Getting My Son off the Bottle and Start Potty Training

When my son turned one, I packed up the bottles so I wasn't tempted to give him one. We started using the soft-nippled sippy cups right away. Maybe if there's no option of a bottle, your son will start using a sippy cup. We also found that my son loved ALL kinds of water bottles so you might try that as well.

As for potty training, it's SO much better to wait! This may sound crazy, but my son was potty trained in 3 days and I know it's because we waited until HE was ready and we had the time to devote to it. (I know you're all thinking "Yeah, right!", but it's the honest truth.)
I don't think he's ready, if he's not even two yet. Wait until he's able to tell you pee and poop and understand what those words mean.
Buy a potty and set it in your bathroom. Ask him if he wants to SIT on it. If he says yes, let him sit there as long as HE wants. If he says no, that's ok. Don't force him!
We did this with our son a couple months before he turned two and he had his potty for 6 months before we even THOUGHT about potty training. He went potty on it a couple times in those months, but that still didn't mean he was ready to potty train. I think it was more coincidence. The right place at the right time. :)
Good luck!

I don't know about the bottle, but I agree with Kerri N about the potty training. Another great time to have your son sit on the potty (if he will, don't force it at all) is right after he wakes up. Babies and toddlers (as well as adults) almost always need to pee after they wake up in the morning or from a nap.

Check out diaperfreebaby.org for more techniques that can work well with younger toddlers (the techniques are geared towards infants, but are easily adaptable for toddlers). The method does not rely on rewards or punishments and is not coercive in any way. I have had tremendous success using the methods with my daughters. I started them at birth, and I have friends who successfully used the techniques with young toddlers (boys even) as well!

Feel free to message me or e-mail the mentor listed on the site for your area :) Your son is definitely not too young to start.

Best wishes!

~B.

I agree he's not too young to potty train. But I know with my dd I wasn't able to be consistent with it (had a newborn to care for) and she's still working on it now at 2 yo. She started going when she was 16 mo. I didn't push it at first, just had her go when I knew she needed to, but didn't make her go if she didn't want to. This week I've been having her go around without a diaper during the day and it has been working well for us.
I dreaded the bottle thing... but it turned out to be a very easy transition. I tried phasing it out, but it didn't seem to be working well, so when she asked for a 'baba' I would give her something to drink in her sippy cup. It turned out to be an out of sight out of mind thing and now there's no issue even though the baby gets bottles occasionally.
Now I'm dreading the pacifier phase out. lol

For all three of my kids, I started weaning them around that time too from the bottles. Good job on four a day! I would continue to lower it to three a day, once in the morning, a small one after nap, and then one around bedtime or dinner time, according to the schedule you already have set. I then went down to two, one in the morning, then one in the evening. Pretty soon, we were down to just the small bottle in the evening for more of a comfort thing.

As far as the sippy cup goes, take him shopping with you for his second birthday or near it, and ask him to choose a couple of his very own "Big boy cups". Make it a really big deal. We did this with our three to encourage use of the sippy cup. However, our youngest didn't want to drink out of a sippy cup, he wanted to drink right out of a real kid cup. We let him for a while, until he was tired of spilling! :) Then he went to a sippy cup.

I started potty training around two and a half. Usually around that time most kids are interested in actually going on the potty, but each kid is different!

Good luck!

Just a suggestion about the bottle thing. I made a rule that my 22 month old couldn't have her bottle unless she was in the crib. She got it rather quickly. So the bottle is somethign she can only have in the crib. Gave her sippy cups during the day but when she was sleepy, she could have her bottle in teh crib. Then I would begin conveniently "forgetting" to give it to her when I put her to bed and offered her a sippy instead. She's doing really good with this and we are almost done completely with the bottle.

As for potty training, I'm in agreement with those who already responded. I use the "no pressure" system and let my son tell me when he wants to go. A set of Superman underoos did it too :) He didn't want to take them off so he really did well at not having accidents! He'll be 3 in a couple months and has been completely potty trained since Christmas (when he got the underoos). So many moms are told that the need to potty train at a certain age, but that just creates a lot more stress than moms need to deal with.

But every child is different! What works with mine may not work with anyone elses!
Take care,
A.

Psalm 37:4

What great advice to far from other moms! I might add in on thing... the soft silicone sippy cups are a GREAT transition, as the other mom mentioned, however be careful. My son has always been a VERY oral baby, turned into a very oral toddler. After he turned 2 (yes, a bit late) we finally weened him off of the bottles onto the soft sippy cups, however I noticed him not drinking, just sucking and biting the nipples. After a while of realizing this wasn't working, I heard a great suggestion to start using the pop up water bottles. Finally we were done w/ the sippy cups!
As for potty training, for boys... definetly too young! He might be poking around at being interested, but sometimes if you start them too young, they regress when they are fully trained and you start back from square one. I might wait until he's 2-2 1/2 to start talking about it.
Hope this helps, good luck!

Maybe you could try only giving him water in his bottle, and then give hime juice or milk (or whatever it is you give him in his bottle) in his sippy. He will probably get upset and frustrated at first, but he'll get the hang of it pretty quick and won't want his bottle anymore. As for the potty thing, gosh some people put such pressure on us moms sometimes to potty train so early. It almost becomes a competition sometimes, like "mine potty trained this early". I say do it when he's ready. Both of my boys were 3 and a half and I tell you I had the easiest time, and not very many accidents at all. It's not only easier and a much smoother transition for them but it's also easier for you. Most kids I'm pretty sure at some point figure out the diaper thing, how to take it off that is. I think it's just something they do and they usually get a huge reaction, so they think it's funny or interesting. I hope this helps and best wishes,
W.

Both of my kids loved their bottles too but I started getting them off the bottles shortly after thier first birthdays. There are some really great sippy cups out there that have a soft silicone type spout that feels like a bottle nipple but is the shape of a normal sippy cup spout. This was a great transition cup for my son, who is now 3. Take him shopping to pick out a special big boy cup - let him choose the picture. My son is freak for trains! Thankfully Target carried the take and toss sippy cups with Thomas on them. It wasn't long before that was all he wanted to use. The take and toss cups are great because they come in many colors and charachters are inexpensive and really last a long, long time.

As for potty training. He is probably a little bit young. Most kids at that age just like to be naked and that may be a reason he is taking off his diaper - or he is doing it because he learned that he can. My son is 3, he is going potty in the toilet everytime we take him, still off and on with the pooping thing. But he doesn't regularly tell us when he needs to go. We still have to prompt him. Some days he is great and wants to go all of the time other days he just doesn't want to have anything to do with it. Two steps forward, one step back. We'll all get there eventually. Good luck!

My son didn't really like sippy cups either. I took away 1 bottle at a time and replaced it with a sippy. It took a while but eventually he grew more accustomed to it. My littleset one is 14 months and prefers a cup with no lid. We do take a sippy in the car for her and she is ok with it now.

A far as the potty training thing I don't think he is to young, as long as he is showing interest. My oldest were potty trained during the day by just over 2, and were completely done with nightime pullups around 2 1/2. My 14 month old sits on the potty all the time and has gone pee and poop quite a few times. They showed the interest and we folowed thier leads. Get him a little potty chair and let him play with it. Sit during diaper changes and before baths while the water is running ( my kids almost always peed as soon as they heard the water running ). Don't push, don't force, don't worry if in a month he decided he doesn't want to do it anymore. Just remember to show him how to point it down when he sits otherwise it is a pretty messy clean up lol