Ask:
Hi,
I'm trying to take my almost 12 month-old off the bottle completely as it's bad for his teeth (and I hate looking at it! ). My plan is to give him the same amount of milk from a sippy cup but he's not very keen. DD took to it no problem but he's definitely more attached.
I've been giving him the sippy cup during the day and the bottle in the morning and at bed-time. Should I just get rid of the bottle completely and withstand the tears for a day or two?
Anyone else had this problem??? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Answer:
I never went cold turkey..but I did it a bit different than you. I got rid of the bottles by putting less and less milk in there...and adding more and more water! Eventually, all of mine that used bottles at this age decided that they preferred the cup..cause it had the "good stuff" in it! LOL
Answer:
I also just switched the bottle to water gradually. In the morning I put a sippy cup with milk on the tray and a bottle with water. My kids would eventually start ignoring the bottle. At night I did what was mentioned above I gradually added water to milk until it became just water.
Answer:
I followed the advice of a dental tech who is a friend of ours: I never put milk (any amount) in the bottle, only formula or water. The only way dd could get the Sweet milk is from a cup. I mixed formula and milk in the sippy cup untill it was all milk. She was completley off the bottle by 13mths!! I am trying the same thing with ds right now. He still likes the bottle but drinks even better from the sippy cup than dd did. The nighttime bottle was the last to go with dd and I'm sure it will be with ds as well.
Good Luck! I too am looking forward to getting rid of the bottles! Although I will miss the cuddling, it feels so liberating!
Answer:
I was talking formula....none of mine had actual milk in a bottle either. Only two of mine had formula...cause I was pregnant again and had to stop nursing both of them!
Answer:
I used a sippy cup starting at 6 months for water. Only a bottle for formula (this is with dd number 1, 2 and 3 haven't had a bottle). When she started milk around 12 months I just put her milk in a cup. She was used to the cup she gave the bottle up pretty much cold turkey.
Answer:
Originally Posted by blessed_with_6
I got rid of the bottles by putting less and less milk in there...and adding more and more water!
I love this idea - I just moved him from formula to milk in the past 2 weeks by mixing the 2 together and then gradually decreasing the formula.
hadn't thought about doing something similar with the bottle.
Thanks everyone
Answer:
I've been trying to get Aidan to drink from a sippy cup too, but he won't have any of it. This past week he switched from formula to milk (hallelujah!). I may have to try some of these suggestions.
Answer:
My ds went on cow milk at 6 months per doctors orders with Poly-Vi-Sol in it. When he was 1 he started using a sippy, but only during the day. At 16 months, I said enough (he was literally have anxiety attacks if he couldn't have a bottle all the time in his hand) so we went cold turkey. It took 3 nights. 1st night took 6 hours to calm him to sleep (he was restless and would cry some), second night took 2.5 hours, and night 3 was 15 minutes. He has never asked for a bottle since that last night. I will tell you though, in my experience, the soft tipped Nuby cups (with rubber tops) are just as bad. It took 3 WEEKS to break him from those!