I have an 18 month old that takes a bottle at bedtime. She falls asleep with it and "needs" it to go to sleep. She also needs it if she wakes up in the middle of the night to fall asleep again. I need help getting her off the bottle. Our son will be born in 3 months and we realize the need to get her off the bottle for 1: becuase she is already so dependent on it it's a bad habit and 2: it is too much to have to try and deal with with a newborn in the house. Any advice you can give me would be helpful.
Thanks in advance!
Hi K.
when we weaned our kids off the bottle we gradually watered down there milk until it was just water and they eventually just didn't want it anymore. Good Luck :) T.
our daughter still used her bottle at 2 1/2!! we finally got down to using it at night and then told her we were giving the bottles to the baby next door...also used a lot of praise and told her she was a big girl, not a baby...so my idea for you is to make a gift basket for her brother and include the things she think she will need: her bottles, blankets, new pacifers etc...and then maybe buy her something new to replace it that only big girls need: new sippys, toys, sandals what ever...maybe the whole ceremony of it and a lot of praise will do the trick!
Had the same problem, had to go cold turkey and deal with 2 nights of her being really, really mad, like 2 hours of having a fit and crying to go to bed, I did not get her out of her out of bed, I tried to wait at least 15-20 min. b/f going in b/c it just seemed to make her more angry. She finally went to sleep and got up once, I gave her her binky and she was mad but went back to sleep, the 2nd night wasn't as bad, but it just takes patience, if you don't think you can listen to the crying like I thought, I went downstairs and did laundry and vacuumed, went out in the garage, made my husband remind me SHE IS OK, SHE IS NOT HURT, SHE IS JUST MAD AND WE HAVE TO BREAK THE BAD HABIT, SHE WILL BE OK.
Anyways we made it through and after about 3 nights she just layed down and went to sleep.
K.,
What we did was have her throw the bottles in the garbage as a sign of they are done. She may ask for them for a month or so but eventually she will be done. Does she take a pacifier? That is what we are trying to get rid of now. She only has it at bed time and naps. But she knew she was not getting another bottle and then offer nothing but a sippy cup to her. She might fight you but it will work, just don't give in. Godd luck!
Being that the bottle has become a sleep crutch. I would suggest getting the book Good Night, Sleep Tight by Kim West. It has very gentle approached in there for problems such as that. And the book starts with newborns and goes all the way up to five years of age. So, it will be good with your new baby too. I used it with our now 2 year old and I am due in two weeks and will be using it as a reference again. But I would give it a try.
I have a 19 month old and have the same problem. I just got a lecture from my pediatrian last week. I have three boys and had the same problem with my middle guy. My 19 month old I switched to water at night, so I don't worry about his teeth getting decayed. But now I need to worry about him getting an overbite. The thing that worked for my middle one was switching the nipple for a gerber sippy cover (you can find them at Baby's R Us) They don't leak and if falling asleep with water or waking up and falling back to sleep with water works for them I let them do it. I need water during the night, so I can't fault them for it. Using the sippy cover also solves the teeth problem. I hope this helps.
