Getting Rid of the Bottle! - Mount Holly,NJ

I BF my son. He refused to take any milk at all in the beginning. I just kept working at it. I filled a sippy cup each morning with milk. At each meal he got the sippy w/milk. It would take us all day to drink the milk the first few months. Eventually he went thru 2 cups. Now he drinks 3-5 cups a day.

I am sure you are going to get a lot of contrary responses to this, but my son is 3 1/2, and he is the same way. He uses a cup for everything but milk, and refuses milk out of a cup. He only has his milk at bedtime, and I am not comfortable that he gets enough calcium from other means to take it from him. Personally, despite what the peds say, I don't see it as a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. They are only little once, and eventually, they'll give it up. We all do.

I would go cold turkey on the bottle and get rid of it completely. The first drink of the day in the morning give him milk. Kids need about 18-24 ounces of milk a day. Sure, some can be replaced with other dairy, if the child is willing to eat cheese and eat yogurt but it's hard to know how much is the right amount. I would do a google search to find that out, what foods are equivalent to what amount of milk.

But I would start out with milk in the morning. If he doesn't finish his milk, save it and give it to him at snack time. Continue to do so until he gets the minimum of milk a day. He won't dehydrate as he's getting liquids from his foods, especially if you're giving him things like applesauce and such. Remember, juice is just a treat as he should be getting those nutrients directly from actual fruit, not just the juice.

I had to do this with my granddaughter (just turned one) when she stayed with us for a week as my daughter in law doesn't find milk important in a child's diet because she doesn't like it herself. So, my granddaughter would drink the breakfast milk fine cuz it was the first drink of the day and she was thirsty. So she was allowed to have juice (mixed with water) at morning snack. At lunch she would drink about half her milk so I saved the rest for afternoon snack. If she drank half a cup of milk from lunch I then gave her half a cup of juice. At dinner she'd get milk again and would drink maybe half at best. I would give her the milk before her plate. If I had to I'd spoon feed her veggies before other food since she always ate her meat fine on her own.

I prioritize food. Kids should be given what's most important. If my granddaughter didn't finish her dry Cheerios for breakfast I saved it for morning snack rather than giving her junk like her mother would do. If she didn't finish her 1/2 sandwich from lunch I'd save it for afternoon snack rather than giving her junk. Prioritize the drinks and foods.

Now that your child is two, they can get 1/2 a complete vitamin. Kids begin to get picky and the supplement can help give them things they're missing from their regular meals. We can offer all the right foods but kids will still chose to eat or not to eat so the complete vitamin helps.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

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ooo...ooo... i know this one... my almost 2 year old had the same problem and i didn't want to take him off the bottle either for the same reason(i broke him from the bottle when he was 15 months by the way but i had thought about breaking him when he was 12 months because that's what all my friends did or were doing). when i broke him it was cold turkey - poor kid - he wouldn't drink the milk from the cup so i did milk only days. and all he would get on those days was milk in the sippy cup. he would always drink a little bit of it when he was really really thirsty. now he likes milk and i don't have to do the milk only days anymore. So anyway thats what worked for us. a lot of milk went to waste in the beginnin but it didn't take long before he drank what ever we now give him.

good luck:-)

Pediasure! If you are concerned about the iron, calcium etc. our GI specialist recommended pediasure when my son did the same thing. Ironically though, he started drinking milk from the sippy when I threw out the bottles and there weren't any left to fall back on.

My 3yo will not drink milk at all. He eats cheese like he should have grey fur and long tail though! He would not drink milk at all so I gave up wasting the milk and relied on other sources for calcium. The bottle is not good for kids because it pools the sugary fluid directly on the teeth and can cause serious decay in the teeth. My dentist told me it was great that he didn't get teeth before 1 year because he had less of a chance of "babybottle mouth". Anyway, getting back to the point. You can try teaching him how to dunk cookies in milk and maybe he will drink that or we discovered that 3yo loves to drink the milk from a bowl of cereal.

Don't sweat it but you should try to get him off the bottle for the health of his teeth.

Hi R.,
I think that the ped. is right. When my son stopped the bottle that was pretty much the end of the milk. There are many other ways to get calcium.My son loved the bottle and we actually let him go to3 years at night before bed time. I think the sucking relaxed him. His teeth are fine. If you are worried about cavities with the bottle just stop it and don't force the milk.
Sometimes if you reintroduce the cup of milk 3- 6 months later it becomes new again and by then they have forgotten the bottle.

Good Luck!

L.

Hi R. K,

My oldest went through something similar. Try adding flavors to the milk in the cup. Nestle has a couple to choose from that way you control how much he gets. After he is drinking it really well start cutting back on the amount of flavor you put in until you aren't putting any in at all. It worked for me. Good Luck you are so close to be rid of the bottles.

M. R

Cold turkey--get rid of the bottles. Pick a date and do it. It won't hurt him if he doesn't have milk for a few days while you're getting him off the bottle. You could add about 1/4 to 1/3 of organic strawberry or vanilla milk to his milk. I think getting rid of my son's last nighttime bottle was harder on me than it was on him. Good luck.

My daughter has never wanted to drink milk - from a bottle or otherwise. She does great eating cheese, yogurt, and sugar-free pudding! Don't stress. Be sure he is getting a daily vitamin supplement and move on from the bottle! :)

Our daughter too only had a bottle at bedtime. It was hard for us to consider getting rid if it b/c it was her favorite. Our ped. also said not to worry, babies do not need as much milk as we moms tend to thing. Really only between 12-16oz. When we started milk it was more of a taste issue. She would drink 2% but not whole. We had to mix in smoothie, about 1/4 with 3/4 milk. Something like Stoney Field organic yogurt smoothies. We also mixed in Muscle Milk... not b/c it was recommended but when compared to other such mixes it was lower in sugar and higher in protein. That and we already kept it in the house so we didn't have to buy anything new. Carnation would work too. So the new taste gets them over the hump. Then you can begin mixing in less. No more bottles.

Hi R., Throw the bottle out and give him milk in a cup before you offer him anything else. "Drink your milk then you can have juice." Keep it simple and give him only milk with his meals. Once he figures out that you are serious (don't back down!) he will drink his milk. If for no other reason than to get that juice! He can get tons of calcium from yogurt and cheese, but milk is always a better drink option than juice. Best wishes.

have you tried sippy cups that can transition him to get rid of the bottle , my niece was the same way so i went and got the sippy cups made by nuby they have a soft silicone spout that is similar to bottle material but looks like a sippy cup, that worked for her. several places carry them, walmart, target, giant eagle and walgreens, walgreens is the cheapest that i have seen you can get 3 for $5. i hope this helps, if he doesnt drink milk but is eating the rest of the dairy products he is probably ok as well. good luck

Hi R.,
I went through the exact same thing with my first daughter when she was 1. We tried EVERYTHING. There were several calls to the pediatrician's office b/c I, too, thought toddlers needed to drink milk. Well, turns out they can get enough calcium from other sources. To this day my daughter will only on rare occasion drink a few sips of chocolate milk---otherwise she gets her calcium from yogurt and cheese. So no need to worry --- your little one will get the nutrients he needs. Good luck.