Weaning off the Bottle - Danbury, TX

A.,
sippy cups are the easiest way ,get him a small or several small cups for the day time then get him a larger one for at night that will hold more they work well get the good ones and they really dont leak,then its easier because you have him drinking out of a cup not a bottle
good luck L.

he may not be ready to let go of the bottle yet,,dont force him my daughter is 19 months and still drinks a bottle mind you she is down to 2 a day the rest of the time she drinks out of a sippy cup...she take a bottle right before nap time(does not go in the bed with her) and then one before bed and then we brush her teeth and off to bed she goes..he will let you know when he is ready...

A. -- a simple way to do this is to fill the bottle with water at bedtime. What they are seeking is to suckle -- which is a comfort mechanism common to most young children (thus the pacifiers use) After a few nights, no milk, they suckle less and less and finally not at all --

Also, offer other things, rocking, telling a story (even if he is very young, he is listening to your voice and is comforted and feels secure) Sing to him -- when he is really relaxed and you feel that in his litle body, see him looking drowsy, put him in his bed (still talking to him softly), rub h is back genlty -- and he will probably fall asleep with less and less of this after awhile, and you can then just put him to bed at a certain time with a little hugging and loving.

It worked with my first one -- my second one was happiest prior to bedtime being near her big brother! Next to his bed, her crib. ....

Pat MM

Step 1 - THROW BOTTLES AWAY

They will be OK!

I personally followed my Dr's advice on throwing the bottles out to not be tempted to transfer their drinks back in the bottles. It was hard for me because I lived with my mom at the time and she would say I was so mean. She said that my 1 yr old was still a baby and that she needed her bottle. I don't think it's being mean, it's for their benefit. The older they get the harder it will be to wean them off the bottle. Just think about the way their teeth get messed up. If they are really hungry or thirsty they will drink out of the sippy cup. Don't force it on. I'm sure the child will cry, but crying doesn't hurt. As long as you provide your child with support and patience, it will work sooner than you probably imagined. It benefitted me when my 18 month old had a new baby sister and I didn't have to worry about the oldest trying to steal or drink out of her bottle.

Hope this helps. I'm sure you'll do fine.

We used the Nubby sippy cups, from Wal-Mart, the spout is soft more like a bottle. It made the transition a lot easier for us. We started by replacing the daytime bottles with the Nubby's and still gave the bottle before bed. After about a week we stopped the night time bottle as well. She received her last milk in the Nubby at dinner time. These cups were great and I really believe that they helped make the transition a lot easier.
Good Luck!

Have you tried giving him the same milk/formula in one of those sippie cups with a built-in straw. My son turned one in May also, and I introduced the straw cup to him intermittenly, then more and more often he was weaned a few weeks after he turned one.

What I did:

Well, first of all I didn't let them have milk to go to sleep because I saw how hard it was to wean the babies in daycare when I was a child care provider.

My first step was a bottle of milk (or nurse) in the morning but some juice in a sippy cup for meal time on the highchair, a bottle of milk after lunch and another sippy cup at snack time with juice. Since they never got juice any other time they really wanted to drink out of that sippy cup. Once they were proficient at getting the juice out I put milk in it with no nursing or bottle except first thing in the morning and in the evening. Then it was just in the evening. And then I cut that out too.

I think it helps to just give them the cup during eating time and leave them alone with it- if they don't feel pressured they seem to do better.

I know it may seem hard but what I have tried for two of my kids was replacing the milk in the bottle with something that they don't like. I put some milk in a sippy cup and V-8 with lemon in the bottle, eventually they would rather have the sippy cup. You might wanna give that a try, my daughter was off her bottle completely after about 3 days.

good luck

Hi A., I am a mother of T. children. The way I did it was from one day to the next. I took my first born for her physical and the Pediatrician told me that milk is good but it can also cause anemia is it's giving too much, well that scared me so by the following day I stopped giving her the bottle. At first my daughter would ask for "baba" all I told her is that she was a big girl and she now was going to use a zippie cup. She loved the Dora zippie cup and the bottle was forever forgotten. My daughter is now 6 yrs old.

My son is now 3 yrs old and the same thing happend. When he turn one yr old we said our goodbyes to the bottle and cars zippie cup did the trick.

Maybe I got lucky but this was how I handle it and it worked! Good luck and be persistant.

I have learned that the "sucking process" is developmentally important to children, similar to the way crawling is important before walking, so you should not take away the opportunity too soon. My theory has always been to give the child every opportunity to develop as they should - so if your child is drinking from a cup and feeding himself as appropriate for a 1 yr old - it is okay to maintain a nightime bottle - and just gradually decrease it until it is no longer "wanted". One way to gracefully do this is that whenever the nightime family schedule and ritual is disrupted, this is a good time to "forget" the bottle, and allows them to become accustomed to not getting it every nite.

The main thing is, which Im sure you already know, is to not allow them to go to sleep with the bottle. (bad for teeth and gums)When my kids were that age, I used the evening "bottle" time as my time to hold and cuddle them and talk with them - while they were still awake. I always put them down for bed after the bottle was finished. The bonus to this is that they did not associate the bottle totally with bedtime and when it came time for weaning, it was much easier. You will get there - just don't rush it.

About me - a 53 yr old working mom of two now grown kids. Married 30 yrs.

Well, being a mother of four, I have had some experience with bottle weening. All that I can say is that all children will ween in their own time. My first dropped the bottle before she was one, all on her own. Easy one she was. My second, had a harder time with the weening. I started him with a sippy cup for all meals at 12mths. and at 14mths trew away all the bottles so that it would not be a temptation for him to ask for it. By 16mths, he was useing a sippy cup all day. I would freeze his favoite drink and put it in the cup to encourage him to use the cup without the lid, except at meal time. I would give him a 4oz. cup with 2oz of his favorite drink at all meal times until until he used a regular 4oz. cup all the time. Success came at 2yrs for him. My third, we started helping him a regular cup at age 1 and it only took him about 3mths to ask for only a cup. We threw those bottles away too. My youngest is now 2yrs. old. We also used the sippy cup option with her. The thoughest part of weening her was that her grandmother had back-up bottles for when she came to visit, so we just threw them away as we came across them. Success came for her at about 20mths. I hope this is helpful, but nothing will help if you give into giving him a bottle at bedtime just because he cries. He will eventually give up crying for it. This is what my husband calls "Who will win the wait it out game"
D.

I started this a little earlier than you did, but it should still work. I started around 6-8 months with giving my daughter her juices in a cup, and around 10-11 months I started trying to give her formula that way to. The first few times she looked at me like I was nuts, that milk didn't go in her just juice, but I'd make her try, then if she really wouldn't I would transfer it back to a bottle and every time I gave her formula I would do it that way. I think it took total of 4 to 6 weeks and no more bottles. Hope this helps some.

I had to do this with my oldest son, and unfortunately, the best way to do it is to just take it away. We never just took it away from him when he was that young, and he had it until he was about 3.5. In my opinion, it is easier to do it when they are young than when they develop a real bad habit for it. Maybe you can substitute it with a blanket.

A., he's gonna have to give up his security some time or another and what better time to start than now. He will act up at first, but believe...he'll get over it. Also, talk to him and let him know what's going on and why you have to take his bottle from him. Let him know that he's a big boy and big boys don't drink from bottles - babies do.

When he goes to bed, let him drink a little water from his cup, of course. When he's sick, let him drink from his cup. Once you start him drinking from his cup, you cannot go back to giving him a bottle. You'll confuse the hell outta him. Nor do you want to give in to his demands. If you give him the cup and he doesn't want to take it...oh well. Put it on the table somewhere, let him know that is what he'll be drinking out of and ain't nothing he can do about it besides pick it up and get to drinking. If you give in to his demands, he's won.

Always remember that you're the parent and he's not.

We had to keep my son on the bottle until he was almost 20 months b/c we had to give him pediasure once a day for the extra calories (he's an active underweight little guy). Anyways, at 12 or 13 months your son shouldn't have to hard of a time with it, especially if he is already managing a sippy cup well. Even if its difficult for a week or so, he'll soon forget about it. My doc. recommended cutting out one bottle at a time until they adjust (about one feeding time a week). So save the before bed time one to be the last one to cut out. And if he has a hard time with cold turkeying the bed time bottle I've heard to dilute it and eventually have water replace the formula or milk. Good luck, he might surprise you and do fine with the transition. Mine sure did. Hope this helps.

Part-time working mom of a wonderful 22 month old boy and 18 weeks preggo with number 2.