Weaning from Bottle - Englewood, CO

I agree that you should help her establish a new routine. My kids were never given the chance to take a bottle. They went directly from breastfeeding to a sippy cup. For example: a warm bath, a story, and then bedtime. My youngest is now 5 years old but this has always been his routine and if one thing is out of sequence then he won't sleep very well. It may take a while for her to understand, but kids respond very well to routine. It will make her life a lot easier also. Just don't crack. Start her own special routine and stick to it.

i think its a good thing your trying to ween the bottle it can be hard i took my son off the bottle at 10 months i just threw them away that way there was no way i would cave and give in to his cries for the bottle because once you cave it only makes it harder on you and the child. i switched to trainer sippy cups there are several realy great ones out there the one i used and loved was the doctor brown trainer cup the handles move and can be ajusted to where your child fills the most cumfortable holding on to it and it has a soft tip and a a vent for air flow just like there bottles to prevent belly akes. my son loved it and thats what i recamend. it is a hard thing to do but hold in there your doing the wright thing.

I also say just take it away. I would throw all of the bottles out. I took the bottle away from all of my kids at the year mark. I think that my youngest was a year and 7 days. I never put anything other than formula in their bottles. If they got milk, water, or juice they always got it in a sippy cup.

With my youngest we wind down the evening by everyone laying in our bed. My youngest likes to dive bomb us a couple of times every night and that seems to be the routine. Then I tell him that it is night-night time and we get hugs and he will lay down and relax. He loves to sleep with soft stuff. He has his soft blanket and a really soft fuzzy frog pillow that he cuddles with at night time. It seems to work well for him and us.

My advice to you is to just stick to your guns. Once you cave then it will be that much harder on you. She will learn that if she doesn't let up then you will eventually give in. I don't think that it is too early to give it up. Sooner is better than later! When your kids cry like that sometimes it is hard. Think of the long term and how it is better for everyone.

It's definitely not too early to get rid of bottles, but it may be too close to the other changes you have made (i.e. breastfeeding, rocking, etc.). I am not sure when you made the last change, but I recommend doing these changes gradually as doing so too rapidly can have some consequences.

If it's been a month or so since the last change, then I would say to continue on with the bottle weaning and remember that consistency is key. Good luck!

Have a GREAT day!

S.

If she is crying for that long, I would definitely wait to wean her. that is very sad. My doctor told me I don't need to start weaning from the bottle until 2. Go with your instinct over what the doctor says. Give her the bottle but put less milk in it....good luck!

Your pediatrician is right - the longer you wait, the more difficult it will be. Stick with the weaning, but the other issue is sleep training. Your daughter has learned to go to sleep with a bottle & rocking and it is going to be difficult to take those away cold turkey and expect her to soothe herself to sleep. Even adults get used to certain conditions to help them go to sleep - a certain pillow, temperature, amount of light, sounds - and it's a bit difficult to fall asleep when those things are different. Have you tried the Ferber method? For sleep training, I don't think it gets any better. It still involves some letting your child cry, but just for short intervals without comfort. In a nutshell the Ferber method goes like this -
1) Have a bedtime routine - can be very short, but it needs to be consistent
2) Have a set bedtime
3) Don't have anything present that won't be there in the middle of the night (bottles, rocking, noises, etc.)
4) Put your daughter in the crib, tell her goodnight & leave, even if she is crying. Stay out for a couple of minutes (2-5) and then go back in. Talk to her, sing to her, pat her & comfort her but DON'T pick her up. Stay only a minute or two & leave again. This time stay out of the room for a longer interval (3-10 min) and repeat. Keep increasing the intervals that you are out of the room.

Your child will learn that bedtime means we go to sleep and that we do it by ourselves, but mommy is still here for me when I need her. They know they can make you come back, but they quickly learn that it's not worth crying long enough to make it happen. This can take some time for the first few days you do it, but your daughter will quickly start crying for a shorter period of time. With my kids, within a week, they were going to sleep by themselves in their crib without crying at all. Do this for night time, nap time, or any time she wakes in the middle of the night. Be consistent and things will improve quickly. If you want more information about this method, check out "How to Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" by Ferber. It is a great resource. Good luck!

Hi B.,
The thing we did was to switch our son's bottle from milk to water at night. At first he wasn't too interested in the water, then he enjoy it for a few weeks, and then he just didn't want the bottle at all. I think it took about six our eight weeks to get through it, but it was not traumatic in any way. He was about 19 or 20 months when we did this (he's 26 months now). He used a bottle only a few more times after that when he was sick, but that was it. Also, there is a book called "No More Bottles for Bunny" that seemed to give him some encouragement. Also, with our son, maybe it is coddling him, but we feel that our most important job is to help him feel secure, so we still sit with him after reading books and the lights are out, if he wants us to. We also employ the idea that if the crying is urgent rather than just "I'm lonely", we go back to him after 10 minutes or so. After all, what else do we have to do at night? And, I think our approach works. I'd say that our son is tearful when we leave his bedroom only about twice a month now. If you are in the north Denver area, I'd be glad to meet with you and give our copy to you. Good luck.

I just read the other responses, and I wanted to add that I don't believe that sippy cups are the answer. We started teaching our son to drink from a REAL cup when he was ten months old. Since he was about 14 months, he has been able to hold a child size glass and drink all by himself. I think the bottle is a comfort, and don't believe they should be taken away too soon.

Now that you have started, stick with it even though it is hard and makes you sad. The first time we took our son's bottle away from him he was devastated. He was hysterical for three hours. The next morning I told my mom about it and said, "I don't care if he uses a bottle the rest of his life, I am not going through that again."

She sweetly told me then I had made him suffer for nothing. I took that and applied it to being consistent in the way I disciplined and decisions, because I wanted to make my decisions purposeful.

By the way. The second night he cried for only forty minutes and the third he was over it.

This month he will turn 13 and has been bottle free for nearly 11 of them. :)

our oldest used a bottle until he was 2. every kid has their favorite comforts for bedtime and this was one of his more important ones. we used the nuby cups with the soft mouthpiece as a transition.

My son had the same issue. We were able to get him off of the bottle by going on vacation for a week and "forgetting" the bottles. We were sad with him and mourned the difficulty of not having the bottle, but it worked! As long as we were home he knew there were bottles around. If we were gone and forgot to bring them he knew there just weren't any bottle to be had. He was about 2 1/2 when we did this so I don't know if your daughter will understand the concept that there are no bottles.

B., I will be doing this this weekend. I have a 16 month old who is WAY little for his age and thus the reason I have not thrown out the bottle yet. But this weekend it will happen and it will happen cold turkey. I would suggest NOT to give in and give it back to her. More than likely it will cause problems when you do try it again. I like the idea of changing the routine for bed and will have to try it myself. I did the cold turkey trick with my other one at a year and it was a rough 3-4 nights but we got through it! So, good luck and if you need an email partner, I will be right there with you!

Your Pediatrician is right. Not to mention at 18 mos she shouldn't need anyting before bedtime and bottles really can wreek havoc on their teeth. I took them away at the year mark, just took them away, got cool sippies and strawed cups and that was that.
She may cry but it will only last a few nights. She won't be traumatized, babies/toddlers don't like change. She will adjust it is just hard not to cave but you cannot cave.
Throw them all away, then there will be not temptation. Take her to get a fun new snuggle toy, something new and change up the routine at bedtime. It will just take a few nights and she will get a new routine down.
Don't keep the bottles at all in the house, throw them away!!!!!!!!
She does not need milk or anything before bedtime either, it is horrible on their teeth if they don't brush afterwards and it is a habit not out of need now.
Break the habit, help her with this and you have to be the strong one.

You can rock her before bed, just don't do it until she is asleep, wait until she is drowsy. Lay her down still awake but you can still rock her and comfort her. Nobody said you had to stop snuggling, rocking and relaxing before bed, but at 18 mos she does not need a bedtime milk, she does not need a bottle and she just needs you to change things around and form a new positive habit for her. Soften the lights, read a story, snuggle in, a sip of water if need be but if you offer her nothing it will be easier.

Not to mention when you start potty training in a few years the first thing that has to go is the nighttime drinks so do it now and save yourself a step then.
Good luck, hang in there, she won't be in therapy, she will adjust.