Advice on Bottle Weaning

Wow, you got lots of resonses- I hope some helped. I am also weaning my 1 year old daughter of the bottle. She has done really well so far, I'm down to only one at bedtime. I always praise her when she drinks well from the sippy- epscially when it's milk. I also try to hold her in my lap when I give her a sippy with milk at a time when she would have ussually been drinking a bottle (morning, naptime, bedtime). I warm it just a little just as I did her bottles. Basically I make everything the same the only difference is that it's a sippy not a bottle. This way she still knows it's time for naptime or bedtime. The first time I took away the morning bottle she fussed some but I just held her in my lap and kept handing the sippy back to her- she eventually took it an realized that while it wasn't exactly what she wanted it would do. Maybe you should try taking the morning bottle first because he will probably be hungry enough to take the sippy once he realizes it has milk in it. Good luck!

It sound funny but cut a big chunk out of the tip of the nipple. The reason they like the bottles and binkies is for the sucking motion. If you cut a hole out of the two they hate the way it feels and wont want it anymore. Hope it helps!

We started switching my son's bottle out for a sippy cup at naptimes and only giving him the bottle at night time. We used the Nuby cups with the flexible nipple. The are really inexpensive at Walmart. Eventually he was used to the sippy cups at nap time so getting rid of that one bottle a day was really easy. He may not like it at first and want his bottle, but if you only offer him the one option, he will eventually be happy with that.

Truth be told it was harder on me to wean him off than it was for him. I loved that bottle time at night before he went to bed.

I wouldn't worry too much about him not getting enough milk. If you see he is not wanting milk as much, offer him other dairy options such as yogurt and cheese that are high in calcium. My son went through a phase where he rarely took milk after we weaned him off the bottle, so we gave him yogurt everyday, which he loved. I kept offering him milk and eventually he started drinking it again... cold.

Good luck!

When I weaned my daughter from the bottle, I had a hard time getting her to drink milk from a sippy cup. She would drink water from the cup, so I knew it wasn't the cup, but she just would not drink the milk (even though she would drink regular milk from a bottle). For a month or so, I was just letting her drink milk from a regular cup with my help. It was really messy, but that was the only way I could get her to drink any milk. After about a month of that, I tried giving her only milk to drink in her sippy (no water), until she got used to it. My doctor recommended that method and it seemed to work. Now, I have the opposite problem...she only wants milk and doesn't want to drink water! :-)

I have also heard that you can try to let them pick out a really fun sippy cup just for their milk. I tried that and it didn't work for me, but it's worth a shot. Best of luck!

When both of my kids were 12 months old, I took their bottles away and just gave them sippy cups. They only really cried when they had to go lay down without a bottle and that lasted a few days and then they were fine. He will cry but don't give in and give him a bottle. Let him go with you to the store and pick out his own big boy sippy cup and maybe that will help out a little bit.

I understand exactly what you are going through. However, I think I have a difficult task on my hand because ever since he was an infant, he only took to one type of nipple. He will literally go without a bottle he doesn't get his special nipple. He can drink juice and water out the cup. But he must have the bottle for milk. I like the advice that the Moms are giving so far. I will definitely continue reading because I need help too. Sorry, could not help you though.

Honey I went though the same thing a couple weeks ago and It is better to just take it away.My daughter was so involved with her ba,ba as she called it well one day I decided to not give it her.Well to my surprise she cryed and I offered her the cup but she refused to drink milk out of that cup but drunk juice.So I continued to not give it to her 2 days later and to my surprise again she had forgotten to ask for it so yeah just stop.They will cry but just tell him he can't have he's a big boy now and needs to drink out his cup.And if your worried about his milk in take he only needs 8 oz. a day hope this helps you out believe it will though Good luck!!

Both my kids weaned (one off bottle, one off breast) around age 3 and a half. I think it would have been tough on them to do it sooner. (ever notice adults, how some "need" coffee, gum,candies to occupy their mouths...we all need it to different degrees for comfort, imagine children)
Don't let others define your timeline to wean, it's up to you not other mothersparents or grandparents.

Hi - with mine (now 3 1/2 years old) - she didn't want to drink milk from the sippy cup at first, but she liked the juice so I just let her drink juice. She went a while, maybe a month or so, not drinking any milk. (She was also about 18 mos when we took the bottle away). I just let her drink the juice and then just one day she decided she wanted the milk. So now she actually drinks more milk than anything. So if your child doesn't want milk for a while don't worry about it. He could just be relating it to the bottle. His memory of that bottle will go away eventually. The way I weaned mine was to tell her I didn't have a bottle anymore and she whined for a little bit, but then eventually took the sippy cup. It was hard the first few days, but she got over it really quick. =) Best of luck to you.

K.,
I have a son that just turned two. I also am having
that problem. He wont drink cows milk,and skipped
drinking out of a sippy cup.He went straight to
a regular cup.He has a bottle a naptime,and at bedtime.
He never used a pacifier,or had a special blanket,or
stuffed animal, so I have let him have the bottle
longer that I probably should have.
so I to could use some advise.
good luck
M. c

Nuby's with a soft spout were a gift from above with weaning. Our kids never even noticed the switch. Soon after that, they were on all different cups.

Sounds to me, that the hardest part will be getting him to fall asleep without milk more than the actual bottle. That is important because milk and juice have sugars that aren't good for the teeth if they aren't brushed before bed to get rid of them. Our 12 month old son (and our 2 yr old daughter) get their teeth brushed before bed and are only allowed water after that.

If I were you, I'd prioritize getting rid of the milk at bedtime first. The sugars on the teeth at night are more harmful than the bottle use for now. Let him have milk before bed and then brush his teeth. If he needs a bottle for bedtime, it can be water. Giving him water in his bottle may even help him to wean off the bottle too because if it's not milk, he may not want it. You can tell him that he drank all of his milk earlier or whatever reasoning you feel appropriate.
You can try giving him milk when he wakes up in a sippy. He might even take it then.
Good luck!!!!!! Update us!

At 11 months old, I started taking away 1 bottle a day and replacing it with a sippy. They have these great sippies called "Nuby". They are soft so it makes the transition easier.
Since he uses the bottle to fall asleep, that will be that hardest part, he will have to learn how to fall asleep without it. Try putting water in the bottle at naptime. He may not like it at first, but then he will realize that it is better than nothing. It will be easier to take away the water than the milk.

Advice? Well I have to say with my 5 year old we only put water in the bottle and then gave her the choice of a cup with milk or juice, or water. Pretty soon about 30 min later she wanted the sippy cup. We just did that until she finally didn't fight the sippy cup anymore. I am about to have to go through this again, my youngest is 17 months and we are stopping the bottle also at 18 months. Good luck!

Dear K.,

I'm going through the same thing with my 23 month old son. He takes 2 bottles - nap and bedtime and won't take milk in a sippy. I've had advice from 2 sources that I'm trying:

1. lessen the amount of milk (only 3 ounces) or water it down. Slowly get to the point of no bottle.

2. Cold turkey - they say it only takes 2-3 days.

I'm trying the first and will let you know if it works. Best to you!!

Sooo...I did the 'bottle till toddlerhood' thing too. My twins are 16 months old and I really wanted them off the bottle. I tried to do the whole thing where you reduce the number of bottles a day..but my children seemed to think if they refused the sippy and screamed alot I would give them the bottle...totally worked because I would just get so overwhelmed!! But the other day..I was like...I'm done! So...no bottles at all the last two days...they had a bottle of water last night to help make falling asleep with a bit easier (no milk). I would have let them scream it out but they get so worked up that it sometimes makes them sick. Well today they were fussy....but I stuck to my guns...and well...bedtime rolled around..and they were asleep in ten minutes.

Now obviously I am not on "the other side" of this situation quite yet..but I also think its best just to not give it to her one morning. Also best to keep it out of sight if AT ALL possible..if my kids see it they think they get it and then get all upset if they don't.

Hi K.. I have heard that taking away all the bottles at once is the best way. I think they get confused as to why they can have one at bedtime, but not one for a nap. I was so lucky with my dd because when she started on sippy cups, she was over the bottle and didn't care anymore. Also, if you take away the bottles all at one time, he might start drinking milk out of the cup since that is the only way he is getting it.

Good luck!

I don't know about anyone else but a few days of whining and crying is better than a few when you take away one bottle, a few when you take away the second and a few when the last one goes. One thing we did was put away all the bottles except for one and said the others were lost after having a big "search for the bottles". We made a big deal about picking out a big kid cup of his very own. Then we got some helium balloons and tied it to a bottle. We then "sent" the last bottle in the house to the babies in Heaven. We were able to wave goodbye until we didn't see it anymore. Then it was not as big an issue. When he fussed for the bottle I reminded him the babies in Heaven had it and that he could have his big kid cup. It took about 3 days and he was no longer fussing. A year later he was telling us how big he was and that the babies in Heaven needed the bottle not him. He was about 18 months old when we took him off the bottle too.

I had no choice but to put my son on a bottle at about 3 1/2 months because I started back to work and I wasn't able to pump enough for him to eat, so I needed a supplement and then my milk dried up! He took to the bottle with absolutely NO problem. Mostly because I had a bottle that felt and worked like the breast, but he also took to the regular bottles as long as the nipple was the fat ones, not the skinny ones. I took his pacifier at about 7 1/2-8 months because he got his two top teeth in and I didn't want them to be pushed outward. I took it cold turkey, he cried for about 4 nights and then he was over it. The day time was good because I only gave it to him at night and sometimes naptime. The BAD part about taking his paci was that he began waking up at night for a comfort milk cup because his paci was gone! NOW at 10 months, I am trying to make him sleep through the night. I don't give him a milk cup at night anymore...I give him water. The first night he cried, the second night he drunk a little water and went back to sleep...and for 2 additional nights, he has slept ALL the way through until about 7 in the morning! I don't know how this is will work for you...but good luck. My baby is a VERY good and easy baby...I even had a VERY easy pregnancy! Everything is SO easy in fact, I'm scared to have another one in fear of it being horrible!!

GOOD LUCK!!!