Stopping the Bottle - Los Angeles,CA

we started giving the last milk bottle a little earlier each night so it wasn't a bedtime bottle anymore, but the evening bottle/sippy, which she now gets with or right after dinner.

once we brush teeth, it's water only.

I didn't have the problem of her disliking milk, but what about trying different milk, as in 1%, or 2% instead of whole?

Why stop the bottle? All children have a different need for sucking.
A dentist once told me that it depends on the
configuration of the mouth. Different children get mouths
from their genes and this is very mixed. With my three
children, the one who needed braces the most wanted the
bottle the longest. Now his little nephew, who looks very
much like his uncle, still wants a bottle at 2 1/2. I don't see the problem.
The toddler formulas are very good and provide good
things that picky eaters may miss. Don't worry, no kid takes a bottle to school.
B. v. O.

Hi S.,
If it makes you feel any better, my daughter did the same thing. I tried weaning her from the bottle at 12 months, and she refused. Then it seemed like one day, she drank milk from a sippy cup and hasn't had the bottle since! (She was about 18 months at the time) Basically, during every meal, I would offer her the milk in a sippy cup first. Then after she refused the sippy cup and was finished with her meal (I would give her water in a sippy cup instead which she was happy with), I would wait about 5 minutes and offer her milk from the bottle. I didn't want her to go without milk, but also didn't want her to associate that if she cried for the bottle, I would just give it to her.
As I said, right when I started thinking she would never wean off of the bottle, she started drinking out of the cup.
I'm sure once your daughter is ready, she'll do the same thing.
Many people told me to have her go cold turkey and just cry it out. But I couldn't do that.
Good luck! And just remember. Like all things - it's not like she'll be in high school still drinking out of a bottle. She'll give it up some day - when she's good and ready.

You are tackling this problem earlier then I did with my daughter. Little by little I started diluting the milk in the bottle with water. And I also used the small bottles. I even bought different bottles so my daughter wouldn't like them and wouldn't want them. I then started giving my daughter a sprinkle of chocolate powder in her milk in the morning in a sippy cup. And also at dinner. And it started to work. Soon she had very little milk in her bottle and did not really want it very much. To make my life harder, I let my daughter get on taking a sippy cup to bed. :-( But she was older and i was able to explain that she could not take the sippy cup to bed because big girls don't take cups to bed. We had a new baby. So she was happy to give it up. Good Luck with your little one.

I have the same problem with my 17 month old. I think I read and listen too much to other people. I have been thinking for a while that I need to stop the bottle with my daughter but she wouldn't take milk from a sippy cup. I asked my mum when I should get rid of the bottle, she said not to worry, if that's what she enjoys then give it to her. I am going to back off and try again later. She takes everything else in a sippy cup, but she loves her milk in a bottle and still has it 4 times a day (although we have reduced the quantity at one time). So my advice is just leave it for now, try again in a couple of months or so. It's so comforting for them, and can calm them when they get too "hyper", or don't know how to relax. I don't believe it's doing any harm.

I suggest stopping one bottle at a time. I know the doctor told you to stop but don't stop cold turkey. It's probably a comfort thing for her so you don't want to take it all away at once. Maybe stop the one before nap first. Do this for a few weeks and once she's used to it, stop the one in the morning. Give her a sippy in the morning if you want her to go back to sleep. After a few weeks then do the bedtime bottle. This will probably be the hardest. You can give her a bedtime sippy - I did that. Then the bedtime sippy became water so we didn't have to worry about brushing again.

Hope this helps! Good luck! She's still young so don't stress about the bottle. She'll stop eventually.

Hi S.

I remember my youngest daughter going through the same thing with the pacifier and bottle. The first thing I did was get rid of all bottles and pacifiers except for one. I then let her know that she only had one and when they were lost she would not get another one. They eventually disappeared and she was a little upset but not as much as I though she would be. You might want to ask your pediatrician about vitamin supplements if you think she is not drinking enough milk. It might try your patience but keep firm so she know you mean business. I hope this helps...

E. S.

My daughter did the same thing. She is now seven. I got rid of her bottles when she was 2, and she has not consumed a drop of milk since then. Not cow's milk, soy milk, rice milk, almond milk, any milk. She does eat yogurt and cheese, and she is a healthy strong girl. My second daughter made a seamless transition from bottle to cup and still likes her soy milk at 4 yrs old. The way I transitioned was to wait until I could have a conversation with them, and then explain that bottles are really for babies, so let's go out and shop for some really cool sippy cups. Then we got rid of the bottles and she could use her sparkly princess cup. My oldest was not crying for the bottle, but she did not drink her milk, she just drank water and diluted juice out of it. I would find her cups full of milk still full later on. After living through it, I don't think it is really as much of an issue as I did back then. Don't stress too much.

Call me a bad mommy if you will, but I started putting a couple of spoonfuls of ovaltine or Carnation instant breakfast in dd's sippy cup. I call it her chocolate milk and she loves it. I hate giving her empty calories, but it does have some vitamins and I don't put alot at all. Maybe two small teaspoons for 8 oz of milk. It has helped me, we have no bottles left other than the evening one. I think that one has been hard for me to give up. = } Sorry had to chime in about something. As far as a bottle causing speech delay at this age, it could not be further from the truth for us. My dd is 23 months old and she is using 7 word sentences on a daily basis. She has extremely clear speech and is beyond her years in her verbals skills. Sorry, I just had to say that because I think people go overboard with bottles and bf scares. Some bf until kids are well over two with no ill effects.

I'm going through the exact same thing with my 15 month old and it appears to be a very popular problem. My son has no problem drinking anything from the sippy cup...except milk! I'm just going to keep offering milk in the sippy first and when he just won't drink it then switch it to the bottle. There have been a few times he's had his milk from the sippy cup. I think it's just a stage and they will grow out of it.

Try establishing a new bedtime routine-bath, snack, brush teeth, read books, then off to bed-and be consistent. She will probably cry at first but eventually associate the routine with sleep. Just modify for naps.

My son hated cows milk when I first gave it to him. His ped said to keep offering it but to make sure he was getting half to two cups of dairy per day. Try yogurt, string cheese, smoothies, cream cheese, sour cream, etc. Good luck!

I started weenign my son off the bottle by changing where he got the bottle. Never in bed/crib always somewhere sitting up. I also started to give him less each day in the bottle. After we were down to him only having 1 oz of milk in his bottle I simply took it away all together. it was a hard 2 weeks but well worth it. Whenever he would ask for his bottle I told him that the bottle fairy had come and taken them so that the babies that needed them could have them. It worked pretty well however there were still quite a few nights of crying. It DOES get easier but the initial taking it away is hard. Remember when she cries or throws a fit that it is being done for her best interest and when she gets older she won't remember it and will have stronger teeth too! After my son stopped taking the bottle he started to drink milk in a cup. When he would ask for milk I would give it to him in a cup. Another friend of mine started only putting water in her daughters bottle and told her that milk couldn't go in the bottle anymore. Worked for her!

try the nuby cups they are soft spouts then work on getting her on a harder spout cup after a month or 2.

We stopped the bottle cold turkey with my daughter when she was 16 months old. We went on a cruise and just took sippy cups - no bottles. The first day or two she asked for the bottle and I said we didn't have any, and gave her the sippy cup. By the third day she didn't ask for the bottle anymore. It was fairly easy because there just weren't any bottles around for her to see. Maybe the different environment did it, too. All I know is that I was not about to bring bottles and try to deal with that on a cruise. Besides, the pediatrician had wanted her off the bottle at one year, but I felt like this was the right time for my daughter.

Dear S.,
I'm a Speech Pathologist and Orofacial Myologist. I have had some experience helping moms and dads with feeding. First, I want to applaud you in your efforts. Please don't give up, hard as it may be-- drinking via a straw or the proper sippy cup (this is very important), will encourage full strength, range of motion, control, and coordination of her muscles. If the muscles don't develop properly early on, children will have a higher propensity towards speech delays, and mouth breathing. O.k., so first things first--- since the bottle is like nursing to your baby, you have already discovered that this is a stressful process for the both of you. Therefore, be persistent, but take your time and go gradually. The best time to stop the bottle is as soon as your baby starts to sit up. It's important to keep the bottle out of her sight-- which is instant crying if she sees it. This may take up to a couple of weeks before she realizes that she is not going to get the bottle anymore. One day, she'll be too hungry and agree to be fed. Once she starts to take food normally-- she will forget about the bottle in a few days. Once you start feeding her, to make the meals interesting. Hand her the cup and "challenge" her to drink without spilling... hopefully she's up for challenge and encouragement when she does. In case she finds eating for nutrition difficult without the bottle-- assist her as calmly as possible-- and you may have temporarily switch back to the bottle. But try another feeding activity in a few days again in a different way.
I'm not sure if I answered your question, but I hope it's a good launching point. Please feel free to call me if you need more personalized assistance. Good Luck. xoxo