Getting off the Bottle....

Oh gosh S M I hope its enough because thats all my son has been getting for the last year: 2 bottles at night, 12-14oz.

We are "in the process" of bottle weaning too J..
Here is my experience: My son will be 2 in 2 weeks and he gets a bottle of milk to go to sleep and another in the middle of the night or early a.m. along w/ a diaper change. He likes to pee alot especially w/ all that milk. He gets a little milk on his cereal, eats an occassional yogurt and gets cheese sometimes. Thats his dairy intake.

Tonight will be 1 week w/ no bottle. I did it cold turkey. I tucked him in one night and he asked for the bottle and I told him: "oops, I am sorry, all the ba-ba's are dirty, mommy didnt wash them, sorry." He fussed for a bit then went right to sleep. It helped that he had a full belly and was really tired.
The 2nd night he fussed and got a pat to sleep for about 5min. He woke 2x that night and fussed a bit.
3rd night he pitched a fit. We said at that point that the bottles are all gone now. And offered a sip of milk from a cup which he refused. He got patted to sleep again.
4th night he asked and got reminded.
5th and 6th night he didnt say anything, went right to bed. It was way easier than I had thought it would be. I thought he would be up all hours of the night fussing.... Ahhh, what a relief. He is now sleeping thru the night too. He was waking out of habit for the bottle.
Problem now is getting him to drink milk from a cup. Ive tried that special cup, taking the chill off the milk and chocolate. NO-GO. So he will be like my 3yr old and just wont drink it. In time I will re-offer it and it will become mandatory breakfast drink. My 3yr old gets lots of milk in her cereal and I give her a straw to drink it all up w/...she likes that idea. And sometimes she will drink chocolate milk...she started all that about 2 1/2.

One night I did sit w/ my son in his room w/ a regular open cup and he sipped about 1/2 a cup of milk, but that didnt work the next night.
It depends on how long you want to drag it out. I'd do away w/ her morning bottle to start w/. And offer an open cup w/ breakfast. A really cool cup and dont be afraid to add a little vanilla/strawberry/chocolate to it. Just enough to color/taste. She might like the novelty of it.
I find cold turkey works better than dragging it out, thats only a tease for them and causes confusion.
Hope this helps and good luck.

1 mom found this helpful

Unfortunately, i don't have any suggestions. However, I have the same exact problem with my 21 month old son. He only gets one in the morning and one at night. But wont drink milk from a cup. Please if you come up with anything let me know. I will be sure to do the same. I'm also trying to kick his pacifier. He only gets it at night. Any suggestions?

My girl was 24 mo when she went to a sippy cup. My, how she loved her bottle! She woke up each morning saying "Bottle time, bottle time" in a hopeful, sing songy voice. We went cold turkey...she had never wanted a sippy cup. When she asked for the bottle I said, no, its sippy cup time. She would repeat, very hesitantly, "sippy cup time?". And she wasn't too happy. But I also filled a sippy cup for her favorite doll Gracie. When she saw Gracie "drink" from the sippy cup, she wanted Gracie's sippy cup, which I happily gave her. After a couple of days, she forgot about the bottle. Good luck.

Sorry no advice here on bottle weaning as we are also having a difficult time! My son was three when he weaned from breastfeeding (and I had to coerce him to do it!). The bottle now is a 'no go zone' for him. What I do, though, to help with cavity prevention is to incist that he brush his teeth after the bottle.

What Im in the processes of doing is to slowly water down the bottle. So we've started with adding 1oz of water to an 8 oz bottle. Hopefully by 8 weeks it will be completely water!

Good luck! I will definitely be reading through the responses to get some advice of my own.

Never had this problem, but good luck. I don't know - I think she is old enough to reason with. No more bottles at bed - you can pick out your own special "night-night cups." Then be strict about it. Give her some extra comfort and love at bedtime.

It might be easier to first get her to take a cup of milk during the day - I presume she will take water from a cup? Maybe try only water at night after she brushes her teeth. And introduce a cup of milk during the day. I am not sure, but I would think she isn't getting enough milk now anyway if she is only drinking two bottles of milk all day, but my memory of that age isn't that good. IS 16 ounces enough?

Good luck.

Take her to the store and let her pick out a special "sippy" cup. Give her the milk in that and get rid of the bottles. Also, with the concern over some plastic bottles- tell her they are unsafe and need to be gotten rid of.
Hope you're not giving her the bottle to take to bed. Bottled milk at bed will be a nightmare for her developing teeth!

Do one time AM or PM. Then do the other. The straw sippy cups are nice.

If it is the bottle itself that you want to get rid of you might try getting her some Nuby sippy cups. They have soft spouts and that is the only thing my daughter would take her milk out of for about a year after I took her bottles away. I guess it still seems like a bottle texture to them but it is really a sippy cup.

If you are trying to get rid of the milk at night I would start replacing it little by little with water and only allowing her to have water at night to prevent cavities.

I kept my son on it as long as he wanted ... if only for comfort why stop! We do things because other say do them ... but what about what your child feels they need! Listen to your child and your heart! Do what is right for your child and never mind what people say! They will stop when it is time ... stop being worried and enjoy the journey! It goes by much to quickly.
____@____.com
www.EnglesideChurchofGod.org

Hi J. -

My son is 2 and a half and still has a bottle. I am actually not planning on taking it away from him until he is three. BUT he only gets water in his bottle for bedtime and if he wants it in the middle of the night. If you can at least give your little guy water I would highly suggest it. We just had to have our sons molar filled and although the dentist said it probably wasn't the milk that caused a cavity in the molar i do have to wonder. Good luck I am sure that it so very hard.

Have you tired giving her milk from a sippy cup with a straw..? My daughter is spoiled rotten lol and will only drink milk from a straw. She will drink water and other stuff from a regular sippy but if she isn't getting her milk from a straw, she pushes it away. My daughter just turned a year May 15th.Also, I stopped the bottle cold turkey..the first two days were a little rough but after a while she realized it was a sippy or nothing. Good Luck.

Next time you go shopping bring her to the diaper aisle and show her the cool cups for toddlers and see if she would like to pick a "big girl cup out" Maybe the Disney Store might be a little more intriguing for her. Offer her the sippy cup more than the bottle. At night say oh no I can't find it is it ok if we uise your new big girl cup that you picked out? It worked for me. Good Luck!

Annie R

I agree with the reverend, every child is different and has different needs - there is no textbook way of raising a every child. When she is fully ready to give it up you could do what I did.

Decorate a box with her favorite colors, stickers, let her paint or color it - and call it the bottle fairy box - and tell her that the fairy is going to come and take the box and leave her something special for being such a big girl and giving her the bottles. You can make up any story you want to go along with it - it's a twist to the tooth fairy idea. Be sure to get her a special gift from the bottle fairy - perhaps it's something she can take to bed with her or really cute cup or both!

It worked for me and my daughter now wnats to decorate a box when she outgrows shoes and other things for the shoe fairy - so this can be an ongoing thing depending on the child.

Best of luck!

Hi J.,

Here are some resources:

www.kidspriorityone.org ###-###-####

www.chkd.org Support group for parents. ###-###-####

Hope this helps. Good luck. D.

Try the Gerber Nuk learning cup. It has a soft top that is similar to a bottle nipple. It made for a very easy transition between bottle and hard-top sippy cup. He loved the handles, too.

I went through the same thing with my son I would put milk in his sippy cup and add a little bit of strawberry syrup and do the "shake, shake shake" dance with it. We would shake it up instead of stiring. He got a kick out of it and immediatly took to it. It wasnt long maybe a day or two and he was drinking regular milk too. All chilren are different just go off of their personality and find what works for them. Good luck!