My daughter just turned 2 last month, and she still, yes still drinks milk in a bottle. She is VERY attached to it. She drinks it at night and falls asleep with it. Several months back I decided to end the whole bottle routine, so I talked to her and explained how the bottle was "yucky" and shes a big girl, and her teeth will hurt, etc... I showed her that I threw out all her bottles. It was going okay,she would wake up at night and cry for it, i would comfort her and she would go back to sleep, however on the 3rd day I got really sick at night(im diabetic and had to go to the ER), so at the same time my husband realized I was sick, Leena had woken up asking for her bottle, my husband not knowing how to comfort her AND take care of me...he just gave her the bottle. So now I feel like it is going to be much harder because she is much more attached to it.
Any suggestions? Please help. She LOVES milk, I just would hate to see her stop drinking it.
If anyone has gone through this (im sure alot have) please give me some ideas on how to approach this. Oh one more thing, occasionally she would wake up in the middle of the night asking for milk and i would give it to her. For the past week if she woke up asking for milk I said no, that she had to wait until the morning and would give her water instead.
Note: my daughter is VERY VERY stubborn. (im working on that too)!!
Thank you moms!!!
Hi everyone!
thank you all for your help. I was very scared to try the whole process of stopping the bottle again, but honestly, Kendra your daughters story really got to me. I didn't even think that was possible at such an age. So believe it or not tonight was our first night without the bottle!!! Woooohoooooo! Thank god it went WAY smoother than I expected she barely, actually I can't even call what she did crying! We also used the idea of "bedtime milk cup" for her milk at bedtime but ofcourse we brush the teeth before we go to bed!! I just hope this wasn't only a lucky night and that's why it went smooth!
Well again thank you All for your help!! your great!
R. :)
I am almost 26 and I live in Oviedo and my middle daughter just turned 2 on Dec 21st!! We have a lot in common :) Anyway, to answer your questions I'd have to say maybe you can try to transition it to a sippy cup? Other than that, you're going to have to do again what you did before, but be consistent and don't give it back to her next time. Good luck!
I went through the same thing with my daughter who is now 2 1/2.I don't know if I did it the correct way but it worked. I took her to the store and let her pick out a "big girl cup" she had always had a sippy cup for juice and water so I tryed to find one that looked different than an ordinary sippy. She picked one with a straw but still had the no spill feature. That evening when it was night for her bottle I asked her if she was ready for her baba ( bottle ) and she said yes so I took her with me to the kitchen and looked for the bottle and told her I didn't know where the baba's went. That they were all gone. Then excitedly reminded her of her new "big girl cup" and suggested that we use it instead of a bottle. She hadn't used it or seen it since the store so seeing it again made her very happy. She only drank half of what she usally drank but she didn't ask for the baba that night. The next few days we repeated this whole shock of the missing bottle but you can use the big girl cup instead and just stuck to our guard. She would wake up and ask for her baba but I would just tell her we didn't have any,mommy didn't know where they were and then not give her anything at all until in the morning and then give her the cup. Like I said, lyong isn't something I do to my daughter but this time it worked for her benefit and mine. Her teeth were suffering from the bottle and I did what I thought would work and thank god it did!
How about slowly adding more water to the bottle until she is drinking just water? Then introduce one of those sippy cups with a straw for during the day and let her pick it out and make a big deal about it.
As for the milk, I don't advise anyone give their kids cow's milk. It's not a "health" food as the Dairy Council would like for us all to believe. Go to www.pcrm.org and do a search on "milk" for the latest research.
Hey R.,
I understand the struggle that you are going through. My daughter who is now 10 years old was the exact same way. However, it is extremely important for you to break that habit that she has. She is at the point now that she may be ready to potty train and not giving her fluids at night may not be too bad an idea anyway.
My fear is that what happened to my daughter will happen to yours. She had gotten to the point where she had to make many painful trips to the dentist and get many of her teeth pulled out. It was so bad that they were measuring her mouth for baby dentures because so many teeth were missing they wanted to make sure they grew back in straight.
My daughter was only three at the time all this was happening.
I allow my 2 1/2 year old daugther to drink the milk in her crib out of a special sippie cup. I would just have the same discussion with your daughter you had before and maybe let her pick out a special "bedtime milk" cup. My daughter does wake up often in the middle of the night asking for milk as well. I do give it to her. I offer her water but if she asks for milk I figure she must be somewhat hungry so I go ahead and give her the milk. I just make sure that I remove it after she goes to sleep or before she can wake up and drink milk that has been out all night.
On another note, where in Oviedo do you live? I live in the Sanctuary and have been looking for a "girlfriend" for my 2 1/2 year old.
hi there i am new at mamasource. well the answer to your question. i went threw the same thing my daughter is 21/2 and she was almost 2yrs old and i had taken her to the doc's for a check up and of course the doc said you need to take her off of that bottle and told me that she will get used to it. well i like to soile my daughter well and really its not even spioling her. see with her bottle she felt comfort well i told the doc i didnt want to take that from her. he said take the bottle away from her, DONOT GIVE IN!!! and i promise in a week or two she wiil forget about it. well guess what it was haerd the first 3 days but i worked.!! i just took it away and of course she cried but i just put out the sippy cup and eventullay she drank out of it she had no other choice. and now she dosen't even want her sippy she wants a big cup and some times she gets it. but R. you have to be ready it is hard i know and you feel like a mean mommy but it is worth it in the end. you won't regret it. i hope this works out for you like it did for me please let me know
