Weaning 14 Month Old from the Bottle

cold turkey is the only way to go. like the other poster, i had 3 days of a very irate 2 yr old not happy with me, but after that, it was forgotten. yes make a happy occassion of it. "let's throw away the baby bottles! yeah! we're a big girl!" but don't expect a miracle overnight. just keep strong!

this has to do with formula:
Thyroid-Damaging Chemical -- Perchlorate -- is
Contaminating Most Infant Formulas
A new study from scientists at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention has reported that most
popular baby formulas contain thyroid-damaging
perchlorate.
http://thyroid.about.com/b/2009/04/03/perchlorate-infant-...

At 12 months my child was off bottles all together. By then she was off formula & on regular milk, so I quit using the bottle & put it in sippy cups all the time. If I were you & my child was that attached, just hide the bottles & tell her only the sippy cups or nothing. I even did that with the pacifier. She is 2 now & is so attached to the pacifier, I finally hid it & told her no more pacifier, she's a big girl, she cried for an hour, and has been fine ever since. I beleive your just going to have to hide the bottles & leave the cups out for her to choose from. If she's thirsty enough, she take it.

I took away all bottles one at time starting at 12 months, except the nighttime bottle. My son is almost 2 and still gets his warmed bottle at night(not in his bed, but before). My first son had his nighttime bottle until around two and then we just switched to a sippy cup one night and he never complained. After a few months of that, we just told him he didn't need a drink before bed anymore and he was fine with it. Hopefully that will work for my second.

My suggestion is to just get rid of the bottle all together. You might have a few rough nights but if your child really wants the milk then she will learn it comes in a cup otherwise she doesnt get it. When all 3 of my girls turned one I just took the bottle away and after a week they forgot there ever was a bottle.

We did it cold turkey. I put all of the bottles up so my daughter could not even see one. I then bought the silicone spout sippy cups from Wal-Mart, I belive the name is Nuby. Within a couple of days we had no problem. As long as she didn't see a bottle she was fine and because the silicone spout on the Nuby cups more resembles a bottle than a hard spout she was fine with it. She's almost 2 and she still wants the silicone spout cups for her milk, but she won't use them for juice or water.

You just need to take it away cold turkey. At 15 months, we had to just throw them all out and say, "that's it". She had about 3 bad nights, but then she forgot about them and just went on with life. That was 8 years ago and she's never talked about it since. lol! :)
They're stubborn at this age and you can't reason with them. Good luck!

Why wean from a bed or nap time bottle now?? I would wait a little while. My 2 year old still takes a nap and bet time bottle and my other 2 kids did when they were that age and are fine...

but if you must... add a little water, replacing the milk each day until you are finally just have water then she will probably not want it... and if she does its just water... then replace bottle with a sippy cup of water and at least she has soemthing to drink if she is thirsty.

hth
A. J

This worked like a charm for my older son who was getting at night bottle at 14 months. You basically need to dilute the milk down over period of time. Start by going half and half for a few nights. Then add more water and less milk...gradually you are going to get to the point where its mostly water and milk coloring the water! It really does not taste that great and worth holding onto to bottle! If by this point your child is still hanging on to the bottle...just put water and give it to him/her. all milk comes from a cup at this point. A bottle of water will soon lose its charm and will be left in a corner and forgotten. This process could take a month so be patient. This is a easy and less stress method of weaning compared to going cold turkey. Good luck.

do not give her a bottle. throw them all away. if you continue giving into her then she will expect the bottle each time. good luck.

I had this problem too...we found that the Nuby sports sippers did the trick for our little one. Find an image here: http://www.babysippycups.com/nuby-easy-grip-10-oz-no-spil....

They're like sports bottles and the spout is similar to a nipple so it's a good way to transition her off of regular baby bottles. They have the rubber grippers on the sides too so they're easy for her to hold by herself. I only put my little one's milk in those so she associates them with milk. She drinks water out of a regular sippy cup or a cup with a straw (have you tried those?)You can find the sports sippers at Target. Good luck!

Hi D.! We had the same problem with our daughter. We ended up getting her a straw cup, and she loved drinking milk from that. Nuby has a no-spill brand. She has been drinking water and juice from a sippy, and milk from a straw cup since she was 15 months old...whatever works! Good luck!