Weening My Daughter off the Bottle Help!!!

I would not worry about it and just nod and agree with the doctor , she's only 11 months and I don't know why such a fuss is made of getting them off a bottle by 1 yr. My youngest wouldn't entertain a sippy cup until she was 18 months.

Hello,

My daughter was weaned from the breast at 16 months, and I immediately introduced the bottle, which I know is a big no-no. Whatever! My ped wanted her drinking from a cup only. Well, that did not work for us, and as a result, she took a bottle until she was 3. At that point, it was only at naptime and bedtime. I know moms would be all over this, but I do what works for me. I say if you don't want to take the bottle away, then don't and don't lwt anyone tell you otherwise. She's only 11 months old, and will probably not take an adequate amount of formula (or breastmilk-whatever you give) from a cup. I say don't worry about it, and eventually the time will come when you are both ready for weaning. Good luck.

K.

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Neither of my children wanted anything to do with a sippy cup while they still had a bottle. We tried, but they were completely not interested.

On their first birthday, bottles went away. We packed them up, put them in the basement and only had a variety of sippy cups available. And, there were NO problems with either kid. It's when you give into them that they begin to understand there are options, and they'll almost always take the path of least resistance (what they're familiar with).

Good luck. From all the posts I've seen on here about it, cold turkey is by far the best approach.

I never expected to be a momma that went cold turkey with the transtion to sippy cups, but that is what I ended up doing.

A little backround, in case any of what I say will be famliar to you: My son weaned from the breast at 10.5 months (I didn't want it, but had to accept it). He would use a hard spout (take n toss) cup with water at mealtimes, occasionally drinking an ounce or two. He protested having milk in that cup at his regular nursing times. Big protest.

Many moms told me that they like the Nuby no valve soft spout sipper cup. I saw it as just a glorified bottle, then , finally, tried to sip from it myself and realized it was not so bad. I did not think my son would handle transitioning to this new "bottle" slowly (too confusing, and I knew he would hold out if he knew a bottle was nearby, even at the next feeding)

Daddy gave him his first Nuby bottle about 1/.2 hour after his normal milk time. He did fuss, but drank some. He held him like be was getting a regular bottle. The fussing lasted about 5 feedings. We let him play with an empty Nuby bottle that first day too. Then he was transitioned. He got a little less milk the first few days, but made up for if with food and water. Also, we held him and tried to keep that milk/bonding experience. We did this all around 11.5 months. After about a week, we did not hold him as much to drink (sometimes he stands, or sits by himself to drink for the midday feedings)

I really worried about whether I chose a decent bottle, then callled my Ped, who gave a thumbs up to the Nuby (saying it was a good transition to a real sippy).

I always thought he would transition one particular feeding at a time, and I thought that would be less stressful. I'm glad I didn't hold on to that preconception. Plus, I could trust that my son would not deprive himself of the milk he needed. So, cold turkey wasn't really that bad.

My advice - cut the bottle cold turkey. I know you think your daughter won't be able to handle it, but trust me, she will. Children, especially babies, adapt sooooo quickly you will be amazed. I just went through this process with my 13 month old. And I have a 4 year old too - did the same thing with her after she turned 1 and had success both times.

After each child's 12 month appt. where the ped told me it's ok to stop formula, I went home, gave my baby her last bottle before bed, and that was the end of that. The next day marked the beginning of a no-bottle world! It took about a week, probably a little less, for each of them to fully adjust to the sippy. Sometimes I found it easier to take the lid off the cup and have them sip directly out of it (with my help holding it of course!). I think this showed them what was inside the cup and that it was worth it for them to try drinking from it! Whatever the case, it worked fine, and within the week we were done and I had kids drinking out of sippies exclusively.

You have to keep in mind that babies only know things exist in the world when we show them they exist. Your baby doesn't know a life without a bottle because she's never been introduced to one. As soon as you show her there's something else out there she can drink from, her curiosity will take over and she'll decide it's a pretty cool thing. She will be fine.

Best of luck! And smile - you are almost done with bottles!!!

When my daughter was 12 months old she was still drinking a bottle at night to go to sleep and during the day she "mostly" used sippy cups .. well here is the trick :) we went camping on and Island .. yes an Island and mommy accidently only brought one "baba" bottle with us. oops ... well it got lost and all she had was the sippy cups for 4 days..... I just started calling her sippy cup a baba and she just took it .. it worked great she never even thought about her bottle... I think she was having too much fun camping on the beach and stuff lol GOOD LUCK

I agree with some of the other mothers, there is no magic to 12 months. I nursed my son until 14 months and then he needed a bottle before bed until about 18 months and then he just sort of gave it up on his own. I tried for a long time to get him to get "attached" to a little stuffed animal but he just wasn't interested. If your daughter has a lot of teeth and you are worried about milk sitting on them, then put water in the bottle before bed.
Your daughter is only 11 months old so you probably need to hold her cup for her for awhile until she gets more used to it. I personally never liked sippy cups because to me they are very similar to a bottle so we just used a regular cup while we were at home and then a straw cup if we were out. You would be surprised how easy it is for babies to drink out of a regular cup, but you do need to hold it for them for awhile.

Our oldest did not want to give up his bottle. So, we went out bought him some sipper cups with his favorite characters on them.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3...
I would keep one in the freezer, pour his chocolate or strawberry milk into it when he wanted it. He never asked for a bottle again. To this day, he likes to drink out of those cups. He will be 10 soon!

as long as she isnt getting it at night in the crib there is no medical need to get rid of the bottle...just wait a couple months and dont stress about it

I just went through this with my son. I ended up finding a sippy cup that is very similar to a bottle. It has a clear silicon like top with a nub that is bigger than the bottle, and has 2 slits in it. He took to it easily and I took all of the bottles away so that he couldn't see them and just offered him that sippy cup. I think it is call Nub but I am not sure, I am at work right now so I can't see it. He hasn't looked back since. I give him only water in it at night and he sometimes takes it to bed with him and sometimes doesn't.

Good Luck,
D.

Hi there,

You do still have plenty of time. I personally think 12 months is too young to take away the bottle and decided to take it away by 18 months for my son. Sure enough 18 months rolled around so quickly that he was actually 20 months when we stopped it cold turkey. Take your time do what is right for your daughter not because it is the thing to do these days and the whole process will go a lot smoother

cheers L.

Doctor is right. Best and most effective way is to just stop using the bottle. find her some other comfort for night eg. blankie. You may also want to try a few different kinds of sippy cups. There are a few that are much more like a bottle with a different kind of top. The earlier you get her off the bottle, the easier it is. If you wait until past 1, it can get really hard. Good Luck.

It can be a difficult transition. I have a friend whose son was addicted to the bottle and she went cold turkey. She said it was a horrible few days but eventually her son accepted that the bottle wasn't coming back. I took a more gradual approach. At first I just put the sippy cup out with water and let my son play with it, suck on it, experiment with it. Once he seemed to have the hang of it, then I started taking away one bottle at a time. For example, we would take away the bottle that went with lunch and gave him a sippy instead. Once he accepted this change, then we switched out the mid-afternoon bottle to a sippy. And so on. The last bottles that were switched out were the first thing in the morning and bedtime bottles as these were far more about security and comfort than anything else. I also had to hold the sippy for him which was frustrating but that is part of the comfort. So, I figured as long as he's accepting the sippy I'll hold it until we get him to a good comfort level. This worked for us and we never really had a huge struggle with him in terms of weaning. Another thing to consider is the type of sippy. Some have more flexible spouts that mimic the nipple of a bottle. Our son started with softer spouts and then eventually worked his way toward the harder plastic ones. This also seemed to ease the transition. Good luck!

don't feel pressured.
Main thing is that she gets adequate intake, hydration.

She isn't even a year old.

In many cultures, there is not so much pressure to end the bottle.
Their kids are fine.

Don't put juice in it. Nor juice in a bottle for bed. Cavities.

My son, even if the bottle was empty... just wanted to hold it. So even if I didn't put anything in it, he'd just hold it, in bed.

all the best,
Susan

hi there i thought this was really hard to. my little ones only comfort was her bottle and the doc said u should stop that by 1year. i worked really hard to only give her bottles at one in morning /one for nap time/one for bed time and the rest of the time we did cup once you start then work from there. i took the morning bottle away first then nap, then the bedtime one was the hardest. but after a few weeks of only one bottle she was okay with just geting a drink from cup. it takes time but you can do it my little one stoped bottle a month after her first b-day. now she is 2 and doing great hope this helps good luck

Try a different routine. I've never put a bottle in the crib. As part of the bedtime routine, I would give my children a bottle while I sat in a rocking chair and would read a book and then sing to him/her. They were always be done with the bottle before I was done reading. I then would kiss them good night and place them in their crib.

They will love the change and if your baby cries when you place her in the crib, just let her cry it out.

When it comes time to getting rid of the bottle, I just packed up the bottles and hid them. It only took one night of crying and both kids were fine with the sippy cup.

They are now 5 and 3 and each still has a sippy cup, full of water on their headboards, that way, if they get thirsty, they can grab it themselves. But, some say that's a bad habit because of bed wetting, but neither of my kids have a problem with bedwetting.

Good luck.

A lot of why doctors want you to get rid of the bottle is the same reason why they want you to start ditching the pacifier - it can create orthodontic problems for them when they're older. The nipple of the bottle isn't good for their developing teeth and mouths for too long.