good-bye to them together. I told him that he's a big boy now and he never cried for them again. However, he is addicted to sippy cups now. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing. lol

Good luck,
R.

P.S. - You can still have cuddle time at night before bed. That's what we do while we read together after the bath. :)

We removed the bottles at one year. With our oldest I was already pregnant for our second child so we wanted her to be on sippy cups before her little sibling came along. As we introduced milk and juice to her we put those in sippy cups. Within a couple weeks, she had all beverages out of the sippy cups and did just fine with getting enough fluids. For us, to replace the cuddling we would sometime give her the sippy cup and then sit down and read a book while she was drinking it. Then she would still cuddle. Although, there were also times that she didn't want to sit with us. Our younger daughter was much the same way.

My pediatrician wants them off by the time they are a year. my daughter was off totally about 11 months and my son at 8.

My doctor recommended weaning from a bottle around age 1 and that worked well with both my boys. Aparently if you wait much longer, they get more attached and it gets harder to make the switch. I waited until they were a year to start switching them and did it one meal at a time until they were all by cup. Sounds like you have a head start. Take away the one she likes best last. For my one son, it was moarning and the other one was night. We finished the process with both of them by about 13 months.

I have 4 kids and agree that cold turkey worked best. You can still cuddle while they drink out of a sippy cup!! It only gets harder to take the bottle away the longer you wait. Good luck!

I did what the others are saying also, introduced the cup early to get him used to it and then on his first birthday we went cold turkey. The first couple of nights were hard, I won't lie! He missed his night bottle the most but after two or three nights he adjusted and was fine.

Find new ways to cuddle together. Get rid of it by age one. Remember, it gets harder to take things away as they get older.