Advice of Transitioning off Bottle to Sippy Cup- Help!!!!

I had a really hard time getting my daughter off the bottle, especially since we have a newborn cousin in the house. I finally came up with the Bottle Fairy...lol I told her that the Fairy came and got all of her bottles to give to all of the new babies, and left her a prize for sharing. Her prize was a bunch of gift wrapped sippy cups. She had so much fun opening all the cups that she wasn't even upset about losing her bottles. Occasionally she cries for her bottle, usually at naptime, but I remind her that the Bottle Fairy gave them to new babies and then she is fine.
I also came up with the Ni-Night Fairy...lol The fairy says bedtime, so we'd better listen...haha
The newest fairy is the Binky Fairy.
I also have all of the Fairy's phone numbers so I can call them to find out if the new babies are taking good care of the bottles...lol I've got Santa's number too...

Hi D.,

That is a tough one. Sometimes it is an attachment thing. My daughter was transitioned by bottle at bedtime, then no bottle and only sippy cups. I encouraged her by saying, "look how much you have grown, and You are getting to be a strong kid, you cand drink from a sippy cup now, and before you know it you will drink from a big kid cup. She is almost 2 and can drink from a regular cup. :) I always did my very best to be very positive. I also found that if I was afraid that she would not transition, ineveitably it made the transition harder in our case. Also I googled difficulty in transitioning from bottle to sippy cup and found this article.

http://www.netwellness.org/question.cfm/41829.htm

It was a question and answer to a mom who had difficulty concerning the issue, and it is very informative.

Blessings to you and your family,

Katherine

My daughter transitioned by putting milk only in bottles at nap time and bed time and used sippy cups for milk at other times, juice and water. At that age the baby only needs approximately 24 oz. of milk. The kids hadn't had juice in bottles. She started the juices in the sippy cups while they were still using bottles for milk.

Her attitude was a matter of fact this is the way it is now. Milk in bottles, juice and water in sippy cups. They could carry the sippy cups around with them but not the bottles which added to the kids preference for sippy cups. "It's sippy cup time. Do you want juice or water." She then gradually reduced the number of bottles until they were only getting a bottle at bedtime and milk also in sippy cups. When they had several teeth she switched to giving them a sippy cup with water at bedtime.

It was a gradual process over several months. I would hesitate stopping cold turkey at 20 months. That bottle provides more than nutrition. It's calming and provides comfort.

Her pediatrician said that sucking on a bottle just long enough to empty it is not what causes misalignment of teeth. It's having the bottle in their mouth for long periods of time and sucking on a pacifier all day long.

We are all born with a need to suck. I agee with some professionals who say that not having sucked long enough as a child is part of the reason that people smoke. I've also seen middle schoolers walking around with teen sized pacifiers. There is no proof but I wonder if having a need for oral gratification isn't caused in part by having the bottle taken away too soon, before the baby has satisfied their need to suck and get comfort from that sucking.
I'd add that the baby isn't ready to let go of the bottle until they learn some other way of comforting themselves and soothing themselves to sleep. For my grandkids they transitioned into holding a specific stuffed animal without having the bottle too.

I think that if a baby cries for hours when he's without a bottle then he's not ready to let go of the bottle. It's another one of those tricky lines when making a decision.

I tried to do the gradual thing with my daughter with no luck. We finally just took the bottles away cold turkey! She spotted them in the cupboard once and freaked out so i had to get rid of them completely. I have a 13 month old in my day care that we already switched. She only has a bottle in the morning and at night at home. She is doing well - it took a day or 2 of her not drinking as much but she is good to go now!

You should take him to the store to pick out some big boy cups. Then he will feel like he is taking part in the decision. It may make things easier. If you have any other babies in the family (or friends have babies) you should ask him "Since you are done with your baby bottles, we should give them to _____", or tell him he isn't a baby anymore, and give him the opportunity to trash them. If this doesn't work I would just ditch the bottles all together. Eventually he will get the hang of it, when he is thirsty enough. I know parents who let their kids have bottles till they are like 3 (which I think is disgusting), and binkies. You have the control over these things. I wish you the best of luck!! :)

I transition my kids from bottle to sippy cup ,by cutting off all to tips to the nipples and having my kids throw them in the garbage,themselves. I made sure to encourage them with wow look what a big kid you are your growing so fast.Things like that.It worked great for all but one of my kids. Also make sure to take her to pick out her own sippy cup, of her choice.

When we transitioned our toddler girl at 12 months of age, she did not want anything to do with the sippy cup. we had to hide all her bottles from site, we picked out some Elmo cups and girly ones she was drawn too. Then we had to let her know bottle was all gone and if she was thirsty she had to drink from the sippy cup. It took about 5 days for her to stop crying about wanting her bottle, but in the end it worked and we were so happy and thankful. We've continued to let her drink a bottle only at bedtime, she is 20 months old now...any tricks on how to get her to let go of her night time bottle habit?

I've been doing daycare for a while now and I've had 2 Mom's tell me that dentists say sippy cups will cause an overbite (what won't? They suck on anything they can get in their mouths)and you should use the sippy straw cups as an alternative. I've made the transition in the daycare and the babies are anxious to use the "big kid" cups.I have a 1 yr old that started on the sippy straw the week of her 1st b-day. She carries it everywhere with her. I find little ones are often quite pleased to move up to the "big kid" things and usually transition rather smoothly. I still provide bottles at naptime for comfort purposes but I pull them shortly after they dose off.

Hi D.,
Might I suggest taking the bottle out of the equation all together. If he has no choice he will be more likely to accept the only other alternative, the sippy cup.

Good luck!
T.

Get rid of the bottles?

Maybe have some one else tell him bottles are for babies? My girlfriend had the same problem, her son was 2 and still usinga bottle. She took him in for his 2 year checkup and the doctor told him he couldn't have a bottle any more. Well that was good enough for him, he gave them up without a fight. Wierd.