Getting My Daughter off the Bottle

I switched my daughter to the born free sippy cup. you can buy them on amazon and possibly at whole foods too. I took the handles off and used the trainer nipple first. It looks a lot like a bottle and the nipple is soft. Then after a week or so i switched her to the harder nipple. This nipple still looks like the other nipple but it is hard rubber more like a regular sippy cup. It worked for my daughter. I finally got her off that one now and she drinks milk from a regular cup but not as much milk as she did with the born free sippy.

good luck.

Hello, When I went through this I started adding water to the milk, gradually adding more and more water and less and less milk., till eventually he was just drinking water with a little milk in it to make it look white. You know the bottle is a comfort item and it will not be easy to take it away. So my advice is transition slowly, don't expect a total switch any time soon. Good luck.

J.,

You are creating a monster by giving into everything that she wants. If she doesn't want what is for supper, then let her go to bed without dinner. If she doesn't want her milk in a cup, then she doesn't get anything else to drink. Don't give her juice or stuff to drink that she wants...it's either milk or nothing. Good luck and I hope the next baby is a little easier for you.

J., I know we have a mindset that we must have milk, but the truth is we are one of the few countries that drinks another mammals milk after weaning. Your daughter can get plenty of calcium from food in her diet. Fish, green veggies, beans, other dairy products such as yogurt and cheese. I would take her off the bottle immediately as you are only reinforcing a bad habit.

At mealtime, I would not fix her "whatever she wants" I would offer what the rest of the family eats. If she chooses to not eat, she will probably eat much better at the next meal. I'm sure not everyone agrees with this advise, however patterns are being set that will last a lifetime.

DON'T WORRY!!! Your doctor seems VERY old-fashioned to me. I have a wonderful, healthy (mentally and physically), professional daughter, now 40 years old! She occassionally took a bottle until she was almost three!!

Some children need that security longer than others. And, the milk IS important. She will give up her bottle in due time.

My beautiful niece is graduating from UCLA with a doctorate in psychology this fall. She, too, needed her bottle longer than other babies.

Give your child a lot of love and attention, and she'll be fine!

My opinion is to follow your doctor's advice if you are generally comfortable with your doctor and, get a new doctor if you are not generally comfortable with your doctor.

Making "special" dinner for any member of the family that does not have specific medical needs is not a good path to go down.

Bottles at night lead to ear infections and sinus infections and other problems as well.

Good luck! It's so hard not to give them what makes them happy, even when we know it isn't the best thing for them.

When weaning my son from breastfeeding at a year old, he did not want regular milk at all. After a week or so of him not drinking it, I got worried about him getting enough calcium , etc. so I tried one of those pediatric chocolate drinks w/ calcium in his sippy cup. (He was already using the cup for water/juice.) He loved those, but of course they are fairly expensive, so I started mixing it with milk, more and more every night, until he was eventually just drinking milk. It seemed to work for us. He's now a healthy 2 1/2 year old who happily asks for a cup of milk every night when he starts getting tired - in a "big boy" cup now, of course!
I know some other mothers have just tried adding chocolate syrup to the milk, if flavor is the prooblem. Others have tried the "colored" milk trick, where you add a couple drops of food coloring to make it a different color every night. That way the child is excited about it and will want to try all the colors! Be sure to tell her that the trick will only work if you use the sippy cup, not the bottle! Hope this helps and you can find something to work for you. Good luck!

My daughter gave up milk and the bottle at 12 months- I get her calcium in in other ways- using a bottle can destroy her teeth which will result in painful expensive dental work later.
My 24 month old gets calcium from apple juice, orange juice (buy the kinds with calcium added), cottage cheese, yogurt, and her doctor also said I could give her 500 mg of Tums to get more calcium in. She very well may give in and drink milk in a sippy after a few days but you should throw the bottle away, and consider scheduling her first dentist appointment.

Hi J.,
YOur daughter is most likely wanting the comfort of a bottle-not the flavor of the milk. I have a couple of ideas that I've used on my 3 kids (21 yrs, 20 yrs, and 6 yrs.).
On my youngest son I switched him to water in his bottle. I announced one day that it was the day to put water in the bottle only from then on. He could have the bottle, but only with water in it. This worked like a charm. He soon lost interest.

My son (who's 20 now) loved his bottle, but tossed it out the car window on I-635 one day. I was horrified! What would we do without a bottle?!!!! But it was past time for him to get off of it, so a light bulb went off-wait and see what happens. So later when he wanted bottle I told him it was all gone. He understood and never asked for it again. It may be worth a try to 'lose' the bottle and let her help look for it. Then when it's never found, she'll not be angry or stubborn about it. Believe me, she'll be fine without milk for a few days. Give her yogurt if she likes it-or cheese. Sounds like you're blessed with a strong-willed one! You'll have to be creative.

Hope this is helpful!
L.

A guest speaker at a pre-school mother's group gave me the best advice ever! She said "Always remember you are not raising a child, you are raising an adult". In the end you want a person who will be firm in her convictions, argue responsibly and have confidence in herself. Keeping that in mind, made it easier to make the right choices. I didn't want an adult who would let everyone else make his decisions, so we recognized that he had a right to make choices. We gave a bite of everything, but if they chose to not eat it that was OK. As others have stated, we made sure there was something they would eat. Eventually, they learned to eat all kinds of things. We didn't have a problem with any of our boys giving up bottles, but my mom did with me. Her solution was to get rid of all of them except one. The next time we went to Grandma's house, the bottle was "forgotten" and "we'll get it next time". Of course by next time it was long forgotten and there was no drama!

J.,

I did not have the problem with my son but I wanted to let you know what seemed to make the transition easy for us: he would never drink anything out of the sippy cup so I bought the straw sippy cups instead and he did not mind the transition from bottle to straw cup at all.

Also, I thought that he needs to get milk and asked my pediatrician about it and she said that he doesn't need it (mentioned in lots of other posts already) and that he definitely should not drink more than 16 oz a day. Just thought I share!

Please keep trying to get your little one of the bottle to make sure her teeth are ok!
I wish you the best of luck,
D.

Honestly, you dont really need to worry about her drinking a lot of milk any more. She can certainly get calcium from other sources, so during the transition you might want to offer more yogurt etc. Really, while it may feel like her will is stronger than yours..it does not have to be. I truly do have one of those "strong willed" children, so I can understand your concerns, but because she is your first you cant see the other side of this battle yet. You will win, she will drink milk at some point from a sippy cup, and someday all too soon, she will be ready for a big cup. This is a short term fight in the grand scheme of things. Just decide what tactic you feel most comfortable with. Are you a cold turkey kind of girl, or maybe you feel better about watering down the milk until it just water and she does not want it any more. Somewhere in the middle is good too. It is time to get rid of the bottle for sure, she will only get more stubborn and more attached as each day passes. Meals are pretty much the same way. Let her miss dinner..no big deal. The statement that they will eat when they are hungry is very true, but she may not be truly hungry until the next day. I am not a meal time fighter, but I am also understanding. I always offer something I know the kids will like, and encourage them to try the other things. Each child (I have 5 now) gets a small spoon full of everything we are eating on their plates, and like Maggie said, it has taken several offerings sometimes before they eat it. There is no bribery to eat, no playing airplanes etc..just eat if you want, dont if you dont want to..the end! The next meal we eat, they can have what they want etc. Now, there is no after dinner snack if enough dinner has not been eaten, but snacks after dinner are rare, so its not much of an issue. Just decide what rules you are comfortable with as a family, and stick to it. You really do want to get this handled now..she will be running your life before you know it, and solving problems at 5 or 6 is much harder than at 2. Good luck, I assure you she is fine, perfectly normal, and you can change this behavior when you are ready!! ~A.~

I wouldn't worry too much about giving a couple of bottles a day. It's not that big of a deal. I let my kids have one at night and morning until they were two. None of my kiddos wanted to switch to a sippy either. We tried chocolate milk and it worked for us. Good Luck :)

You might want to try a regular cup with a straw. My kids will drink anything through a big persons straw.

She will eventually drink milk from her sippy cup. You need to wait her out. :) She is a smart cookie. She knows how long it takes you to give in. Even if you feel like she won't give in, it is no big deal. Give her yogurt and cheese and other dairy products. Some doctors don't believe milk is even necessary that it is the root of many allergies, etc. Have you tried giving her a regular small cup with milk at dinner and other meals? My 3 kiddos were off of sippy cups by the time they were two. We only used sport bottle when we were out and about. Do not giver her a bottle anymore. It isn't good for her mouth development. Also, it is no big deal if she skips dinner every night. Give her good meals/snacks the rest of the day. Dinner is the least important meal of the day. Trust me...if you would have asked me when my oldest (now 10) was a toddler if he would be a good eater now I would have said no, but he eats just about everything now including onion and raw spinach (in place of lettuce) and he was rather picky at 21 months. I just stuck to my guns and what I served was what I served for meals and he could either eat it or do without. He did w/o for a bit, but eventually realized if he wanted to eat, he better start trying stuff. Also, I did make sure there was at least one thing on the table each night that he liked (the fruit, slice of bread with butter, the veggie, the meat, something). Be strong mama...she has you fooled...and has your number! :)

J., I am a mom of 4 ranging in age from 19 to 7. You have a lovely strong willed child! You will find that will be a blessing at times and a struggle at others. You need to be prepared to out last her. One rule by both my doctors and my grandmother was a child will eat when they are hungry. I have put kiddo's to bed without their dinner for refusing to eat & without milk for several days when weaning from the bottle. If she drinks milk from the bottle & likes it then she will eventually drink it from the cup. If she isn't a big fan of milk in general then you may try a few other things...like putting a small amount of chocolate or strawberry flavoring in her milk, using pedisure, or soy milk. You can also giver her orange juice with calcium & vitamin D. These are alternatives to helping her get the nutrients she will need. Also if she learns that the sippy cup is the only thing she gets and no bottle at all is offered she will learn to use it. She may also get excited about the variety of drinks she finds in it. :) Good luck. Be patient and hold firm.

Try the sippy cups with the flexible straws. I think they are made by Nuby. My son (age 2) hated the regular sippy cups and will only use the flexible plastic straw sippy cups.

I didn't read all of the advice so you may have gotten this already but we switched to the Nuby Sport - they are really close to bottles (soft straw that they suck) and the transition was easy. It is sort of an in between bottle and sippy. I also took her to the store with me and "she" picked them out so she was excited to use them. They are at Target and Walmart. We switched over all feedings in one day.

Good Luck.

You really do just need to take it away and be done with it. She'll be fine for a few days without milk if she chooses not to take it from a cup. I'd get rid of the bottles and not even offer her milk at bed time. When she asks for it, offer the cup, if she won't have it, say "that's fine" and put the cup in the fridge. I promise her will isn't going to outlast yours if you are consistent. It may take 3 days, or it may take a week, but she WILL transition. Just stick to it! This is one of those decisions that you have to make for her. The best part is that she won't even remember it. It's not like she'll be graduating from high school and say, "You know mom, I really resent that time you took my bottle away and gave me milk in a cup."

As far as the eating thing -- she really will eat when she's hungry. If you get in the habit of letting her plan your family's menu, you're in for a lot of chicken nuggets and hot dogs! And things will only get crazier when #2 comes along with his/her own meal-time demands. When we made the decision that a)we weren't going to be short-order cooks at meal time, and b) our children would eat a variety of foods (and not just "kids menu" fare), it was a lean couple of days for our kiddos who were about 2 and 4 at the time. My daughter skipped at least a whole day of meals except maybe her afternoon snack (which I limited, because I knew she'd try to eat her weight in goldfish!). For dinner the next night we prepared salmon with rice and asparagus -- and they both ate it. To say we felt triumphant is an understatement.

If she's skipping dinner to hold out for breakfast, that's absolutely fine. 2 yr olds hardly need ANY food to survive. Really, a couple of broccoli florets, half a cup of pasta, and a piece of lunch meat is a meal -- maybe even more than a meal.

Also, any new food needs to be offered about 10-14 times before they'll consider tasting it. I tested this theory with blueberries for my son. I put one blueberry on his plate at breakfast every morning for 2 weeks. He played with it, asked what it was, rolled it around. I didn't say a thing about it. On day 15 he ate it and asked for more. Did the same with broccoli. Simply put it on his plate every night at dinner and didn't say a word. If he said he didn't want it, I told him that was fine, and that he could leave it on his plate or set it on his napkin. It took about 10 days for him to eat it, and now eats it witout complaint.

What I've learned with my kids and friends' kids is that "picky eaters" really aren't that picky at all -- they're just kids who are very good at controlling what their parents give them to eat.

At age 2, WHAT she eats is your decision. WHETHER she eats it is hers!

Your job is simply to offer nutritious food at regular intervals, her job is to eat what she needs to make it to the next meal.

You did get a lot of advice. And as with all advice - take what you can from it and ignore the rest.

One thing to keep in mind is that at 21 months the majority of her diet should NOT be milk anyways. She should eat a balanced diet, so I wouldn't worry about her not taking milk - that sounds like a guilt excuse to keep the bottle when you don't really need to. 2 year olds typically don't eat a lot and this is a period of less rapid growth.

I breastfed my kids - so I can't answer to the bottle issue - I nursed my youngest for 2 1/2 years... I did take away my oldest child's pacifier at age 2 - and probably should have done it sooner. Kids this age are creatures of habit, and don't always like change - but like many others have said - after a few days they usually adjust...

Best of luck to you...

My oldest son was 18 months when we took him off the bottle (should've been off at 12) but anyway, once I took him off the bottle he refused to drink milk --- so he just didn't drink it for awhile -- he went from drinking 40 ounces a day to none!!! But he was fine -- just refused to drink it from a sippy cup! So maybe your daughter doesn't drink it for a bit -- she will again after awhile! It was sad though, because he would grab his blankie and go to the fridge and cry for a bottle for awhile - then I would show him where we kept his bottles and that they were all gone -- THROW them away!!! And after a few days he was fine! Good luck!

You might try switching to a sippy cup with a soft spout. My son would not take milk from a regular sippy cup, so I got the Nuby silicone spout, sippy cups. I transtioned him around 14 months. I put away all bottles out of sight. Now he will drink it from any cup. I quit giving him milk at night since I didn't want it to lead to cavities. I make sure he drinks it no later than 1 hour before bed & brush his teeth after. You might just have to change the bed time routine. We read books, sing songs etc. Now I don't like him to have milk first thing in the morning since it will fill his tummy & he won't eat much breakfast. Then he's hungry an hour later. For us, it makes a big difference in the amount he eats if we don't give him milk or juice around mealtime.

My nephew had to be sedated & have crowns put on his front baby teeth. The dentist said it was probably related to him nursing at night since he was breastfed until 2 1/2.

My oldest is now 22 months & has recently started being more picky about what he wants to eat, but he usually eats what we have for dinner. I tell him to eat X number of bites, then he can go play when he doesn't eat much. It usually works since I stick to it. My mom did that with us as kids & it worked for me too. I have a 3 month old too, so some of his behavior is probably related to having a new brother & not getting 100% attention.

Here's a neat website for healthy food ideas http://www.babybites.info/2009/07/16/healthy-kids/

I have the same problem with my 19 month old. With my older son we weaned slowly down to no bottles, but that's not working with my baby. I'll probably have to go cold turkey.

As for the picky eater, my oldest son is 5 1/2 and will still only eat certain foods. He would much rather starve than eat what he doesn't want. We've tried every piece of advice for 5 years to get him to eat what we have for dinner. Some kids are just stubborn. I'm 40 and if I don't want something I just won't eat, it's just who we are. You are not alone in that situation.

We had the same problem with our son. We found some Nuby sippy cups at Walmart that have 3 different tops - one of which is a nipple just like a bottle. We started using that one "in place of his nightly bottle" - it was essentially still a bottle. Then after a few days we switched to the regular sippy cup spout (which are still soft) and it worked - he still took it! I didn't want to cut milk out either - and our son wouldn't drink it at meals - so this was our way to transition him out of his nightly bottle.

I will not tell you to go against your doctor, but I will tell you my now four year old would NOT give up her bottle when the dr told us to take her off it. Instead she refused to drink at all for four days until she was finally dehydrated, screaming in pain, no tears, no wet diaper scarry dehydration. We were out of town at the time and at 4am in the morning my sister went to WalMart to bring a bottle back to us while my mother and I syrenge fed her 5 ccs of water.

"I called my dr the next day and said a baby on a bottle with bad teeth and ear infections is better than a dead baby, she can take her bottle to kindergarten as far as I am concerned, DONT talk to me about this agian." His offices reply was absoutly, give her the bottle there are some kids out there that will NOT adapt after the three days everyone else does. She will give it up when she is ready.

Eventually at about three she did give it up, but I was very happy to tell the few people at least she is hydrated when they would question me about my child being so big and still taking a bottle.

Hold your ground as Mommy and do what is best for your family.

I don't see what the big deal is. You are the parent and your doctor works for you not the other way around. He is there to offer advice not to tell you what to do. What is his reasoning for insisting she not take a bottle anymore? I could understand if she was refusing to drink from a sippy cup at all and is demanding bottles but she is not. I would keep giving it to her. My son is 21 months and we still give him a bottle after nap. It is a small comfort that is not hurting anything or affecting his developement. My advice would be to wait until it is comfortable for the both of you and not to do it just because that is yoru doctor's opinion.

This post was just like I one I posted back in January when I was expecting a new baby and going back and forth over when to get my 20 month old off the bottle. I got a lot of good advice...in the end, I realized that I was doing her teeth more harm that doing her good by letting her keep the bottle morning and night. I just went cold turkey on the bottle and gave her her milk in a cup. She resisted at first, but it was only a day or so. There are plenty of other ways for her to get calcium...from food, from fortified juice, etc. Good luck. For us, the transition was not as bad as expected...when she saw she wasn't going to get it, she started drinking from the cup. You might also try a little Carnation Instant Breakfast in her milk cup to give it a chocolate flavor with a little bit more health...

Hi J.,

I would persevere with the sippy cup plan unless you want her to be still on the bottle at 4 years. Maybe she just doesn't like cow's milk or perhaps doesn't like the way it makes her feel. Maybe try soy, almond or rice milk as an alternative.

Also, Juice Plus+ gummie treats are made from real fruits and veggies and contain all the nutrients from the original food. Therefore, she could get her calcium from spinach, kale and broccoli. This could be a good option depending on how many teeth she has since they are chewy. Also, if you are planning baby #2, you should consider the Juice Plus+ capsules for yourself to give your own body optimal nutrition while that baby is growing.

Let me know if you'd like more info on that. I love the Juice Plus+ products so much I decided to market them so I could make them available to other moms like me!

Good luck,

M.
P.S. I am building a team of 5 Financially Free Champion SAHMs over the next 2-5 years. Want to be one of them? Contact me through Mamasource if you are ready for change!

J.,

We had the same issue with our first son. We pretty much weaned him off the bottle during the day but he still liked his night and morning bottles. I think we decided that our cutoff was 2 years. Our doctor had wanted us off earlier but we did it at our own pace. We tried a few different things. We replaced the milk with juice in the bottle and put milk in the sippy cup and offered him both. That wasn't very successful for us but worked for a friend. What we found that worked was buying the sippy cups that most resemble a bottle with the soft nipple. We got rid of all the bottles and only had those to offer. He transitioned right away without a problem. We transitoned to the hard nozzle sippy cups within the next few months. With the second son we just dropped the bottles cold turkey and it was painful for a few days but then he took well to the sippy. Good luck. Find what works for you. I think everyone is different. I will say that our doctor told us that the issue with staying on the bottle has to do with dental issues, ear infections, etc.

She actually doesn't need cow's milk to be healthy. I would suggest trying to substitute some sort of "lovey" for the bottle - her attachment is unfortunately emotional. You might buy a couple soft toys that she could cuddle with and let her pick the one that is the one for bedtime and only allow her to have it at bedtime. You might also try just putting water in the bottle and see how she does with that. We did the water son with my older son when he was still wanting to nurse at nite when he was 18 mos old - two nites of just getting water made it not worth his effort to wakeup. So, your daughter may find the bottle no longer suits her if she's just getting water.

She sounds like she knows her own mind, but the sooner you do set some boundaries the better off you are. I rarely agree with doctors, but she should really be eating what you do for dinner. I can see occasionally that not being appropriate, but an everyday occurence of making a child a separate meal than parents is not at all a good idea. You might start by having a portion of her meal be the same as yours and gradually transition. Unless she is not doing well overall with weight gain, it honestly won't hurt if she misses a meal, but I do agree you don't want to make a habit of it NOR do you want to making eating a power struggle - that can be a contributor to eating disorders later.

Your doctor is right. You need to start taking control of the situation. Trust me when I tell you that you are paving the road for future battles and if you do NOT get the upper hand now you are in for a tough road when she gets older. Right now you are showing her that if she holds out long enough Momma will give in and she gets what she wants.

Take the bottle away... get rid of the bottles. Once she realizes that you are NOT going to give her a bottle she WILL move on. The same goes with dinner. Unless you want to become a "short order cook" in your own home, you need to set the ground work that "This is what I made for dinner. This is what everyone is going to eat." If she refuses to eat dinner, do NOT allow any snacks the next day.

D.
SAHM of three: 20,19, and 5. Home Baker and Candy Maker on Etsy (littlesnowflakes). Married to the same wonderful man for 12 years.

J.,
I just wanted to tell you real quick that I asked our pediatrician how much milk my son should drink a day and she asked me how much other calcium rich foods he eats a day. Milk actually has less calcium than yogurt, cheese, green veggies, almonds, etc. She said milk is less healthy than it used to be so she doesn't measure milk intake as the holy grail of a kids diet. She said a lot of the milk craze we feel is due to media/advertising propaganda.
Good luck with everything!

Hi..I am a mom with a 23 month old little baby girl. My doctor said the same thing.!! My opinion is don't worry about it. Who cares if she takes the bottle for a while longer, beleive me she will grow out of it. If she is happy and healthy and sleeps well and loves her bottle, let her have it. My daughter gave it up on her own and I don't even remember the eaxct date.

Is he concerned about her teeth.? Milk is not going to hurt her, for a little while longer.

Sounds like my oldest son and I did exactly what the doctor and most everyone else said NOT to do, but it turned out to work out for us. I gave him his night bottle(he was already off the morning one) until after his 2nd b'day. I,also, do not make him eat what the rest of us eats because it makes dinner difficult. I encourage him to try new foods and sometimes he does, but I put something simple on his plate like cheese and crackers and apple and that's his dinner. It's simple and dinner is pleasent for the entire family. I would let your daughter keep her night bottle for a while and just work on getting rid of the morning one for now. I think working on one small step at a time is easier on everyone and children are more willing to cooperate. Just my opinion, but it really isn't going to do her any harm to keep her bottle for a while longer and a sippy cup is pretty much the same as a bottle anyway. Maybe she would like a real cup instead. I think we should let our children be little for as long as possible. They have plenty of time to grow up. Good luck!!

How long did you try no milk except for the cup and how long did you try making whatever you want for dinner or she doesn't eat? These changes don't happen overnight, and may take up to several weeks to work. I would suggest trying what the Dr. says for at least 1 month before giving up. She will not die, have a calcium dificiency, etc. in 1 month if she doesn't eat dinner and if she doesn't have milk. In the meantime, give her yogurt & cheese to make sure she gets the dairy/calcium she needs, but if you don't stop this soon, you are just making things harder on yourself. Do you want a 3 year old that ONLY eats grilled cheese? Think of how hard it is to send a child like that to school, or to a friends house for a play date if they will only eat one thing. You are the parent, you need to take charge!

Just for some other info - my son sometimes eats a lot for dinner and sometimes doesn't. I firmly believe if you don't fight over food, you won't have a picky, hard to feed toddler on your hands. I offer what we are having, maybe slightly modified (when we had tacos, he had meat, a small bit of lettuce tomatoes, sour cream and cheese mixed together, no taco shell). I also try to serve at least 1 thing I know my child will eat as part of dinner. In my case, it's usually fruit, so he may have the tacos and grapes for dinner, that way I know he ate something. Remember you have to look at what you child eats over the course of a week to make sure things are balanced and he's getting enough, not just 1 day.

Good luck! You are the mom! You are the grown up! She can only do what you allow her to do!

We got my son off the bottle by putting him on Rubbermaid 8oz Sip Bottle. It is not in the baby section. It is kept with the food storage stuff. You can squeeze the sides slightly to force the liquid up the straw until your kiddo figures out how to get the liquid up herself. These were recommended to me by our OT when no other sippy cup would work. The only downside is that he still has some difficulty with a "traditional" sippy cup if that is all that is available to him because he is so used to this kind.

I see that you have had many responses so I will be brief. I just want to add one more reason that you must get your baby off of the bottle. I am speech pathologist and my concern is that it can start affecting a child's speech and teeth. It can be a hard transition. You could just go cold turkey and your doctor is right she will eventually drink it from a sippy cup. Good luck!
A.

My son is the same way. At 15 months, we did not give him the bottle anymore, pretty much cold turkey because his pedi also said he should be off of it. He refused to drink milk out of a sippy cup-- I tried soy, flavoring it with strawberry, etc, etc, etc... At 18 months, he still will not drink milk from a sippy cup, although I still attempt from time to time! Our doc said not to worry too much about it. Just give him his calcium/Vitamin D in other ways. So, he has yogurt, cheese, calcium fortified apple sauce, etc, each day. He will take milk in cereal, so that helps too. Good luck! I know this can be very frustrating!

I personally drank milk from a bottle until I was four years old and didn't experience any of the scary effects I've read in some of the comments. By the way, my teeth were just fine (never had braces or cavity problems). Do what you think is right for your child based on her particular personality.

Hey J., I had the same issue with my son at 1. There were so many people on here trying to tell me not to give him cow's milk. The truth is that I wanted him to have it. I agree with Maggie about just taking the bottle away cold turkey. I had to put chocolate in his milk to get him to drink it, then I just phased it out. This worked great for us. I sure hope it helps.

I have a 22 month old son who does like his milk. But in your situation I would try adding a little bit of liquid yogurt to her milk mixed in the sippy cup and see if this will interest her. Then she will get the nutrients from the milk in her diet each day. Also, our pediatrician said yogurt with the live active cultures is good for children's tummys. At one time it was recommended to give yogurt to my son just before time to take his antibiotic. It's one of his favorite foods and he now gets it from time to time as a treat after a meal.

I know this is hard, but your doctor is right, on all counts. She WILL start to take milk again ... you just have to be patient. In the meantime, you can offer cheese and yogurt and other dairy products to achieve your dietary goals for her. I used to work for a children's dentist. We routinely saw kids who stayed on the bottle too long and it was NOT fun. These kids had rotted teeth and did not understand why they needed dental work. It often took 2 or 3 of us just to hold the child still while the dentist removed or repaired their teeth ... can you imagine your child in that scenario? My advice is that you let your daughter watch you box up all the bottles because "you're a big girl now! You don't need these anymore." No tears, no sympathy, just a matter of fact. Then put them away and don't look back. Good luck!