Best Way to Ween a Very Stubborn 1 Year Old from the Bottle

Don't give in to the screaming, just leave the cup of milk and walk away. When she sees no other option, she will drink the milk from the cup.

have a party..... we have done this w/many stubborn issues (pacifiers, bottles, sippy cups) you make invitations (very simple, even have baby scribble on paper then you write on it, have her give it to whom is coming (gramma if she is close, neighbors who sympathize) then you go out and buy sippy cups and wrap them, plus something cute, make some cupcakes or cookies, then you have the party everyone stands around as she throws all her bottles away, when she is done she gets to open her "gifts" I stand by this method and after 6 kids, lots of pacie's, bottles, blankies this works.

I think it's a bit soon too. My 16 month old is the same, drinks juice from a sippy cup but not milk and even that was just recently. I think sometimes it's the sippy cups because with that handy little saftey no spill thingy (yes, that is the official name:) it can be hard to get anything out. I've actually tried to "sip" out of one of her's and it was really hard! I'm still looking for the "perfect sippy". Oh, and my daughter has a play draw in our kitchen and i put some plastic cups in it and she loves to walk around pretending to drink from a cup. I've put a very little bit of water in one before and of course she pour it mostly down her shirt but did manage to get a little in her mouth:) I think she's going to go straight from the bottle to a regular cup!
Good luck!
-B

I don't see any reason to wean her from the bottle. It is totally natural and good for children to breastfeed until the age of 3 or 4 or 5 years. Sucking is natural and comforting for a child. This is such a common and unnecessary battle for parents to get into with their children. And especially because you are very busy and working away from home, the bottle is probably a very important comfort thing for your child. And, since there is much evidence that cow's milk is not good for babies (or humans at all), I would try giving her different kinds of nut and grain milks instead of cow's milk. And I'd make sure that the bottle she has is the nontoxic kind.

G., I have five children and weaned them from bottles all at 1 year old. There are a couple of things you can do. I've done them both and it depends on the child as to which one will work best. First you can just go cold turkey. tell her she is a big girl and the bottles are gone and now she has a big girl cup. Don't give in to her screams. Not ever! once you do she will then know that she can manipulate you to eventually get what she wants. Or do a ceramony. this worked well with my second son. "The bottle fairy has come to take all your bottles to little babies who need them and has left a toy for you". you can do variations of this. ie buy a toy in advance or take her to pick out a toy. but make it a a big event so she feels she has the power and gave up the bottle herself. Which ever way you do it. it has to be consistant and complete. don't let her have a bottle sometimes that will just confuse her. don't give in to her. It should only take a few days at the most for her to get the idea. Good luck.

if you look back through prior requests, you will see that this is not a problem unique to your child. With my son, who is now 2.5, we went cold turkey on the bottle with milk at 15 months, when our dr. told us that it was the best thing to do. We had been trying from his first b-day, when I stopped nursing/pumping, and he wouldn't take milk from a cup - just water. After 2 days of no milk, he took it just fine from the cup...and never even asked for a bottle after that.

Urge her to drink training cup after 1 yr old. I suggest that bottles put away so your toddler will see where is the bottles gone and keep to urge your toddler to train to drink the cup. keep trying, dont give up. Toddler can fight to win and drink the bottles so try to keep up and mention the bottles put away to hide somewhere so toddler can see no bottles there longer...

K.

Hey G.- You already have tons of great advice, so I'll just add to what others have said. I agree that maybe she's not ready, not stubborn. Look for cues as the weeks/months go on...really WANTING to be a big girl and try other cups. I think the exactly 12-month quit time is not necessary since each child is different. The need for sucking exists and is soothing. If you are worried about tooth decay, just keep up on the brushing and don't let your daughter go to bed with a bottle. I would just keep doing what you are doing with the combination of sippy cups and bottle and look for her cues. Hope this helps. A.

I had the EXACT same issue with my first son! After trying many other methods, we finally gave him a straw cup when he was 15 months, and he loved it! He is two now, and loves the independence of opening and closing the straw cup, and will even ask for it to be put away when he is done. He doesn't suck on it all day like alot of kids with bottles do, and it doesn't leak or spill like alot of sippy cups or bottles. He also knows that the straw cups are for milk and so there is never a battle. Good luck!!

G.: it is a tough thing to do. My middle child was a non-bottle drinker until she was 7mo's. My suggestion is to take a weekend that you have "nothing" else planned. And bite the bullet and take it away permanetly. It's hard to go back and forth, you are sending her mixed messages. Have a "garbage dumping" ceremony and show your little one that all the bottles are now gone! She will understand once they do not see them any more. Put them away for another baby or get rid of them all together. If they see there bottles around they will revert back. I sure hope this helps!

My opinion/advice falls in line with most of the other responses. On one hand, she is probably still young enough that you don't have to worry about it too much; on the other hand, at some point the bottle is no longer necessary (because their mouths and tongues have developed enough to be able to drink from cups and sippies, not just nipples). So they want the bottle because the sucking is comforting. Your daughter probably associates milk with sucking (she is certainly old enough to discern milk from other liquids) and thus thinks when she gets milk, she gets to suck.

Try cutting back to just a couple of bottles a day (maybe morning and bedtime) and cut out the juice completely (it is not a significant source of nutrients); during the day, offer milk in sippies and regular cups. She will get enough milk from the bottles and will eventually learn to take milk from the sippies, too. Then in another three months, cut out the morning bottle and then around 18 months try cutting out the evening bottle, too.

Good luck.

I read something with our oldest and it was so successful I carried it on to all my kids and it worked every time. On their first birthdays before the party started (but you can still decorate and pretend ) we (the child and I ) gathered up ALL the bottles in the house and had a Bye Bye Bottle celebration. Take the first bottle and put in the garbage and say BYE BYE BOTTLE then hand the next to the child saying the same thing and they put it in the garbage until the bottles are all disposed of. Then instantly take the garbage out so that it is GONE from the house. Then I would say BIG GIRLS BOTTLES ALL GONE so that when the thirsty time came they knew bottles were all gone. It worked everytime and they felt like such BIG KIDS NOW. My husband and friends and family all laughed but it truley worked. Try having the bye-bye bottle party and let me know. I also let them pick out their own SIPPIES (I called them, lol) at the store. I carried this on to potty training it became really effective in my house to make the transition from baby to big girl go smoothly with my 3 girls. Good luck to you I always loved this age because of the excitement of their learning and growing up process and how thrilled they were to try new things.

OMG!! It sounds like my youngest!! We had a friend, with a toy poodle named "Porky". I had the "bright idea" of one day, hiding all the bottles, and told her that Bad Porky ate all her bottles, and now we have to drink in her "cuppy". And she did. BUT, refused to drink milk. UNLESS, I made it chocolate milk. HMPH! She is now 22, and STILL WON'T drink milk--so it may just be a matter of taste for your little one. The milk tastes good in the botle, because it is more like a comfort--but in a cup, she has to pay attention, and it "tastes different" (says my now grown up daughter--because she remembered when Porky "ate" her bottles).
Good luck with this. This was just our experience--all my others got weaned off with no problems--daddy & I were both in the service, so we didn't have time to "dink around" with coddling them on if they like the baba better than the cuppy---so they just did the switch, and on we went.
Hugs to you-
Becca

Our little girl who is almost 3 now was the same way. But we found she would drink milk if we put it in a regular little plastic cup for kids.

She's probably not quite ready to lose the comfort of the bottle. Our pediatrician didn't think the that we needed to ditch the bottle at 1-year and said to aim for 18-months. It was more important that our daughter got enough milk than forcing her to wean when she wasn't ready. Our daughter self-weaned around 15-months (when she had gotten sick).

The real worry with bottles is to make sure they are not falling asleep with a bottle of milk. They need their teeth brushed after their last milk bottle before bed so their teeth don't rot.

I would just keep giving her the option of the sippy cup until she's ready to switch full time. Also, you didn't mention if you've tried different kinds of sippy, but I know that some of the toddlers I know only wanted soft spouts for milk but was fine with hard ones for any other drinks (that was not our case). You might want to test out other styles of sippy (or straw) cups for her milk. Also, aim for replacing the daytime bottles first - saving the bottle for before nap-time or bedtime. :-)

It's only my opion but I think your baby is probably a little young to wean yet.....at this point she is using it for security and self soothing. As she gets more verbal and can express her feelings, she won't need it as much. My kids and grandkids were all pretty much 20 to 24mths old, before they were ready to give it up. Then we had a big throwing the bottle away ceremony and a trip to Target for big kid dishes and cups.

I have never bottle feed either of my two children so I don't have the experience, but my first thought is that she's not ready. It sounds like she still needs that instinctual comfort from sucking...specifically milk in her bottle. I am nursing my 20 month old and have absolutely no intention of 'cutting her off'. I find it disturbing that our society feels we need to bottle feed for exactly 12 months, then cut them off. -No offense, I don't know your personal situation. I guess my point is, I think you should just go with what she needs more than what you want.

I have two of those "very stubborn" kids and the longer I waited on anything, the harder it got. Sometimes I found I just had to make them do something that I knew was right even if they didn't want to. I had to just get rid of the bottles, so baby didn't see them anymore and I wasn't tempted to use them. At one, I'm sure your one year old is eating lots of solids and obviously can drink other things from the sippy, but is choosing to not drink the milk. This is very common. I had a friend who waited to "fight this battle" and thought her daughter would just get over it. She was over 4 and still drinking milk from a bottle. Easier at one to take it away, have the child be upset for a few days or even off and on for a few weeks, than to wait for years and "let them be the boss". Good luck.

Sadly...I waited until mine was two...in order to reason with you. Doc said it was ok as long as we brushed after the bottle.

Now I just tell her that the babies need milk at night and she's a big girl..then a bribe her with a story and a sticker :)

eh...it worked for us...but I supposed I wouldn't totally suggest it...but it did go over smooth and wasn't a batter. Now the in the middle of the night bottle around a year old..that WAS a battle. I gave her water...she screamed her head off...I had to ignore it...:( sad mommy.

good luck

Hi G.,

You know...she won't go to Kindergarten with that bottle. I'd let it rest with water and juice and try to move milk to a sippy cup at a later date. I'm the mother of four, ranging in age from 5-20 and I can remember being so concerned about these little things when my oldest was a tot...and you know what, it just doesn't matter. They all eventually move to a cup, they all give up their pacifiers, they all eventually don't want their blanky, etc. No one graduates High School with any of those things, so there's really no need to rush.

I hope this helps.

D.

This is common, my second child did the same thing. I took her shopping for a cup that she picked out. Now, 1 yr. is still young for that. My first, no problem. The second was not off the bottle until she was 18 months. I slowly weened her. Give her juice or water in her cup and let her have her bottle for milk for now. Keep offering milk in her cup. You can try a cup with a straw, that might be fun and different for her.