14 Month Old Can't Kick the Bottle Before Bed!

Hey there! I had/have the same problem with my son. What I did to get him off the bottle was put his milk in a soft spout sippy cup. There are two different kinds that I use, one made by nuby and the other by munchkin. The only kicker to that is, he wants to have his milk at bedtime. So, I haven't been able to rid him of that habit, but he no longer uses a bottle. I like you wanted my son off the bottle and nobody else seemed to understand why I wanted him off it. My reasoning was that I am due to have my second child in October and didn't two kids with bottles. Sorry about the ramble, and I wish you good luck.

Here's what I did with my first two kids:
FIRST, only put water in the bottle and offer a water sippy and a milk sippy. She'll drink the milk when she wants it badly enough. In the mean time, protein and calcium can come from other dairy products (yogurt, cheese) and sources (fish, spinach, oatmeal).
SECOND, get rid of the bottles. Tell her they went bye-bye because she's a big girl now.

When my daughter was 12 months we started the sippy cup switch. We did sippies during the day and a bottle at night. She completely resisted the sippy cup. We put a little juice with a lot of water and she liked that but wouldn't drink milk in them. Then we stopped the bottle all together and eventually she took the sippy cup. She is 14 months now and drinks soley from a sippy cup no problem. We would have her drink milk from a regular cup to help her get some fluid intake which she really liked. Once she realized this is it she started it all the time. I highly recommend the soft top sippy cups to start with. When we used those she drank more. Now we use hard top. Good luck! H.

What is so important about "taking away" bottles from babies and "getting them" to drink from sippy cups? My daughter had two bottles a day until she was three. She also drank from a regular cup (no sippy top) from 14 months on. She never liked sippy cups. The important thing is that she was consuming a healthy diet,not the method.

What's the rush to get rid of the bottle? Babies are forced to grow up so soon now. As long as you're holding her with her bottle and not putting her into bed with it, I don't see the problem. I always loved the cuddle time right before bed with my babies. She will give it up when she's ready.

J.,

I agree with the other posters who write that it isn't a huge deal to give her a bottle, as long as you hold her while she has it (not putting her in bed with it by herself).

I nursed my boys, and am nursing my baby girl, and didn't wean until well over a year. 12 months isn't a magic number when babies stop needing to suck for comfort (bottles and nursing provide that). I'd keep the two bottles for now, and watch her for signs of being done, and talk to your pediatrician about how much milk she should be having.

Good luck to you!
Jessica

Had the exact same problem. At 14 months, when I put my boy to bed, I took away the bottle, and let him whimper it out. And he fell asleep! Yay! What a "big boy!"

However, it my HUSBAND who insisted on still using the bottle. Bottle or not, kids need consistent parenting. So since the boy was ok with me and no bottle, and ok with dad and a bottle, and because he was getting bigger, it made sense to put the bottles away. However the only thing that worked was HIDING THE BOTTLES FROM DAD! Then Dad was forced to be a dad and the boy was able to benefit from consistent parenting. (I hid the bottles in the neighbor's garden shed, with their permission.)

Hi there-

Our son is 20 months and we are in a very similar situation. He still takes one bottle at night-not to go to bed anymore, but still before bed. It's part of his 'wind down' and now he actually asks for his 'ga-gool". For a long time it was AT bedtime, but we just pushed the bottle up each night and as he got older his bedtime got later. Now he has it about 30 minutes sometimes an hour prior to bed. I figure this is the first step towards getting rid of it.

I was hoping to cut the bottle out about 5 months ago, but then we decided it was his only 'vice' and that we'd lean into it-it's only once a day. It's true though - everyone said it would get harder as they get older and he is definately more attached now-and it would have been hard before.

So-my first advice to you is to either decide to be ok with it and wait it out..I firmly believe that when he's a little older and has understands better we'll wean him from it-but for now it would just be a screaming match. OR, do it now. It might be hard at first, but it will probably be short lived.

I would suggest starting by giving her the bottle a little earlier each night-not just at bedtime. I've also had people say that starting to water down the bottle helps too. It's hard cuz at her age reasoning is certainly not an option!

Not sure if this helps, but hope so.

My daughter was 14 or 15 months before we finally dropped those. I would start with offering her milk from a cup at nap time. If she wants the milk badly enough she will drink it from a cup (that was a struggle with my daughter too). It will take some time, and if you think it is too hard on her drop it for a couple of days or a week and try again. The key part is trying again. My doctor was kind of pushing me to get her to transition sooner than she was ready. You are her mom, you know her best. Just keep trying and I think you will be fine. Ooh, I just read the water in the bottle thing. That might be something to try if she seems to be having a tough time with it. GOOD LUCK!!

I agree with the other women that responded. There really isn't any rush to have her get rid of the bottle...she's still a baby. You didn't post why you are anxious to have the bottle go away, so if there is some other reason why and you really want the bottles to be gone then you'll probably just have to endure a few rough nights when you take it away. But if there really is no reason other than that it says so on the sheet from the pediatrician or that's what the baby books say....who cares? My son is 15 months and takes two 8oz bottles a day. On before nap and one at night. We are planning to start cutting back the amount in his naptime bottle soon and just slowly cutting back to 4 ounces before taking it completely away. We did essentially the same thing with my daughter (now 3). We slowly took away the nap time bottle but she didn't give up the nighttime bottle until 22 months. That came about sooner than I had planned too. We went out of town for the weekend and I forgot her bottle. I didn't feel like buying another at her age. I offered her milk in a cup before bed while we were out of town but she refused. She asked about it a couple of nights when we got home but it was really no big deal. After a week she had completely forgotten about it.

I'm sure you'll get lots of advice. I think you just need to think about your reasons for wanting her to give it up and then decide what approach is best for you. Heck, I have a friend that is a family practice doctor and she still lets her 20 month old drink juice from a bottle all day long. To each their own! Good luck!