Hi - I am looking for some ideas on how to start weaning my 11 month old from a bottle. He does drink from a sippy cup, and so far I have only put water in it. He seems to still really like his bottles and I want to get him to start wanting his cup more. Any suggestions would be great!
Thank you all for your great ideas! I really appreciate all the help. It is funny, I have been through this once before with my older son but cant for the life of me remember what I did back then to get him off bottles!
Wish me luck!
I put diluted juice in the sippy and just gave water in the bottle. Eventually my child choose the flavor over the water.
Try a little vinegar in the water so it tastes bad & it won't hurt her.
Also have HER put it in the garbage [after you got rid of all the others] that way its her that did it.It will be hard a couple days but they adapt.
GOOD LUCK
We just got our one year old daughter off her bottle and what worked for us was a straw. She loves the straw and also likes drinking from little cups but not sippy cups. It sounds strange but we put a little milk or water in a shot glass and it's just the right size for her to drink from.
Good luck!
Honestly,I would wait almost 2 months... Start finding something to substitute the bottle now if he uses it for comfort. Possibly a blanket, a favorite story, or a new bedtime ritual. -something he can count on- This can become a routine as you slowly wean him off the bottle. Also- in 2 months he may be more developmentally ready...
You might start trying some milk in the sippy cup and "playing up the milk." My son is 17 months and we just got off of the bottle 2 weeks ago. Reeves just had one bottle at bedtime and then we got off of it totally. I wouldn't go cold turkey, but slowly replace the bottles during the day with the sippy. You can do it! I wish you the luck that I had with Reeves. It has made bedtime a lot easier! (Plus you can brush teeth and not worry about milk mouth right before bed.) Good luck!
At 11 months with my son I started with milk from a sippy cup at meal times and only a bottle in the mornings and at night. Over the course of the month, I dropped a bottle feeding here and there. When he turned 1, together we threw all of the bottles away because he was a 'big boy' now (except 1 for comfort if he was sick, which he didn't know about). He hasn't had a bottle since!
for starters - if you put milk or formula in the bottle.. start putting it in the sippy cup... start putting less in the bottle... when he is finished with the bottle and he asks for more.. give him the cup. You can gradually work on it by replacing amounts and times with the bottle one by one.. that way it isn't a shock.. going "cold turkey" can be tough for a little guy.
best wishes..
J. G
What I did with my son and will do with my daughter in a few months, is to start at about 10-11 months giving a bottle only in the morning and at night, and a sippy with formula or juice in it during the day for about 2 weeks. Then, for 2 more weeks, a bottle just at night. For that night bottle, at 11 1/2 months, I would mix formula with cold milk to get him used to milk. Then at 12 months exactly, I simply didn't even offer a bottle at all and only the sippy. One key thing is the choice of sippy cup. Get one that is as close to the brand and type of bottle you use. My 6 month old already used and loves her sippy with juice during the day.
Godo luck!
That's about when we weaned our son from the bottle. We started with warm milk in the sippy cup once a day, and then increased it. Eventually we switched from warm milk to cold milk. If you are having troubles getting him to take the sippy sup, sometimes it helps just to pack up and put away all your bottles so that they just aren't an option anymore. We had an easy transition, so I hope yours is too!
Well...this might be bad advice but it's what worked for me. I let my 2 kids keep using their bottle with milk to go to bed at night and at 5:00a when they'd wake up (they'd then go back to sleep until about 8a). Only sippy cups and normal cups in the day. Eventually they quit waking up at 5a and so they just got the bottle when I put them to bed at night. They were both about 2 years old when we decided it was time to leave the bottles outside in a basket for the "babo fairy" to come and take them to a baby who needed them. In the morning, they went out to check the basket and it was empty and in its place was a new little bicycle. They never once asked for the bottles again. In fact, my oldest daughter asked me if she had to give her bike back shortly before my 2nd daughter was born and she realized the new baby was going to need bottles. She thought the babo fairy was going to take the bike and leave bottles :)
I'm a little more relaxed type of parent. I know your pediatrician is probably freaking out and saying you have to get rid of the bottles right now but I'm here to tell you I didn't sweat it too much. And no their teeth did not rot out of their head.
I guess my advice on trying to ween off earlier would be to substitute the milk in the bottle for something else (like water) that they don't really want and just put milk in the sippy cup. If they want milk = sippy cup. If they want bottle = water.
That's my 2 cents...
L.
T. H.
You can try taking out one bottle and replacing it with a sippy cup instead. What ever he is used to having in his bottle you could try in the sippy cup. There are some sippy cups out there that are transitional ones. The spout is soft, just a little harder than a bottle. My daughter used it as a teether and as she chewed on it she realized she was getting something yummy out of it. Hope that helps!
Okay, this may sound mean. When my daughter was 11 months I got up on morning and throughout all her bottles. Untill this point she wanted nothing to do with sippy cups. All day long she cried when I gave her a sippy cup, but by bedtime she gladly drank from her cup.
I am a SAHM of 3 ages 5, 3, & 1. My younger two angrily refused taking milk/formula in a sippy cup. My oldest I switched from formula in a bottle to a sippy cup at 7 months and had no problems. The younger two I waited till 10 months and 11 months. I think for some kids if you wait too long it's harder to get them to switch. They just like formula/milk in a bottle. I think for my younger two it was a comfort thing. I had to go make them go cold turkey. Because they would literally throw the cup back at me as if I was crazy. Then they would throw a tantrum to show me how unhappy they were. My 3 year old finally took a cup after I refused to give her anything else all day, at 5 pm she took formula in a cup. My 19 month old was not as agreeable. He just loved the bottle. It took him about 3 days. It was really hard for me to do. But I got rid of the bottles so I wouldn't go back when I felt bad. From experience that just makes it worse. They figure out how much they have to push to make mom cave real quick. I tried other things at the time that didn't work. My older sister said she had to make a few of her kids go cold turkey too. Good luck. I know that is not fun to go through, how ever you decide to handle it.
