No More Formula

I have a 9 year old son and I ignored everyone who thought I should take his BaBa(bottle)from him. I did ween him down to one at his nap and then at night, it was more of a calming thing for him I think. Mind you he was over 2 yrs. old.I know it sounds like he was too old but my Mom,who is gone now,told me not to worry he won't keep the baba forever she has yet to see a college student with one! He eventually weened himself and I also did the waiting game with potty training him too and it took 1 time and he didn't use a diaper again not even a nighttime one. He was almost 3, he was ready and I never pushed him into it or made it a neg. thing. I have friends who spent months trying but I think too early and that was their demise. Good Luck! I would LOVE to go back and hold him in my arms while he drinks his baba once again! I feel they grow out of stages so fast, enjoy each even if it seems a little too long.They'll let you know when it's time!

I think when they say to get rid of the bottle, pediatricians mean that they like babies to start on a cup/ sippy cup by about 12 months. My son never took a bottle so has used one since he was about 7 months. I wouldn't force her though - it might be a slow process to wean her on to a cup. Maybe you could start trying her on one now with the same formula she already has. And the pacifier thing is a very personal issue. You have to do that when she is ready. I do think getting rid of a bottle and pacifier all at the same time is a bit much. My son gave his up by 6 months so I can't really comment...

Good luck

R., Forget what your sister or anyone else says. Follow your heart and what your baby tells you. Sure you can have some sort of guideline, but it should not be written in stone. You are going to make the right choice for your baby, beacuse you know her best, no one else does. I know this may not answer your questions in particular, but I hope it helps in some way.

My doctor also said 15 months. I would start trying to introduce a sippy at one or more feedings so that your daughter will get use to them. (the Nuby brand has a starter, the nipple is bigger than a bottle but is looks like a bottle) She will refuse at first but don't give up, It will be a little work. offer the sippy at lunch, and keeping trying. After a few weeks she will get use to the sippy and will take it at one or more feedings.

I introduced the sippy to my son at about your daughters age, it took a few months for him to take it with his lunch. By the time he was 16 months the sippy is all we used.
R.

Hi R.,

I started my kids with sippy cups around 8-9 months. I would give them water or formula during their meals. Took them time to get the hang of it but the did it (they thought it was a toy.) Then at bed time or when they expected a bottle I would give them the sippy cup and they would take some drinks and go down. I do not care for the sippy cups with rubber tips. I feel they are just like bottles and the kids rely on that like a bottle.

They were all off the bottle by their 1st birthday. Now I am working with my baby to get her out of diapers! :0)

Good luck!
Smiles,
K.

Hi R.,
My son used his bottle until 15 months. We introduced the sippy cup around 12 months, but he treated it like a toy whipping it across the room for several weeks. Once he started to get the hang of it, we felt it was time. My husband and I gathered up all his bottles (every last one) and grabbed the trash can. Then, we would each take one and drop in the trash while chanting "ba-bye". My son caught on and starting throwing the bottles away with us also saying "ba-bye". That was it. He never looked back. No more bottles and it was so much easier than we had anticipated. Just make sure that your child can successfully use a sippy cup before doing so. The transition can be difficult for some children. I would say that in regards to the pacifier, let her keep it for at least another month. My son hasn't used one since 4 months so I don't have much advice for that one. Good luck!

R.,
My daughter just gave up the paci before she was a year old and was fine. It laid around more than she had it. So we threw it away. She seems fine. My son was three when he finally gave up the paci. My son was a year old when he gave up the bottle. He didn't care for the bottle like the paci. My daughter will be two and I am breaking her of the bottle now. When she was about 13 months I broke her of the bottle then she got really sick and was in the hospital. the doctor gave her a bottle because she wouldn't drink. I told her that the bottle fairy was going to come and take her bottles and leave a present for her. She seems excited. My daughter only take a bottle at bed time. My suggestion is to slowly ween your daughter off now. I have an 8 month old boy that I babysit and he only gets a bottle when he sleeps. One at nap time and one at bed time. I think you know what your child needs better than your sister or us. If you don't feel she is ready then don't take it. If you think she is ready to get rid of the paci then just hide it and if she doesn't ask don't give it too her. Good luck

Personally, I found that the weaning down from several bottles a day to one a day to zero worked best for both my kids. I'm sure the other method worked perfectly for your sister and that's why she's suggesting it. I think you need to do what fits best with your parenting style and what you think would work best with your baby. As to the paci, my kids both let go of theirs naturally pretty early on - about 6 months, so I cannot advise there. I've heard that it's easiest on everyone to get rid of those as early as possible, but again I think you have to do what works best for you and your baby. Good luck to you with this big transition!

My doctor had told us the same thing, that she should be off the bottle by the time she was 1. Needless to say, it didn't happen that way but she ended up getting off at about 14 months. You just need to do what you think is best. I am not sure about the paci, as my daughter didn't have one.

Hope that helps!

Our son had his last bottle about about 12 1/2 months, but he loved the sippy cup and milk. We started by mixing his bottles with 1/2 formula 1/2 milk and worked it up to by the time it was all milk it was in a sippy cup. He hung on to his morning bottle the longest, but one day he didn't wake up for it and that was it.

He still has his pacifier, only for naps and bed time. I'm planning to check with the doctor at his 15 month checkup about that.

I think that no matter what you do, you need to read your child's signs. No one can tell you, "Do this." because they don't know your child as well as you do. At 9 months, has she tried the sippy cup? Start putting some formula in there for her so she gets used to it. If she responds well, then go with it and cut out bottles during the day maybe.

Either way, let your daughter lead. She's only 9 months and probably still needs some of the sucking for comfort. Again, she'll let you know!

Good luck. :)

My daughter was 12 months when i introduced her to a sippie cup. I also gave her oberwieis milk. I found that she was not as congested with that milk because it has not hormones. I also had her and my son on glass bottles so the transition was not hard at all. Far as the paci, i understand my daughter it was not easy to take her off, but once she is off you are not going to have any problems, just don't give it back to her if it gets hard. Just bare with it and be patient.

I took the bottle away at 18 months, but once my girls turned one, they only got the bottle for naps and bedtime, not during the day, that makes it easier to get rid of them. I would take the pacifier away asap, as they get teeth, pacifiers are not good for teeth and it is harder to get rid of the pacifier I think. I went cold turkey when I took the bottle away at 18 months and it was ok, and I took the pacifier away and we had some whiney nights, but you get through it.
Hope this helps
M.

R.,

I just wanted to let you know that we started weaning our daughter off of her "binky" when she was about 1.5 years old. She was a very hard teether so we decided to let her have it until she pretty much had all her teeth. As far as the bottle goes, my daughter took herself off of the bottle when she was about 9.5 months. She would throw it at us whenever we tried to give it to her.
Try and give her a sippy cup at least once a day now and see how she takes to it. The transition from the bottle to the sippy maybe alittle hard at first but by the time she turns 1 she should be done with the bottle.
I hope this helps somewhat. This was my experience with the bottle to sippy transition.

J.

My son was 3 months when Avent introduced a training bottle that was a bottle with handles and turned into a sippy cup for young babies..... I talked to the doctor about it at the 3 month check up and they told me that if I wanted to try to go ahead and I did..... Low and behold my son at 3 months could hold the bottle with handles himself which for me was nice because my arms got tired all the time and then after that I introduced the sippy cup part and again had no problems with it, but he didn't give up the bottle itself until he was 9 months old and wanted my friends daughters cup..... We bought him sippy cups and that was the end of the bottles..... We also bought the sippy cups in something that he liked like Bob The Builder we went with the whole tuck thing and now we are into Thomas and just had a birthday and had to have the Thomas sippy cups...... I guess it depends on you kid too..... Now the Paci I can only say that my husband and I only saw him take it one or two times and the last time we saw him with it was at a party and the day after that he wouldn't take it anymore and he was only six months old..... Good luck and let us know how it turns out..........
V. K.

i introduced my son, who is now 3, to a sippy cut when he was about 8 months old. he started walking at 9 1/2 months and it was at that time i stopped the bottle and went with a sippy cut full time. I took the pacifier away at 18 months but by 15 months he only needed it when he would sleep. although what works for some may not work for others if your child is comfortable with drinking out of a sippy, you should get rid of the bottle.

I know for my sister, her doctor said for the binky, poof gone. The doc told her for the first couple days there will be crying and fits, but he will soon forget it and it will be over and done. It worked for them. I think it would be better to endure the few days of hell than drag out the process.

Good luck

I did not take the bottle away at 12 months, and my children all turned out fine. I think 12 months is a bit to young. My doctor reccomends 15 months, and even 18 would be O.K.. My children never took the paci, so I can't give any advice with that.

Your sister sounds a pretty harsh. I would do everything gradually, following the lead of your daughter. There are no magic dates for milestones. If she still had a bottle at age 3, I would feel differently. Now, she needs and DESERVES to have the comfort of her bottle and paci.
Amy

We were a little late ron the bottle. Is tarted them on the sippy cup right away and they never took a pacifier. Neither of my kids really noticed a difference except at bedtime they wanted that last nighttime drink.

So i guess if you can take the bottle away at 1 yippee if she stresses well jsut wean her from it. You are the mom and you know your child better then anyone on how she may feel or react. Good Luck!!

We did exactly that. At about 12-13 mos. we discontinued the bottle and went to a sippy cup full time. There were absolutely NO problems for us. I just literally one day stopped giving her a bottle and she was fine.

However, my daughter is a really easy going kid. I think you need to take into account your child's personality and temperment and do what you feel is right. I wanted to ease her into the change, but after I realized how easy going she was, I figured stopping the bottle "cold turkey" wouldn't be a problem--and for us, it wasn't.

Good luck!

We were told that about 2-3 weeks before their 1st birthday you can start mixing whole milk with the formula to get them used to the taste and then to see if they are having any milk reactions BEFORE you take them to the Ped for the 1 yr appt. And yes, we just took away the bottle.. once it was milk (actually when it was about half and half) we switched it to a sippy cup. My youngest had to be off a bottle at about 11 mths because they were hoping that would help with ear infections. As long as they are used to sippy cups, it shouldn't be a big deal... if the baby isn't.. definitely something I would work on.

As for the paci.. the older they are the harder it is to get rid of. I can't really help too much there, I always made sure it was gone by the time they were 6-7 mths... to avoid the dependency on it.

R.- I agree with most of the responses about using the sippy cup to make a gradual change. That is what I did with my now 2 y.o. He was also a paci user but just at bed time and naps. I was really worried about how that was going to go, and thought I would be in trouble when he could request it by name. He used it until about 20 months. I think what really helped was that he has his blankie and doggy. There was one nap time that I wasn't home for and the sitter just forgot to give him the paci. He fell asleep fine without it and that was the end of the paci. I was shocked at how easy it was. When he asked for it at night-time I just told him that he could use his doggy. So, maybe you can give your daughter something else to use at bedtime to make the transition to. I have also heard from some friends whose kids were older that they went to the zoo and gave each of the baby animals their pacifiers (they would leave them outside of the cage). I think that there are some things that we as parents just freak out about when the kids actually do really great. Good luck.

Hi,
When our daughter turned 1 we gave her a sippy cup that entire weekend. By Monday, she did not even miss her bottle. Daycare was a bit afraid so I packed a bottle just in case. I specifically told them no bottle unless she gets a bit irate but it never happened. If your baby is still getting 3-4 bottles a day, what's in the sippy cup? The sippy should be taking the place of at least 2 of these bottles. Sometimes babies still like a bottle at naptime or bedtime. But walking around during the day with a bottle and a sippy cup may be confusing your baby and making it more difficult to wean. I would eliminate the daytime bottles. If you start there, then the other two may go away. Espcecially if the baby is full just before naptime and bedtime.

~M.

hi R.
i personally followed that rule with my daughter because thats what everyone told me and it backfired on me. with my son he is 22 months and he still had a bottle every once in a while along with his paci. you can do whatever you choose but my philosophy is your kids will only be babies once so let them do it gradully. i wish you all the best in whatever you choose.
A.