Mom Seeking Help with Getting Her 1 Year Old off the Bottle

Ok this sounds a little harsh But I sat down with my son brand new sippy cups and a garbage bag and had him throw away all his bottle giving him time to say goodbye to the past and hello to new drinks and experimenting. That way he knew there were no more bottles. he wined for the first week untill he realized that the cup was easier. Its worth a shot.

Hi H.,
I was told to have my son (13 months) off the bottle completely by 14 months. He has been having a sippy cup of water with his meals for several months now, but had a hard time adjusting to milk in the sippy cup instead of water. He's now down to two bottles a day and the rest of his liquid in sippy cups. Give it some time. Just keep offering it in a positive way, but don't force it. You still have a few months to wean him off the bottle.

Good luck!

J.

H......what's the rush with getting him off the bottle? the Dr told you? you know other kids his age who don't use bottles? your mother in law is pushing you to do it?

I guess I'm trying to tell you not to worry so much about it. He will eventually give it up....why fight him each step of the way? I see so many moms like you who are stressed about bottles or pacifiers or thumb sucking or temper tantrums.....Enjoy your son for awhile. He will grow up in a blink of the eye and you'll wish you were still holding him with a bottle.

Don't stress...it will come.

When I took my kids off the bottel they was the same way They will drink out of the sippy cup. My mom told they will drink they will not die of thirst LOl. Keep trying just take it from your little one they will get it is this or nothing .
J.

My son would not give up the bottle either. I tried to just give it to him at night or in the morning when he got up but then he threw a fit the rest of the day for it. So day I went out a bought a couple toys like small cars and other little things he liked. The next morning before he woke up I took all his bottles and threw them out. Make sure you throw them away or you will be tempted to give him one. When He asked for one I told him the bottle fairy came and took them all away. (that way he wasnt mad at me) I told him that the bottle fairy left him a toy instead, and gave him 2 of the toys the next day when he asked i did the same. Soon he quit asking. He would throw fits durning the day but I would tell him that he was a big boy and gave him his cup. He would drink it if he was thirsty. I also got him cups with cool charaters on it.
Hope you the best of luck it is hard to not give them what they always have known.
J.

You just have to be consistant. He throws a fit than you give him the bottle back. I have breastfeed but I know that when I tried to give my daughter the sippy cup she didn't want it either. So I got one at WalMart made my Nubby and it looks like a straw vs the usual sippys and she took that one first. Also I tried to get the sippys that had soft spouts vs the hard plastic ones. So she would take those much better. Trust me when you don't give him the bottle back he will figure out that he has to use the sippy. I know that it's hard, but after a day of not getting the bottle he will figure it out. Hope this helps! :-)

Good morning H.,
There are new sippy cups out that have a soft nipple type top. I had to use one for my little girl, because the cups I was buying had hard top and I suppose she wasn't use to that. After I found the soft top sippy cups (no leaking) she had no problems adjusting after that. I guess it was like a bottle but in a big girl way. She is two years old now and she drinks out of the cups that have the straws. I am sure your son would adjust very well. Have a wonderful day!

The way I got my son off of the bottle was to first switch him to sippy cups that have a rubber top to them. This way, they resemble bottles in texture in the mouth, but have the design of a sippy cup.

I agree with just using a regular small plastic cup with no lid. You'll have to help at first, and it will be messy, but by getting them to use a sippy cup, that's just something else you'll have to take away later on. I started my son drinking out of my cup when he was about a year old (he always wanted a sip of what I had) and later on I offered him a sippy cup for long car trips only. This way I never had to wean him from the sippy cup and didn't have the problem again.

I'm not sure about how to get him to start using the cup- mine did it willingly- but maybe if you waited awhile and tried again, or tried making a big deal about it- maybe wrapping it up like a gift and giving it to him for his first birthday and telling him it's a big boy cup will help.

Hi H.. Sometimes it depends on the type of sippy cup. My son would not take the type of cup that had the little holes in the top. He preferred to drink out of the cup that had a straw. Those cups were better for him. But to get my son off the bottle I had to throw his bottles away in front of him. Once he saw that he knew that I was not going to give him a bottle anymore. He took to the cup like it wasn't nothing after that. Hopes this helps, best of luck!

Well, I tell you this is definately a good question. I promise you, you are going to get lots of different answers on this one lol... but I will share my experience with you. My oldest son Aaron was very easy to get off the bottle, but my youngest son (wink) has always made life interesting and still is. I know that throwing things out the window is not a good thing but one day we were riding in the mountains and just enjoying the day and Michael threw his bottle out the window. Now I had been tring forever to get him off the bottle and nothing was working, but when he did that I said oh well there went your bottle. And the next time he ask for his bottle i gave him a sippy cup and told him to remember he threw his bottle out the window. why that worked I have no idea, but it did... so if you get an opportunity like that or similar maybe you can try it. I hope it helps and if not maybe just a good story.

C.

Well, I think the first thing a lot of parents do that make is harder to wean is not giving their babies sippy cups at a younger age. For instance both my kids were on sippy cups at 5 months. Also, I am a childcare provider and if I got a child as an infant, they were the same as my children (So I know most 5 month olds are capable of this). When the ped. said they could have water I got a sippy cup.At first you will have to hold the cup for them, but soon they will be doing it on their own. I never, ever put anything in a bottle besides formula or breast milk. I also give the milk in a cup at meal times so the baby gets used to getting milk in a cup as well as the bottle. This REALLY helps with weaning.

Also, I never allow a child off my lap with a bottle. I ALWAYS hold babies while they get a bottle. When they get older and are moving around a lot they usually do not want to sit on your lap with a bottle anymore. I allow them to walk around with the cup, so this also helps with the weaning.

I would just offer him a cup as often as possible. Give it to him with all his meals. Try a cup with no lid at the table. Some children prefer this, and most babies can start to try liddless cups at 10 months. (according to the Montessori way of teaching children should use only regular cups by a year old!) My 9 month old loves drinking from liddless cups! She makes a mess, but it makes her very proud of herself. Also- try the sippy cups that are NOT spill proof. These seem to discourage children at first. They do not understand how to use the cup, so if nothing comes out it fustrates them. I REALLY like the Toss and Keep cups. They need immidiate results. They have the ones with straws a lot of children seem to enjoy as well. Once they have these cups down pat you can try the spill proof ones.

Also, do NOT worry about taking away the bottle just yet. Let him get used to the cup while also having his bottle. You dont want to give him something new and take something away at the same time.

GOOD LUCK!

I agree with Jacquie!! Nuby cups are great and that is what my 14 mos old uses and has since she was 10 mos old. She loves them! I've tried getting her drink out of other cups and she refuses! The cups are cheap too, less than $2! Good Luck!

I guess I'm a bit olf fashioned / old school, because I don't see the benefit of taking away the bottle at 11 months.
I can understand introducing a cup, with liquids other than formula. (I breast fed for 22 months, and they both weaned themselves.)
Don't rush it. From a dental point of view, the muscles they use for sucking/suckling helps align their jaws and strenghthens their facial muscles. It's also better for their teeth. Relax for another few months. Keep introducing other juices in a regular cup, possibly with a straw.
By the way, he MAY have a heightened sense of smell. Have you SNIFFED formula? Try some in a cup yourself! Maybe he just still needs Mama's cuddling, too. Every child is different.
Sorry I wasn't agreeable to your desired answer. That's MY opinion/input.

Hi H.,
He may still be too young yet. With Noah we kept offering him the sippy cup, but really he didn't get comfortable with it until about 13-14 months. We started out just supplementing with the sippy cup, and then after a while we started replacing the morning bottle with it. it was VERY gradual, and he dropped the bottles on his own time. Good luck!

Hi H.,

I went through this with my son. Nubby makes a really good sippy cups. The spout is more like a nipple on a bottle,and there is no valves to clean. Wal-mart sales them. (Don't get the red ones...for what ever reason they always leak. No problems with the other colors). My son did not want to take the sippy cup either, he would get mad and throw it. I picked one day to be the "tough day" and I made up my mind that I was going to win that day. Instead of handing him the sippy cup, I would sit it in the floor and walkaway as if I could care less if he touched it. Took about an hour, then he realized that if he wanted his milk he would need to drink it from the sippy cup. Do yourself a favor and throw the bottle away. It will be hard the first day or so, but if you stick to it, it will work. Sometimes you just have to do the tough love thing. Good luck.

I used the Nuby sippy cups. You can get them at Walmart. My daughter is 8 months old and no longer uses a bottle. The mouth part is soft, similiar to a bottle.

Hi H.!!
When my son turned one all I did was throw all the bottles in the house away. Eventually they will have to drink out of the sippy cup. It only took about 2 hours for him to realize that he needed to drink out of the sippy cup or go thirsty. I know it sounds mean but it worked! Good luck!

I think the "problem" is that he is only 11 months old. I started the switch at 12 or 13 months and that's too young for some kids.
Your child isn't ready to move away from the bottle. At 11 months he's not being stubborn or throwing a fit. He's telling you the only way he knows how that he isn't ready.
And what is with the "tough love" approach with a baby this age? That's not tough love. Tough love is telling an 18 month old that no amount of crying will let him put his finger in the light socket or a five year old that he can't have cookies for dinner. You don't give tough love to an 11 month old.

H.
My younger son is 20months old now, but i remember when he turned 1 i was so worried that i would never get him off the bottle, he just wouldnt take anything else, except he loved my 2 year olds straw cups so i found some sippy/straw cups made by nubby and he never wanted the bottle again. but dont let it stress you out if he doesnt want to loose the bottle it is ok if he goes a little past the 12 month mark and still takes a bottle, in a few months you will barely even remember him taking a bottle. well i hope that helped. Good luck

Yes!!! I am another Mom in the same boat but try having a 16 month old doing the same thing. He's a picky eater. If he touches it and it feels weird, wet, etc. forget about it. If I try and feed him and the color look strange to him no way will he eat it. I actually get him to eat bread, potatoes and of course corn and green beans hidden in the potatoes. He id not even interested in learning how to use utensils. Good luck girl I feel your pain!!!!

Oh by the way, He did start taking a sippy cup but refused to drink formula out of it or regular milk unless he was sitting at the table having very little solid food with us. The sippy cup is a NUBY which has a domed shaped silicon nipple material top but won't leak. Mine has an orange handle see through cup with an orange ring where the top pops in. You can find it at babies r us.

Hi H.,
I have a 3 year old daughter who was very hard to get off her bottle. She was very sick for almost the first year and was attached to her bottle. So we went through a couple sleepless nights and temper tantrums and in a few weeks she didn't even ask for it anymore. So it is going to be very hard to do so GOOD LUCK and I hope it helps.
J.