Helping 18 Month Old to Get off the Bottle

I had simialr issues my son would not use a sippy I must have bought 5 or 6 varities...including character ones...all no good...then I found NUBY...cheap and it worked the first time we tried it...its got a silicone sippy spout and I think it was a great transition from a nipple

Jen H (I have one 18mo old great little boy)

Have you tried transitioning to a cup with a straw? The sucking on the straw might be similar to sucking on the bottle, but she'd get used to holding the cup upright instead of inverting it like a bottle. Then maybe you can go to a sippy cup? Just a thought.

Have you tried Nuby brand??? this is good with teeting also. I just weened from a bottle at age 2, it's process and i'm hopeful that it will work. I did away with all the bottles in the house so now we just have cups I bought some new ones and told him that they were "big boy" cups, my husband and I act super excited about them so he seems to be. His Milk intake has gone down a bit but the sippies did work.

When you are ready, try offering her plain water in the bottle or a sippy full of milk. She may take the bottle at first, but will most likely switch to the sippy. Try to stay firm and hold your ground. Keep offering only water in the bottle; never offer anything she wants in the bottle. It may take some time, but it will work.
In the meantime, make sure she gets lots of whole milk yogurt and cheeses to make up for the lack of milk she is getting.

Also - do it when it feels right for you and your family.

I had a hard time finding a sippy cup that my second daughter would drink from. I finally found some at Walmart that has a soft tip and is almost like a bottle. I think it's very hard for them to get used to drinking from a cup that's cover is so hard after having a soft bottle. I also, only gave her one bottle a day at night before bedtime. I had to hide the bottle and then after she bit a hole through the last nipple I got rid of them. Good luck with everything.

Congrats on the baby! With a new baby on the way it may be best to hold off for a few months on bottle weaning. She will be very emotional for a few weeks with adjusting to a new baby, sharing mom and dad thats alot for a toddler to go through. After things settle down start taking it away slowly. Have you tried the cups with the straw or a toddler sport bottle.

Have you tried the Nuby sippy cups? I transitioned my daughter from the bottle to those at 6 months with no problem at all. They feel more like a bottle because the whole top is soft but it's shaped like a regular sippy cup. If you've only tried ones with a hard top, it might be too drastic of a change to start with for her.
If you have already tried those and they didn't work either, try to congratulate her every time she picks it up and puts it near her mouth so she knows how happy you are. She might just start to drink. Little kids love recognition.
Good luck and congratulations on baby number 2!!

A.,

I'm a happily married working mom of a 2 year old boy and we just weaned him off of the bottle just before his 2 year birthday. (Your daughter is only 18 months old!) We started by doing what you are doing but then ending the day with a bottle, so at least he was getting a nice 8oz "dose" at the end of the day. He's always been a great healthy eater so we weren't too worried about him not getting enough nutrition but milk is so good for him, we ignored the doctor and just gave him the bottle with his evening meal. Eventually he chewed through all the nipples so when the last one was damaged, we simply told him the "big milk" (as he called it) was "broken". We showed him the hole in the nipple and he seemed satisfied with that answer and began drinking his final milk of the day in one of those cups with a straw. ...so it wasn't that the nipple was available and he couldn't have it, it was that the nipple was "broken". He too, wasn't a fan of the sippy cup for milk, so we simply gave him water and very diluted apple juice in the sippy. It was hard, but it worked. Now he's bottle/nipple free. Oh, also, we NEVER let him take the bottle to bed. He was allowed to have it after he ate his dinner, just that one time, once a day. I hope this helps!

K.

My 3 yo JUST got off a bottle! It has been very hard. We almost had her off it a year ago by simply cutting down on it. She was allowed one only at bed/nap time (which meant saying - no, bottles are for sleep time)and we diluted it with water which helped make it less appealing. She spent a week with my in-laws which destroyed our months of weaning and then I was pregnant and terribly sick and I just couldn't pick that battle. We finally tackled it again when I started to feel better in my 3rd trimester and let me tell you what we realized - Weaning is not for a time when new siblings are joining the family. If you don't breastfeed (we did both with the 3yo) you might be able to try "you're the big girl, let's give the bottle to the baby", but if that doesn't work - give her a little time to acclimate before pushing her to get rid of her "comfort". My son is just 10 weeks (exclusively breastfeed)and we are two weeks without a bottle now. But she definitely needed that time before we pushed for such a major change.
(We just told her we were out of bottle liners and she can have a drink next to her bed like mommy)(she did ask for a few days and I would say - "oh, ya. Could you remind me to buy some at the store, b/c we keep forgetting)Now she's over it.

\It was weird to see my 3 yo with a bottle - such a big girl, but in every other way she is developmentally WAY ahead of the mark. Big vocab/talker, recognition of letters and #'s and so on. No horrible affects of being a 3 yo bottle drinker.
so, give your girl a break until she's settled into being a big sister.

Best of luck and congratulations.

Congrats on the new baby on the way. I would actually put only water in the bottle. Thinking she doesnt like water much. That way if she really wants the milk, she will take it from the cup. And with everything going on, you arent just taking the bottle away, she still has it, but filled w/ water. I think you have to be consistent with this. She will get fluids from foods as well, just make sure her diapers are wet, moreso than how many cups of fluid she drank. I know with the new baby and molars it may not seem the time to get into this, but it may take her a while to adjust so why put it off?

The only other thing, that has worked for my children, is to go cold turkey and just get rid of the bottles, and tell her it is just cups now. Easier said than done I know. Or you could even try just a bottle at night time and none during the day at all.
Good Luck

Hello A.
I know that with my son a normal sippy cup did not work. I ended up getting one with a straw and it seemed to do the trick. My favorite one is Foogo thermos with the straw and they come in Blue and Pink. It also keeps the liquid warm or cold for up to 12 hours and no BPA to worry about. I got it at Target for about $15.
(Thermos - Foogo™ Leak-Proof Straw Bottle - 12 oz
Keep your little one's drinks at a refreshing temperature for hours longer than other straw cups. Volume: 12 oz Weight: .67 lb Dimensions: 2.62" L x 2.62" W x 7.25" H)
I hope this helps.
Regards, M. C

hi there one of the things i did that helped my sons was to get the sippy cups with the straw. they did nto like the sippy cups younger (older they did ) and the straw sippy cup worked great.
i hope this helps

what's the rush?? if your daughter enjoys drinking from a bottle then why not let her? you can certainly offer her a sippy cup but i wouldn't hold back the bottle just because she's 18mths old!! besides, if she's like most children when a new sibling comes home she will revert a bit and want it again. that's not a bad thing, just the way most kids are. my twin grandaughters are 16mths now and occasionally will drink from a bottle. they can lay down while drinking and this relaxes them. i suggest you relax, let your daughter relax and enjoy her bottles. enjoy her being a baby cause as we all well know, they grow up in a blink of an eye. besides i've yet to see any child get on the school bus with a bottle in their hand. :)

As a couple of other mothers wrote, keep your daughter on the bottle. She WILL be jealous of the new baby having a bottle. So letting her keep it will make life easier for all involved. If your doctor, or ANYONE, bugs you about your child still being on the bottle, say: "Well, thanks for your observation, but I am doing it this way for now. It's not like she is 10 years old - she's 2." And that will hopefully shut them up.

Congratulations to you on baby number 2! I would say that while it is a great goal to have your child off the bottle per the pediatrician's advice, it just isn't the time to do it. You have your hands full and your daughter has her emotional plate full right now. I would recommend continuing with the bottle and offering her water in a sippy cup for the time being. Hopefully she will learn to navigate the sippy cup with the water. Then, in a few months when things calm down and you both feel emotionally ready, it might be easier for her to switch to milk in the sippy cup since she will at least know how it works.
Good luck and enjoy as much as you can - the newborn time flies by with babies so close in age.

Hi A.
We had our daughter off the bottle before her one year birthday by introducing her to sippies on and off from 6 mos on. At her 1st birthday, we threw away all the bottles and gave her a sippy to drink out of. Of course she demanded her bottle but we stayed firm. Kids will not starve or dehydrate themselves. If she knows how to use a sippy, she'll use it if she's thirsty enough. GL and congrats on baby number 2!

Have you tried the cups with the straw? My daughter doesn't like the hard or soft tops and I was worried that I'd never find a cup for her. She LOVES the ones with the straw. It took her a few days to figure out the flow (much faster than a bottle) and she dribbled quite a bit, but she's right on track now. She has formula out of them 2x a day and still has a bottle in the AM and before bed (she's only 10 months). Good luck and congrats on the new little one!
~A.

Let her have the bottle awhile longer - don't make things anymore difficult for yourself right now! My son went from bottle to sippy cup at one year no problem. My daughter threw a fit when we did the same and just dehydrated herself, refusing to drink from anything else (yes, we also tried every cup on the planet). SO she is now 2 and a half and just recently went directly from bottle to cup. SHe never did take to the sippy cups. We started giving her a "big girl" regular cup at meal times with us, but continued to give her the bottle first thing in the morning, which seemed to be the time of day she most needed a "soothy" - and also after naps. After awhile, we cut out the after nap bottle, and then the morning bottle. We traded it with some sort of food she really liked and it eventually worked. She still fussed a bit, but we finally got there.

By the way, our pediatrician said the same thing. You need to do whatever works for your family. SOunds like keeping some peace in the house is more important right now with a new baby on the way! Best of luck!

To be perfectly honest I would wait until your new baby is three or four months old before taking your son off the bottle. I say this because you don't want any jellousy between the new baby -- who will be getting the coveted bottle-- and your son. My 15 month old was completely weaned at 12 months before the new baby came and she went right back to drinking from the bottle. As the baby got older I restricted the bottle to bedtime (a drop of milk to color it white and the rest water)and then finally dropped the bottle altogether.

My worst fear was that my oldest would be horribly jellous of the baby and that would carry over long after the bottle issue was a moot point.

Hope this helps!

Have you ever tried drinking out of one of those?? It is surprisingly difficult. When we made the switch from breast to cup, we got a sippy that was NOT spill proof. Of course, it meant having to be right there helping with every drink but eventually they got the feel for it and we were able to switch to the more challenging spill proof version. Blessings on your delivery - all 4 of mine are each 18 months apart. There's lots of ups and downs and I wouldn't change a thing :-))