22 Months Old Twin Girls- How Do I Take Away the Bottle and Pacifier?

Hi P.,

I would perhaps tackle one issue at a time so that you don't completely remove all of your twins comfort items. Go at the bottles first. My son took milk from a bottle at bedtime until he was around 14 months. To wean him, I slowly started reducing the amount of milk he was getting in his bottle and gave him more to drink at dinner. It finally came to the point he was getting less than an ounce at bedtime, and he waved away the bottle one night and never looked back. You can keep offering warm milk, but give them less and less in the bottle and offer more at mealtime. And definitely start them on using a regular cup. It may be messy at first, but it is a skill they need to start mastering.

Once you get them off the bottles, then you can work on the pacifiers. Do they have another lovey that they can take once the pacifiers are gone? A special blanket or stuffed animal? That may help the transition away from the pacifier if they can soothe themselves with a different lovey. If it is any consolation, I used a pacifier until I was three. My parents finally told me that in order for me to become a big girl and move into my big girl bed, the pacifier had to go. Apparently I threw it away the same night I slept in my big girl bed for the first time and that was that.

Good luck to you!

Hey mom,

Why not just make the sippy cups in advance,

then nuke them for a few seconds.

as for the pacifier, just stop giving it to them,its the fastest way.

M

Just take the pacifiers away. They may be crabby for a couple days so don't be tempted to give them back. Once they are gone they are gone.

My kids are too old to give advice on bottles but my daughter's pediatrician told her that once the babies are over 12 months old you should start moving them to drinking out of a cup and at age 2 they should be drinking out of a regular cup not a sippy one.

Hi, you need to start giving them regular cup or straw cups everytime they want to drink. I started this when my twins were almost 1.5 yrs old. Yes, they are going to make messes but its part of the learning process. I found that being very enthuastic about it help I.e. "Ooooh, look mommy drinks from her cup like this, wow what a big girl, etc...". My kids haven't used a bottles since before their 2nd bday. As for pacifier, I'm in the same boat lol. They know that they are only for night time. But I read somewhere that when they are a little older have the "pacifier fairy" come & take them away one night. =o). Good luck!

Hi P.,
You don't have to give them cold milk in a sippy cup. You can still warm the milk and they can drink it from the sippy. If they are both drinking fine from the sippy, you should definitely make the switch to cuppy every time they drink, then start moving onto big kid cups at meal time.

My youngest, 2 1/2, still gets a warm milk cuppy for her afternoon nap, with a tsp of flavored coffee creamer, because she doesn't like plain milk. She drinks out of a big kid cup throughout the day.

About the pacifier, I would see if you can get away with not offering it to them before they go down to sleep. Try this at nap time first, just conveniently forget to give it to them (keep them hidden), and see what they do. If they ask for it, they are old enough to understand. You can give it, do not fight with them, you do not want this transition to be stressful for either of you.
Then start "forgetting" it at night time, too.
If it doesn't work the first day, do it everyday, and soon, they will forget to ask for it.

My son, now 8, gave up the paci at around 9 months old. He had a stuffy nose and couldnt use his bink, so he just threw it out of his crib one night (after 2 days of fighting with it) and never saw it again.

Good luck