Getting Rid of the Bottle - Butler,PA

A. -
When my son was coing off the bottle I felt the same way - we transitioned with the NUBY sippy cup - the sippy part has the feeling of a bottle nipple, but looks like sippy cup and drinks like one - I think they sell them at Target, Kmart, etc. Good luck

Hi A.,
U are not the only one..i am in the same boat.U have got so many valuable suggestions ..and these are important for me too as i have a two year old and still on bottle..though she can drink from a cup or sipper but at bed time she still needs bottle and we kept on giving her as she was teething and had totally stopped eating ..she lost weight and was on vitamins..due to all this we kept on giving her bottle as we didn't want her to stop drinking milk also..
Thanks a lot for everyone for all these suggestions..and A.... good luck!!!(i need that too)
F.

A.,

I am kind of in the same boat. My Daughter is only 10 months but i am trying to start the process of breaking her so that by 12months, 14 months at the latest, she is broke. I always hear well so and so was done with the bottle at 9 months...yadda yadda yadda. and i WAS always one of those people who thought how awful it was that a 2 year old was still drinking a bottle. well now i'm eating my words because i can see my daughter being on the bottle till she is two also. I have tried just about every kind of sippy cup there is but i have just come to realize that when she is ready she will start to drink from one. i don't push it on her but at meal time i do give a cup with water(she will not drink juice...which in the long run is great). she plays with it and bites on it so hopefully she will start to drink from it. in your case, it seems like you have tried but you are right it seems to be her security. i would try to find something else to replace that security...i definetely would not start a binky that will create a whole new issue when she gets too old for that. a blanket or stuffed animal that she could cuddle might help...if she doesn't already have those. do you know any babies you could take her bottles to and she can see you give the baby the bottles that way she understands they are not in your house anymore. you may have to resort to the most painful way...just get rid of all of them so you don't have a back up "just in case". not only will that help you not to cave in but it won't confuse her. it will be miserable probably more for you to watch her cry then actually for her. i would start in a friday night that way it is the weekend in case you are up until 4 am. prepare her for this talk about it a lot for a few days and then on friday just stick to your guns and do it. Please let me know if you found something that worked...i may be trying it in a few months:)

I really don't have much advice to offer in this situation because I'm in the same boat. My daughter is 18 months old and I still give her a bottle for naps and bedtimes. It comforts her. I'm a little weary about giving it up but seeing as how we only have 2 bottle liners left and my husband refuses to buy more, we will probably be starting the process tomorrow. Best of Luck to you!

A., Easter is coming up, and what I did with my daughter was, we told her the Easter bunny wanted to bring her a basket of candy, but he wanted to take her bottles with him in exchange. She gave them right up in exchange for the candy. She was very attached to the bottle as well, and I was surprised at how easily she gave them up. She did whine at bedtime about having a bottle, but I reminded her that she had given them to the Easter bunny for his baby bunnies. We then gave her a pretty sippy cup for bed. It seemed like exchanging one bad habit for another(neither a bottle nor a sippy cup is good at bedtime) but it was easier after that to wean her off the sippy cup at bedtime.

I think you should tell your daughter that because she is a big girl now, it's time to get rid of the bottles. Gather the bottles into a bag and have HER throw them away. Then you can take her to the store and have her pick out a toy or stuffed animal that can be used as a transitional comfort object; tell her that this new toy will help her to get to sleep at night and at nap times. It probably will be a little rough for the first couple of nights, but as long as you don't cave in and give her a bottle, she will adjust. My son had the same type of problem giving up the pacifier. I, like you, started giving it to him at nap time and bedtime only. Once he bit a hole in the nipple, I told him it was broken and had to be thrown away. HE threw it in the trash can himself. I thought I was going to have a horrible few nights, but much to my surprise, he did great without it. He did ask for it when it was time for sleep, but I reminded him that it was broken and he threw it away. I told him that he had Perky to help him get to sleep (the stuffed animal he had been sleeping with for awhile). He just said o.k. and went right to sleep. I couldn't believe it because he was very, very attached to his pacifier. I think the key was that he threw it out and I didn't just get rid of it and make him think it just disappeared. My son was only 17 months at the time. Sometimes simple is what works with toddlers. I wish you the best of luck! Let us know what you decided to do!!!

I took the bottle away right at my oldest daughter's first birthday. She is now 2. In her 11 month I started switching a cup for a feeding. She was off of it the week before her 1st birthday. Now I am in the process of taking my 10 month old off. Dalyce (my oldest) was so easy with transition. But Ryanne has not been, so that is why I am doing it early with her. Dalyce used to use a cup made by NUBY (you can get them at WALMART) and someone pointed out that they used that cup when they were switching from bottle to cup. I had never thought about that. It has a soft top, but is big like a cup. So now I use those cups for Ryanne. I pre measure her formula in a bottle, then put it in the NUBY cup. This is day 3 of no bottle and she is doing great. Maybe a cup like that will help you and your 2 year old. So she still has something like the bottle nipple to chew on.

Best of luck to you!

I'm working on the same thing with my son. Try the sippy sport bottles. The ones from Walmart have a sippy spout that is almost like the nipple on a bottle. Perhaps that might work for you. We are slowly switching from the bottle to sippy cups but he still asks for the nipple instead. Right now we switch back and forth. He only gets the bottle at bedtime and we try to make sure that he gets a sippy top instead of a nipple a few times a week. We'll get there eventually. You will, too.

Good luck.

When my oldest son turned 1, my mother-in-law, manager of our WIC office here and a breastmilk consultant, bought this sippy cup that has a soft tip. Doing that made it VERY easy to break him from the bottle considering that it reminded him of the feel of the bottle.
I'm sure if you look around for cupons on them, you'd be able to find them.
I wish you and Crystal the best of luck!!

Throw away the bottle and deal with the hissy fit. She can't throw one forever. Let her know its gone and when she's done throwing a fit you can go do something fun. Just do it on a weekend when you have nothing planned and don't give in.
The real question is- paying her to brush her teeth????? What is that about? That's something she's supposed to do? I have a teenager and shutter to think how much money it would cost me to pay her to do everything she's supposed to do.

My almost 3yr old was the same way. Her dr said she was using her baba ( bottle) for security. So I took Jessica to the store and let her pick out her own cuppy. I bought 2 to be safe. Every day I gave her a choice. I put both cuppy and baba on the table. Sometimes she picked the cuppy during the day. Though she took her baba for naps and bedtimes. After two weeks she finally picker her cuppy for a nap. I clapped and praised her and told her what a biggie girl she was! That night she took her cuppy to bed. So I took all her baba's and anything that went to a baba and packed them away. She never asked for her baba again. Though she did call her cuppy a baba for about 5 months, lol. I broke her from the baba simply because my 3rd DD was due 1 month before she turned 2. I tryed doing it cold turkey, but that was just mean. I couldn't stand listening to her cry all the time. Her dr told me she'd give up her baba when she is ready and not a minute sooner. I just gave her the chance to make that choice. Now my youngest drinks from a cuppy during the day because her big sister does to. This one I dont let take anything to bed, I learned the hard way, lol. Best of luck hope she switches soon for you all.

By the way Jessica picked out the NUbby cup from wal-mart. There soft like a nipple but shaped like a cuppie. She used them for about 3 months. Till she put a hole in one, then I jst went and got ehr the regular playtex cuppies with the hard mouth piece. I told her these where her new cuppies because she was such a good and big girl. She still takes a drink to bed for naps and at night, but atleast they don't leak now, lol. :)

HI A....my daughter,just turned 3yo recently. She DID NOT want to get rid of her bottles. Her Ped suggested cups with the soft straws in them instead of the HARD mouth piece ones and she did GREAT with the transition! The soft straw was ALOT like the nipples on the bottles! We bought them from Wal-Mart, they had their brand and I believe Nuk is the other company that makes them. Hope that helps...best of luck!

Sorry you are having a hard time. My kids never personally went to bed with a bottle/cup but I have assisted many of my friends break the habbit. I would say at age 2 she is old enough to NOT need it at all and she is also old enough to understand the bottle fairy consept. Don't underestimate her! Two year olds are smarter then most people give them credit for. You can try getting her to go to bed with something else for security along with the bottle, ex. a soft blanket, a toy, stuffed animal. That way when you take the bottle she still has her new security object. In the long run you might have to go cold turkey. Believe it or not you will probably only have the LONG, frustrating nights for a day or so. Start with eliminating it at naps and DEFINITLEY in the car!!!!! After that you can take it away from her bedtime routine. You need to think of this in terms of her health as well. It is really bad for her oral development to have a bottle of milk (or anything) in her mouth at bedtime. A cup is NOT a better alternative. Although an infant sometimes falls asleep with drinking a bottle or nursing, it is not a good technique to use to put them to sleep and a toddler doesnot need liquids to fall asleep. Just rest assured that you are not hurting her by taking the bottle away. Even if she crys, pouts, etc. Try to be strong. Kids have a way at getting to the mommys :-) This will be better for you all in the long run. Especially if you want to potty train her soon. You need to help her ditch all the "baby" habits and make her feel like a big girl. I am sorry if I came across harshly. I don't mean too. I have dealt with this situation alot with my friends/daycare moms and have always been successful in helping to break the habit. Just remember it is something that has become routine or a habit for her, it is not a need!

Hi,

My daughter Nicole was 2.2 years old when we stopped the bottle. She was a HUGH bottle-drinker, even though she also used cups and water bottles to drink from. Whenever we went out, even a quick run to the store, I had to make sure I had the bottle with us. She cried for the bottle when she got up, took it before each nap and before bed. The bottle was like her security blanket. I was positive she would give us trouble when it was time to stop. Well, the day after Christmas, my mother, Nicole's babysitter, stopped the bottle cold turkey. Before her first nap of that day, she gave her a CUP of milk. Nic balked at that, but my mom said "does Micheal use a bottle?" "no" said Nic. "Does Joey use the bottle?" "no" said Nic again. My mom said "they don't use the bottle cause they're big boys. Don't you want to be a big girl too?" (Micheal and Joey are her teen-aged cousins.) Well, it worked. She never took a bottle again, even though on rare occassions she asks for it. Then we tell her all the bottles are gone, we don't have anymore.

Try telling her that big girls don't use bottles and don't give in to her or you'll have a very hard time next time you try. I must admit, Nicole now takes a bink when before she never did. But that's only on rare occassions, too. And she mostly chews them, not sucks them. Maybe try offering her a bink to ease the loss of the bottle, but don't offer all the time. Hope this advice helps.

B.

Why don't you try the cups by Nuby, my son wouldn't drink milk out of anything then I tried Nuby and it has been smooth sailing ever since. The mouth part is soft just like the nipple on a bottle. Maybe if she likes this it will be alittle easier giving the bottle up. Believe me I understand my daughter had her binky till she was almost four. I did use the binky fair and the fair brought her a big girl gift. I wish you all the luck.

hi A.
i'm C.
i'm in the same boat as you i dont have any suggestions but i'm glad to hear there is someone else with the same problem
i'm not being mean about that
i just thought it was only me

good luck and if i try anything i'll let you know what works