to make a long story short (if possible) my daughter is 3 and is still drinking from the bottle. she had some major health issues/surgeries and that was her 'crutch'. we are now at a place where she needs to be off bottles and have set tomorrow as the day. she knows this, we went and got new sippy cups and her 16 month brother is going off them tomorrow too. We told her they were going in the trash - and tomorrow is trash day. now i am starting to wonder if i am doing anything wrong or missing something that i should be doing when we dump the bottles. I'm not saying a ceremony - but something for her. Thoughts - does this make sense??
It sounds like you have approached this very well and she should be excited if you got her lots of cool "big girl" cups! Good luck! BTW - I just got a four-pack of assorted color cups, some with straws and some with more nipply-like tips at Costco.
This is the smipliest way I found that works. Remove all the bottles and when she/he asks for a bottle take her to th cupboard (where they are normally kept) and say, "all gone" then offer her the sippy cup.
T.,
It sounds like you are very compassionate about the needs of your daughter....even with something as simple as transitioning to sippie cups (which seems simple to us, but it can be a big deal to children). You are not doing anything wrong or missing something. And whether you have a big to-do giving up the bottle ceremony or something as simple just throwing them in the trash - over and done - it has more to do with approaching it with love and compassion. Let her throw away the bottles...it'll give a her a sense of empowerment and control. Praise her for choosing to do such a big girl thing, then just step back and see how she moves on. She might be done with it in a second and off to something else or she might be more upset about it. In the long run, there wont' be any trauma from this:) But like any thing else our children go through, don't we want to help make their experiences more pleasant, loving, and aware of their emotional needs AT THE TIME OF THE EXPERIENCE?
Obviously, you have faced tougher challenges than the throwing away of the bottle, so I am sure your inner loving wise mamma will do the best thing for your children.
Much good energy to you.
A.
mom of 4, Birth and Parenting Mentor
www.birthingfromwithin.com
Hello there, I know that it is hard getting rid of the bottle. My son will be 3 in less than a month. He loves his bottle. He has always been under wieght, so I allowed it to go on. Plus he hates change unless it is his idea. We have been doing it for 3 nights now, some of the things we have gone through is he did not get to say goodbye to them. He does not want to be a big boy yet. The big question has been what will I drink in bed? On night two he just would not go to sleep,there was some crying due to big brother not giving kisses and then it was his Baba was gone. So I got a cup of milk and let him drink it in bed. That made him happy and he went to sleep. So last night I made sure that he got his kisses and I brought a glass of milk in with us. When I showed him the milk he smiled and had 6 sips and went to bed happy.
So my advise is listen to your daughter and without giving her a bottle, comfort her with an alternative that will satisfy the need and help the change go smoother.
Two things:
1. Consider getting some of those pop-up straw cups instead of sippies. This worked better for me because it doesn't remind them so much of sucking on a bottle, whereas sucking on the spout of a sippy cup is almost too similar to the bottle. My kids also liked that these were for "big kids."
2. When my daughter gave up her sleeping pacifiers at the age of 3, we put them in a little bag and hung them from a tree and the "Fairy" came to take them to babies that needed pacifiers and left her a gift - a fairy barbie.
At her age, I would consider like a Nalgene sports bottle that she can use when she is out. They have the straw kind. My kids have them and love them. At home, when it is mealtime I would go for normal cups. I went cold turkey with my kids. I think it is much easier than dragging out the inevitable. Plus, when you have the bottles around, it is much easier when they get cranky to give in. Good Luck, I know these transitions can be rough for a few days.
Hello T.!
Luckily I didn't have this obstacle with my boys but my sister had trouble getting rid of my nieces "binkies" at 2 yrs old. So, she had a binky fairy come and take the binkies and leave a small gift. It worked extremely well! Good luck!
