Advice for Quitting the Bottle

Hi S.!

I have a daughter that is two and it took me a very long time to try to ween her off her bottle that she only took in the morning and at night. What I did is I showed her the bottles that I had in the house and I told her that it was time for them to go away and she watched me throw them away and she said bye to them also. Then I went and bought a lot of those Nuby sippy cups the ones with the soft nipple on them and I only offered those to her. It took a couple of nights for her to take it but she did. I let her cry and only offered her those sippy and then she got used to it and now she is off the bottle. It is worth it!
If you have any questions please contact me and I will help you the best way I know how. Thank you and good luck!

K.

There is this great gerber cup that is a sippy cup, with a soft top
http://www.gerber.com/bf/products/transcup/index.html
its a good transitioner, he can still lay down with it like a bottle but it is of the sippy cup format and eventually over time you can phase out this in place of your normal cups. I would reccomend phaseing out morning first then evening.

When my son was 18 mos. (who used to wake up at night to drink) we had a small event where we took all his bottles and I told him "Say bye bye to bottles" and we threw them in the trash can. He woke up that night and I told him bottles are gone in the trash can and he understood and never asked for it again. He even stopped waking up in the middle of the night after that! Good luck!

It is going to be hard. Usually, weening from the bottle happens around the 1 year birthday. But, being a working mom and dealing with everyday life, time gets away and sometimes to save your sanity you just get used to giving that bottle! Removing the bottle is going to be hard because it is a comfort object for your son. Not only that, but the sucking motion required stimulates proprioceptive receptors in our mouth that are soothing. You know how when people get nervous they wring their hands? or chew on something?.. this is the body's way of calming itself. SO... that makes it all the harder to quit the bottle. What you might try is transerring to a straw type sippy cup. This can provide the same sucking comfort and it's better for oral motor and teeth development too! Even better than the normal sippy cups! He's going to cry. he's going to fight. but if you take it away and then give in, it'll be that much harder. Try just taking away either the morning or night bottle first and replace with a straw sippy cup. Then move on to replacing the other bottle time with the straw sippy cup.

Good luck and be strong!

We had a trip overseas and did not bring any bottle with us. So my son began to use straw cup to drink milk. Cut it just like that and he will adapt to the change.

I think you might be able to start by giving him a sippy cup in the morning instead of the bottle, then gradually do it at night as well.

Yes, he might cry for it but you might talk to him and tell him that he is a big boy now and she needs to use the cup instead.
He also might surprise you and your husband and be fine with it. My older son gave to me at a year so I had no problems there.
Good Luck!

S.

I have with all my children gone cold turkey--they get the sippy cup at dinner the fist 2 night weren't as bad as I thought but by the 3rd night and all the encouragement and "How big you are" attitude towards them it went very well---I know of a lot of mother that winned them off only to have it takie longer.

again this is only my opinion
T.