Transitioning from Her Bottle to Her Sippie Cup Fulltime.

Bless your heart 4 kids and a daddy who is overseas?! I will pray for you and leave you with the words my pediatrician has told me with each of my four:
It's not like she will take it to college or anything - not to worry- if she will take a sippy cup (which is exactly what my 17 mos old is doing currently) then not to worry. The bottle for comfort is just a phase and like any other it to shall pass! Hang in there!

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My son didn't want to let the bottle go for milk for a while. I got him off the bottle around 17 months or so and he did great with that. He took juice and water in a sippy but didn't want to give that milk in a bottle up for a little longer. I know the pediatrician said he should give it up already, but I think letting him go a little longer is fine. Good luck!!

1 mom found this helpful

Hi G.,

First off let me just say--don't stress yourself out over this. Sounds to me like you have your hands full as it is. Start limiting the bottle to just night (bedtime), eventually it will all just fall into place. Do baby steps....god bless and good luck,

Debra

1 mom found this helpful

My daughter at 22 months is still picky on what sippy cup she drinks different liquids in.
We have the hard spouts that she drinks diluted juice in, one she drinks only water in and then still with milk she will only drink it from the Munchkin brand soft spout sippy cup (I tried other soft spouts and she did not want anything to do with them). That soft spout cup is what I transitioned her from bottles to cup full time, maybe you can try one of those. Don't stress she will come around.

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We had the same problem with my son. I took some moms advice and would offer the bottle but only with water. My son started to realize that if he wanted milk, juice, he would have to drink from his sippy. No more bottle and no more milk after brushing his little teeth.

I also started with a soft tip sippy. He now has hard tip but the soft made the transition easier.

I think you're doing just fine. Make sure you put water in the bottle, as the sugar in the milk would be bad for her teeth, worse then the bottle itself.

The only reason why you need to get rid of the bottle by 18 months is that after that they are so attached to it that it's harder to get away. You're right, it's a pacifier for her. You have so much going on right now I wouldn't worry too much about breaking her from it right now. Keep in mind her daddy is gone and she might need that comfort.

the different nipples/soft lids seem to help. i really liked playtex for the hard ones. she is in the getting use to it stage i would use nubby ( i think thats the name ). they come with a soft bottle like sippy top and they are only a dollar. they wont last too long due to her teeth but long enough for the transition. good luck. God bless you and your husband.

G.,

I would get rid of the nap time bottles first, as for the night time bottle, with my son who is now 15 months, that is our quiet time before bed I sit with him while he drinks a bottle and then brush his teeth and put him to bed. Just recently he started acting not interested in the bottle so, I grabbed his sippy cup and in front of him I grabbed his bottle and poured the milk to the sippy cup, and told him what a good boy he is, I then gave him the sippy cup and he started drinking from it. The pedi's say no bottle due to their teeth, but if you brush their teeth before they go to bed it's okay, and my pedi told me not to stress about getting rid of the bottle until 15 months, I got lucky and he decided he didn't want the bottle by this mark. A friend of mine did not get rid of the bottle from her son until he was over 2 years old, and he is perfectly fine, teeth and all, I think it's your own preference on this one.

Hope this helps!

L.

Are you using the sippy cup with the soft spout? I used those when transitioning my son from the bottle to the cup. Good luck!

Since she's only probably getting the bottle a couple of times per day (especially at that night feeding), I wouldn't worry about it. Let her until age 2. It won't hurt her unless she sleeping with it in her mouth and the milk is just there. Otherwise, I did it too. You are in a special circumstance, not ideal, and therefore somethings just aren't worth worrying about. Your sanity is so much more important to your baby than following a strict schedule. Don't worry about it. Sippy cups are for the moms anyway. They are very bad for kids, ask any occupational or speech therapist. Try straws instead. Much better for their mouth. But, I would keep the bottle at the times it is best for me at this point. After turning 2, you should really start weaning her from it. (Most cultures other than American still breastfeed until age 2.) Relax!

It does sound like a lot going on.
I am sending you strength. I really appreciate you and your husbands hard work and dedication to our Nation.

The only thing we did was to talk about how when you turn 1 the "bottles go away".

We let our daughter go to the store and pick out her own sippy cup, "just like a big girl". She picked out the one she liked. We then left it in the kitchen so she could see it. We told her "big girls drink from sippy cups".
This went on for a few weeks, then the night before her birthday, I got rid of anything to do with the bottles and the next morning, she was "officially a big girl." I would give her the sippy cup before bedtime and she did fine.

Maybe you could have a "Special Bedtime Sippy cup" that is just for bedtimes (I would suggest you purchase 2 in case it goes missing. This way she will understand that this is the cup she will use to get ready for sleeping. It will be part of the bedtime routine, just like the story you read to her.

I have twins and the thing that worked for me was the Nubby cups. They have the softer sippy spout. So it is kind of like a bottle. I started with their first nap and it worked and so I tried with their second nap and it worked also. So that night I was hoping it worked. I gave them the cup again that night and it worked then too. That night I put up their bottles and never looked back!! Hope this helps :o)