Help with 20 Month Old on Bottle

My husband is the one who did it with my son, and he did it at 1 year old. He was drinking out of a sippy cup all the time, except at bed time...he would take one bottle and bring it out to us (he was walking) then he would go back to his bedroom and go to bed. Finally my husband wanted to do away with the bottle scenario and handed Hunter a sippy cup one night. He didn't drink out of it, but he fell asleep cradling it. It was cute, his switch was kind of easy. I wish I had more help for you, but my daughter is 11 months and REFUSES to drink out of a sippy cup and wont drink anything other than milk, so I don't know what to tell you.

I am a monther of twins who are now three. I totally took all bottles away the day after they turned one. They all went to the trash. It sounds harsh but it worked. I told them they are (big kids now) and no more bottles it took a couple of stressfull days but they are off of them. If she is drinking other things from a sippy cup then she will with the milk to. Try to flavor the milk with choc or strawberry syrup first and then slowly take the flavor out of it so that it is regular white milk.
B.

You have received lots of great advice so far. I also agree that the bottle is most likely a secruity issue for your little one. One way or another you will have to take it away. However, my best advice is that if you take it away make sure she isn't *dependant* upon a bottle at bed time. I think if you take it away when she is use to drinking it at night you will have two major obsticals to overcome at the same time. It might be easier for you, but l personally prefer to do them one at a time. Best of luck!

My daughter was the same way. I just took the bottle away. If I gave her milk in a sippy cup the cup would get slung at me with a scream. So, she didn’t drink milk from about 14 months until right before she turned 2, when she decided she liked it again. I made sure she ate lots of yogurt, cheese, pudding, etc. with milk in it. My pediatrician said it was fine. Like your daughter, mine had no issues with water or juice from a cup, but not milk.

B.,

I have the same problem with my 20 mo. old daughter. She will only drink out of a bottle. We tried for months to get her to drink out of a sippy cup. We also have just about every sippy cup you could buy. She finally saw a really cheap SpongeBob sippy cup that she wanted, a couple of weeks ago. (She is OBSESSED with SpongeBob). She is finally starting to drink juice out of that sippy cup, but that is all. Eventually your daughter will use a sippy cup. Everyone just tells me to be patient, so that is my advice to you also. She will eventually start using a sippy cup.

Like you, I had no problem breaking my first son of his bottle, I broke him of it before he was 1 year old. With my second son, he was much more attached to it and did not have a pacifier like my first son so I felt bad taking his one security item from him. He was 18 months old and still taking 2-3 bottles a day and I just went to the store and bought him all new cups and made a HUGE deal about them calling them "Big Boy cups" and clapping and praising him. I was just going to do this for the daytime and still give him a bottle at night. That night I tried the cup and he was fine with it so I basically went cold-turkey. He asked for a bottle the next day and I had already removed them from the bottle cupboard and bagged them up and put them away and he took the cup and was happy. A couple days later he found the bottles I had bagged up and he came running into the living room saying "baba" and he was so excited! I let him play with the empty ones that day but gave him his nighttime milk in a sippy cup and hid them better that night. He has never asked since and he does go to daycare and sees other kids with bottles there. It is worth a try to go cold-turkey, it may be so easy that it could surprise you like it did me!

lots of good advice, it does seem like a security issue, it's familiar and comforting to have her bottle, something you could try is to give her water or juice all day and just her bottle of milk at night, offer her milk in a cup during the day and let her refuse to drink it eventually she will come around and it might be easier on you than the whole just take the bottle away idea, i always hated having to do things like that with my kids, i would wuss out when they screamed and screamed cause it broke my heart but hopefullyit helps it is about time when a bottle can start causing speak and dental problems so weening is a good idea, talk to your dr. on teh next check up about it as well, you could always add a children's vitamin to her diet as well if you are worried she might not be getting enough from other dairy products in her diet. good luck.

Hi B.-
It sounds like a comfort thing for her, not necessarily the milk but the bottle and she is used to the milk being in the bottle so that's how she wants it. I would not worry, I know that is easy to say but I have four kids 9,6,3 and 1 and they all did things differently as far as how long it took them to give stuff up or whatever. Have you tried the sippy cups with the soft tips on them? That seemed to help my youngest make the transition. Hope something I said helps.

My son was like that. I just took the bottles away and put the milk in a sippy cup. Eventually he drank out of it because he was thirsty. Don't worry. When she is thristy enough she will drink out of what she is given.

Tons of children go through this. Their first experience is milk from a bottle. I have seen mothers who let this behavior continue for years! It is bad for the teeth and gums chewing and drinking from a bottle any later than this really. Plus I am sure you are going through many nipples from the teeth. My oldest son did this. I took away his bottles and he hid some and most definately forgot where, because they began to stink and that is how I found them. Eww right? Well, once the house was rid of all bottles, he had no choice. If he wanted to drink, he drank from what he was given. You have to follow through same as following through on behavior~what is acceptable and what is not. It may be hard now, but in the long run of his life with you, this will not be what you focus on down the road. Just a bump on the road. Keep strong in what you are doing, and soon it will be over. You are not forbidding anything, it is just a different way to give it.

Stay strong.

when it was time for my daughter to start using only a sippy cup at night instead of a bottle (which both were only for water) we got all ready and made a big deal because we were going to the store to pick out a brand new night time sippy cup! we made it a celebration and she picked it out. it had snow white on it and she was excited to try it. she loves it. she never touched a bottle after that day.
maybe you could do something similar with your child and take her shopping to pick out a few special milk sippy cups. make them different than the ones for juice or water. celebrate about it, talk about it often, and tell her how proud you are that she is trying something new!
but if that doesnt work my only advice would be to just give her nothing but water to drink until she begs for milk in a cup. it works for my daughter. usually only takes about a day.

We had this problem with my daughter at 17 months. We decided to just allow her to have one bottle a day with the milk, in the morning when she woke up, and the rest of the day we would offer her milk in a cup. Sometimes she would drink a sip from the cup, and sometimes half the cup. We did that for about a week, then we just up and took the bottle away, she protested some but got used to drinking milk out of cup. It might of taken her another week to never mention a bottle. Now she happily drinks milk from a cup, and we were told we could switch to 2% milk instead of whole milk at 20 mos...since she's definitely at the top of the growth charts.

I had the exact same problem with my son. He refused to take milk out of anything except his bottle and it also had to be warmed up. He would take water out of a sippy cup without any problem. At around 18 months we just decided to stop warming up his milk and put it cold in a sippy cup. We had a rough 2 weeks....the first couple days he would only drink maybe an ounce of milk, but he would still drink his water. Eventually he just start drinking the milk here and there until finally he took it without a problem. He is 20 months now and drinks milk from a sippy cup without ever realizing that he used to refuse it from anything except a bottle.