My daughter is 26 months old and looks like she is 4. She still uses a bottle to relax for a nap and to go down at night. We are constantly being told by family that she is too old for a bottle and now are concerned that perhaps they are right... trouble is, how do you transition? She is not a good sleeper and this helps her to atleast sleep 4-5 continuous hours. She is a GREAT kid who is easily entertained and is not prone to outbursts, unless she can not have a bottle at bedtime. The doctor said she'd give it up in time... what do you think?
With my oldest we told her she had to give her bottle to Santa when she was nearing 3 so he could give it to a baby that needed it. Maybe try telling her the bottle fairy will come and get it when she is sleeping or get her involved in volunteering it up. The transition of not having it only took a few days and she learned how to lul herself to sleep.
Listen to your doctor and thank your family for their opinion, but do what you think is best. My oldest son gave up the nap bottle around 28 months but used a nightly bottle until he was about 3. One day he just quit wanting it. We would ask him every night before he went to bed if he wanted a bottle. One night he said "no" and we quit asking. A couple of times he would ask for it, but when we gave it to him he barely drank any of it and it was clear he didn't really want it.
If family members don't want to give her a bottle when she spends the night with them, fine. But in your house you need to do what you think is best.
My son was the same way a big boy at 1 and 1/2 who still wanted his bottle. I do think 2 1/2 is too old for a bottle even if its just at nap time, ( but remember these are all opinions, everyone and what works for them is different) I took it away at nap at first and replaced it with a drink of milk from a sippy cup. At night however was the hardest, ( he was a warm milk drinker) so I would warm a little of milk about a half an hour to fourty five minutes before bed and let him drink it and then put him to bed. No bottle and no hastles. He never took the bottle to bed so he never thought he could take the sippy cup to bed. This worked great he still got his milk and we were able to still brush his teeth and read to him before bed. Good Luck
With my daughter we switched to a nubby cup they are like a bottle. It was a easy switch for my daughter you can get them at target and wal-mart. I hope that you find way to get her off of it.
B.
Mother to Taya 6 weeks old and Mika 2 years old Wife to Jason of 3 years.
OMG you sound like ME a few years ago. My daughter was like 2.5 before I finally gave in and took it away cold turkey. She had water at bedtime and that was her ONLY comfort item. She would moan in her sleep and I was her waitress who would get up in the middle of the night and refill her bottle.. Talk about spoiled. Finally I put my head on straight and took it away cold turkey it was just GONE one day. She cried and threw a fit for a few days but after a week it was no longer a problem. It was way harder on me than it was on her. Funny I have "extra" bottles around now for babysitting and she got into them the other day and walked around with a bottle in her mouth all night. She's 5.5 now and I let her do it just this once but I was like wow you look completely crazy. Then she proceeded to go outside with a bottle and I told her no way the neighbors and your friends will think were nuts. I swear if I didn't take it away at 2.5 she would still be on a darn bottle.
I have a 3 year old daughter that's special needs and she was hard to transition too. We ended up getting those cheap Nuby cups from Walmart because they have the silicone tops on them and are a lot like bottles. As far as the milk at night, we just switched her to water at night. That way she can drink and not wreck her teeth because you don't know they're getting decayed until they already are. Now we go in and take the cup away after she's asleep and it's helping her sleep too because when she wakes up she goes back to sleep instead of worrying about finding the cup to drink.
Any transition is hard for kids at any age but you just have to remember that a little fussing is natural. Just wait until she's 16 and you take the car away :o) She'll cry like you just cut her arm off but you know it's only that, crying.
That's one thing I eventually learned once I had 4 kids. They cry and get mad but it doesn't mean that you have to cave to everything they want all the time. Do what's best for them and they'll get over it :o) Crying never killed a child - just the parents, LOL.
Best Wishes,
J.
Use the advice I have seen in the column, but remember you are the ones caring for her all the time and sometimes the rules don't apply. take care
In my opinion 26 months is too old. I switched my daughter to a sippy cup when she was 13 mos. We were ditching the binky at 26 months. It took her about a week to get entirely used to the sippy cups...back then they didn't have the nuby ones with the soft "nipples" If you don't want to completely wean her until she's ready, then make a rule...only bottles at night time, use sippy cups at nap times. My concern to you is her teeth...if she gets a bottle at bedtime and naptime, (I am assuming she gets milk) the milk is going to sit in her mouth and rot her teeth. If she will take it, give her water to go to sleep with. I never gave my daughter a milk bottle to fall asleep to after she was about 9 months old. I started putting her down with water.
Whenever you decide to get rid of the bottle, the easiest way is to have them disappear one at a time until one day the only one left is the one in her mouth. Once you get rid of the last bottle, if it's not there she's going to know she cannot have it. That is how we FINALLY succeeded at 3 1/2 years with the binky disappearing...but also know if she finds one...it is going to go into her mouth...no matter where it's been and what is in it so you need to make sure you get them all...
Good Luck, it is a long but worthwile road!
try a warm cup of milk at bedtime. the longer you delay the harder it will be. you can do it. she will be just fine. you also may wish to rub her back in bed to relax her for bedtime. it worked with my 2- good luck!
I have twins who are now 6 years old (a boy and a girl). My son gave up his bottle very easy at about 16 months - at that point he was getting it just for bed and nap times to help him relax. My daughter on the other hand did not want to give it up and I thought it would be very difficult when we finally decided to attempt to wean her. Well we moved right around their second birthday and at that time we had just two bottles we were using for her. Well, in the move we lost them both. We went one whole day and night without the bottle. The whole time she kept asking where is my bottle (during the day and night)? Can I have my bottle? And we told her - we lost it. We can't find it. She would say oh yeah each time. Well, it was the truth (we lived in a very rural area in the middle of Alaska at the time - no markets for two hours) we could not just go the store and buy one. If your daughter suggests that you could go to the store to buy another just tell her they have no more. Anyway we found it the next day and her father was relieved saying thank goodness we found it. Well, I thought no way are we giving it to her now. We just made it throught the night without it, she never got upset or angry. She probably asked us about 50 times during the next few days but within a week she had kicked the habit and now she just loves to hear the story.
Hi J.,
My daughter also was big into having a bottle at nap and nighttime. She never sucked her thumb and gave up her nookie at 8 mos but she liked her bottle. But I never let her go to bed with her bottle, I always rocked her. So when she got to 2 and 1/2 or so I stopped the bottle at nap time first but still rocked her. Then I replaced her bottle at night time with story time in the rocking chair. She is now 4 1/2 and we still do a story at bed time in her bed. Replacing the bottle with a story worked for her. It certainly wasn't always easy but over time she forgot about asking for a bottle.
Hope that helps and good luck.
We had a similar issue with our now 4 1/2 year old. When Hurricane Katrina hit we saw an opportunity to let her "give" her bottles to the babies in New Orleans because they "lost" all of thiers and needed them. It worked!!! We packed up the bottles and told her that it was a very kind and generous thing she was doing and she seemed to be quite proud of herself about it as well. Maybe worth a try! Good luck!
She will let the bottle go when she is tired of it, but with my daughter when she was 18 months old we went "new bottle" shopping. I showed her all of the different sippy cups and I let her pick one. The ones with the soft tops make for a much more comfortable transition, but allow her as a "big girl" to help pick her sippy cup and she may be more willing to let go of her bottle.
I am probably the only person that will have this advice. Honestly, my daughter was the exact same. It was the only thing that helped her relax at night. I waited until she was older, honestly almost 3 1/2 before I pulled it because she could understand what I was doing. (It's because you're older, we don't need it anymore etc...) There were a few tantrums but after a couple of days she quit asking.
She had no teeth problems and no cavities so honestly I don't see what the big deal is. I mean, I have a glass of wine to help me relax and calm down sometimes.
Good luck!
Hi J.-when I tranisitioned my daughter from her bottle(s) I did it ounce by ounce. I would decrease each bottle by an ounce every 2 or 3 days to slowly adjust her. When she got down to 1 ounce left I would offer her a cup before bed and her 1 ounce in the bottle. When it was time to take away that last ounce, I just snuggled her really close and rocked her. Take your time with it. It's definetly a comfort thing. Good luck.
I think every parent has something they use as a comfort tool. We know it is easier to put the children down if they have a bottle, blankie, pacifier, etc. What I found is if you are ready, so is your daughter. When my daugher was a little over two I told her she was going to have to throw away her pacifier. She did. We thought that it would be so hard, but it only took two sleep times for her to get used to the fact (nap and night time) If you are ready, go for it. Just like potty training, it is really time to train the parent.
