Weaning off the Bottle

My daughter is 15 months and she just finally got rid of the bottle for good. She was using it only at night since 12 months. I bought A LOT of differnt kinds of sippy cups before she liked one. She was picky. I also had her drinking out of one of those cups with a straw that pops out. Maybe try something like that. Good luck.

Wow. Lots of opinions. My daughter is two and we are just starting to wean her of her morning and nightime bottles. I see nothing wrong with it.
Bottom line is you should do what feels right for you.

I think our society is too easily offended by a baby/toddler sucking! I see nothing wrong w/ a 12 month year old still getting some formula/milk in a bottle 1 or 2 times a day!! I mean heck there are still babies nursing at that age (& beyond) and there's nothing wrong with it...

now, it is important for them to drink water (I don't give juice, as I personally don't see any reason for it. I believe the nutrients you might find in juice can be gotten from the actual fruits themselves. I also know that once a toddler/preschooler goes to 'school' then s/he will be getting tons of juice and other things over which I have no control, so let them get it there & at other people's houses,etc, not from me...)out of a cup...

I think straw cups are great! there are Nuby brands and Playtex brands & a lot more...as soon as my babies are mobile (crawling) I make sure a cup of water is always available for them- I think I'll try a straw cup soom w/ my baby who is now 8 months old- I think I started w/ my older son w/ a straw cup at about 10months old...

Since I would have no problem with breastfeeding at this age,I see no problem with a bottle either. I would only suggest that the bottle is only available with a person attached. She cannot just hold it herself, walk around with it, etc. If she needs a bottle, she needs to be held and cuddled to go with it. This way, when the bottle goes, the attention stays and it is easier to part with. I think the main risk is about dental carries which can be solved by not putting sweets into the bottle. No juice, etc. Many children associate the bottle with comfort. Provide her with comfort at the same time, then you can work on not always giving the bottle and still give the comfort. That is how we wean from the breast too. Provide other comfort measures that are as wonderful to her as the bottle.

PS My understanding is that the sippy cups are as big a cavity issue as bottles, I could be wrong, but that is what I remember being told.

Have you tried a straw sippy? My son is almost 15 months now but I had been introducing regular sippy cups since he was 6 months old. He didn't want anything to do with them. I talked to his ped. who suggested I try straw sippy cups.

I gave him his first one at 11 months and he had weaned his ownself off the bottle completely by his first birthday. He just loved using the straw and I was actually the one hanging onto the bottles more than him. It saddened me to see him give them up because it was a reality check that he wasn't a newborn anymore.

Anyway, I highly suggest the straw sippy cups. My son had a hard time with tipping a regular sippy and with the straw cups you don't have to! Good luck!

Hi A., I recently weaned my son off the bottle. He was one at the time and like your little girl he would throw fits.He would slap the bottle out of my hand,throw it across the room and scream like he was being tortured!!!I did'nt give in and thank God this behavior lasted only 3 days.During the 3 days he would sip from the sippy cup when he got thirsty and THAN throw it across the room!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck!!!

All children are diffrent.so with that said, maybe you should hold off a little while longer. All three of my sons,now ages 7,6,and4, didnt want to let go of the bottle at diffrent ages. my 7yr old relized that the baby,the 6yo,needed the bottle more than him so at age 14months he gave it up but not compleatly until age 1 1/2. then the other 2 decided that since big brother was done with it they both tried to hold the cup. So my suggestion is if its not damageing her teeth yet just let her have it for a while longer. then maybe try to give her the option to have a cup like a big girl at meals but also have a bottle ready for her if she doesnt want the cup. i hope this helps a little.

I found w/my little one she LOVED formula(fav. drink) so I started putting that in a sippy cup and it only took a few weeks before she was off the bottle...

I've been told and read to be off or trying to get off the bottle at 1 year. I started around 11 months with mine. Try substituting one bottle a day with a sippy cup. That is what I did. He did okay but had a long time learning to tip the sippy up to get the fluid. Eventually we were totally off the bottle by 13 or 14 months. The sippy cup he took to is a gerber 2 pack at target for like $5. The cups change color when a cold liquid gets in it. Good luck!

don't rush it. she'll wean herself off. my daughter started sipping out of a straw at about a year, so i purchased juice box styled containers with built in straws and a flip top "hard straw" (from Family dollar or dollar general). She also likes to drink out of a cup (with help of course) without the sippy lid. your daughter will make a mess so wear a bib, and lift the cup upwards towards her upper lip so she learns to close her bottom lip to the cup rim, this helps my daughter not lose the liquid. also, I try and do the bottle only in the evening for comfort reasons and to let her know that it is time for bed (can be used for nap time too) all other times it is a cup with or without a straw or her sippy box.
I hope this helps, but like I said dont rush it let her be a baby for a little while longer.

I just went thru this over the past 3 weeks. What we did was get Nuby cups with soft silicone lids. They sell at Wal-mart for about $3 each. They're short and fat little cups with handles. Then we filled the cups halfway or so with formula and sat in the floor and simply showed her how to hold the cup up and tip her head up. I spent a few minutes several times a day just sitting in the floor pretending to drink from this cup. Then I would sit with her and hold the cup for her. Mine didn't like how fast the liquid came out at first, so I thickened it with some cereal and she adapted much better to it. I gave her a bottle only at night for the first week and within a week she was completely weaned and now takes 2 sippys, one juice/water and the other formula. The nice thing about the Nuby cups (feel free to email me and I'll send a picture) is that they can suck on them without creating a huge vacuum in the cup, and since they're short cups they don't have to turn the cup or their head so far up to get a drink.

I am a mother of 4 ages 12, 9 & a set of 4 year old twins. I did the same thing for all of them. The bottle became a water dispensor. If they wanted the bottle I only put water in it. They could only hold them if they were sitting on the chair they each had, I tried to not let them have them to roam the house with. If they wanted milk, juice, formula or anything else, they had to use the cup. It's frustrating at first, but they catch on fast. The cying is just a way to frustrate you into giving them what they want. I would try it several times a day for as long as I could stand the tears. I went through a lot of cups to find ones they liked. Straws seemed to work the best. Just do not rush it, 1 year old is still pretty young, I think the hardest were the twins & they were more like 15 months before I got them completely off the bottle.

I agree with Deana, start with juice and water first. Also use the sippy cup for daytime drinks, transitioning slowly away from first morning and bedtime bottles. I thought the bedtime bottle would be the last to go, but my DD loved her morning bottle!
We loved the Nuby sippy cup. The contoured one without the handles sells for around $1.50 at Walgreens or Wal-Mart (I saw a bin of them last week there). They come in various colors and were a great transition to the sippy for my daughter. (They have a soft nipple-like top, a ring and a bottle...) If using a traditional sippy, try removing the valve initially until DC gets the hang of it. Once they do, replace the valve to make it spillproof.
Good luck!
T. B, Mom to Katie 16.5 months

My daughter wasn't a problem with the bottle but when my goddaughter moved in and she was still on the bottle constintly i had to take it away with 3 kids i was watching day in and day out and the other two started wanting one to and they were 2 and 3 at the time i knew it had to go!! i limited it down to one bottle at night and then eventually i started taking it away at night also what helped with her was i took her to the store and let her pick one out and the first few nights were hard especially since her mom wanted to keep baby-in her but i just told her let her cry it out and she would cry for about 15 min i would go in calm her down and give her the sippy cup again and just told her no more boba it's all gone and after about 2-3 weeks it was gone completely it will be hard but it will be all worth it at the end to get rid of the bottle Just keep it up and keep it constant it will be gone before you know it good luck H.

Hi A.
I got my son off the bottle a few months before he turned two by doing what my peditrician suggested and that was putting water in the bottle..Usually at that age they do not like water much and when they figure out that you are not going to put something else in it they will stop wanting the bottle..Give her something like juice in a sippy cup and when she decides that what's in the bottle is not what she wants she will want the sippy cup because it has in it what she wants to drink..Might want to stick with one type of sippy cup so that she does not get confused with the different types at first then when she gets used to the cup you can try other types..Hope this helps some

You might think I'm crazy, but...here it is. Talk to her. I took my daughter off of her bottle the day before her 1st B-day. I simply picked her up and told her, "No, more bottles. Your a big girl and need to drink from a cup. I will not be making another bottle, we will be using spoons and cups!" It worked. By feeding time we were at my mothers and my mom made my daughter a bottle. To my AMAZEMENT my daughter just looked at my mom like my mom was crazy and looked at the bottle as if it were a foreign object. My mom was in pure shock and did not understand what had just taken place. It was that simple!

A.,

The way I did it with my soon to be two year old. The day that she turned one I took it away cold turkey. She cried at night for about two days but after that she never missed it. Her favorite cup was the ones with the straw. She will not and doesn't take sippy cups. Sippy cups are also known to give children tooth decay so that's why i didn't have a problem with her using the cups with the straw.

You can go to Publix and pick an actual cup that has a built in straw for children. Pour some juice or water and tell her that the bottle went bye bye and because she's a big girl now she needs to drink from a cup. If she starts crying let her cry. I know that's hard for you to do because that's hard for me also but this is the only way that they'll learn.

Good Luck!

My daughter is 13 months and we did juice in the cups first. Now we do milk, but she's not to thrilled. Juice is no problem though. You will have some crying of course, but it will stop.

This is a good time to try and get her to use a cup, but take it slow. Doesn't sound like she is one of those children that can just go cold turkey.. I often started using the bottle before bed and nap and a cuddle time activity and used the cup as something fun and tried new juices and things I knew my kids would really like. Made it a fun with several different activities and bought some fun looking ones to try with easy tops at first.

My little girl will be one next week. What I did was to give her a sippy (avent with silicone top) with water in it at dinner and snack time and just let her do with it what she wanted. At first it was more of a play thing then she realized that she could get something out of it. So when she would put it to her mouth I would try to gently tip it up so she could drink from it. She still gets the bottle some but at meal times she uses her sippy for either milk or juice. Hope this helps. Good luck!