Bottles and Pacifiers - Fort Wayne,IN

You can keep him on both until he begins getting teeth, then you'll want to start slowly watering down his bottle until all he's drinking is water. He'll either find the bottles no longer to his liking or he'll be drinking water before bed which will be much better for his teeth.

My daughter is 2 and only uses the pacifier for bed and only bed. They aren't really bad for the teeth and I would much rather her use it then her thumb and develop an overbite. Some moms suggest snipping a little hole in the pacifier so it looses it's shape when sucked on.

Basically, it's up to you what you do. Changing the bottle to water is a good idea, but there really isn't any reason to take him off the bottle completely until he's ready for sippy cups.

Good luck!

What a delima. First off I would be sure to thank mom for the parental advise without shoving her away :) Second, I was still nursing my baby at 14 months old, there isn't anything wrong with it. If your little one is only taking a bottle at bed time you are doing way better than some mom's (I will admit I get irritated when I see 3 yo at church running around with a bottle of juice hanging out of thier mouth). As for a pacifier, I wouldn't worry about that until he is way past 3. If he is waking up during the night and smothing himself back to sleep and putting himself to sleep (so to speak) at night Hats off to you. By taking away his bottle he wasn't able to comfort himself to sleep and a new habbit of rocking him everynight to sleep is created. And the habbit you don't like of sleeping in bed with you (which I am going through now & it is NOT easy to break).
If YOU want to stop the night time bottle, I would give him a heathly snack (my kids always like cheerios in milk) right before bed and give him a cup of milk. As for the pacifier, my grandfather got my daughter to give that up, so I can't help. But in the end remember it is your & your hubby's decision b.c he is your child. Don't be forced to force your baby to grow up too soon. Best of Luck!

It's a personal choice to get rid of them, and everyone gets rid of them at different ages. My oldest daughter was off the bottle at 10 months. She used a Nuby sippy cup to drink from when I took the bottle away, and then went on to other sippy cups with a harder spout. As far as the pacifier goes, she had that until she was 2 1/2. If the pacifier is a soothing/comfort thing... I personally would not take it away from your child. He uses it for comfort, and you don't want to take away his source of comforting himself. Maybe you can start with taking the bottle away (though at 14 months I don't feel like it's a huge deal), and then worry about the pacifier later. I wouldn't do both at the same time.

first things first... do what you feel is right and what works for you. everyone always has a set date that they have to do this or that. just taking away something that your child loves and has been comforted by since day one will just make them more scared and nervous

Hi S.,
Weaning him cold turkey from both at the same time will only make both of you miserable. My suggestion would be to start with the bottle first. I'm not sure what you put into his bottle at night, but a great trick I learned in my nanny days is to add water to juice and slowly change the juice to water ratio each time until it's practically all water. Another thing you could do in the meantime is start giving a sippy cup during the day but only when he's not tired or hungry. This is what I call the old bait and switch trick.
As for the pacifier, my son had one and had lost his "popper" and so we decided that would be his last. We went the cold turkey route. There are tricks (stick a hole in the pacifier;cut off the tip), but we were wimps and didn't want to deal with the fall out when he would try to utilize his pacifier and wouldn't get results.
Try what works for your son and your sanity.
Good luck.

TAke away the bottle.......yes. I don't think 14 months it too old to still have a pacifier. One thing at a time. Then when you're ready, go to maybe every other day, then every third or fourth day or so, increasing the time between when the child has the pacifier. Many times, transitioning will help.

My daughter just recently gave up her pacifier. She turned 2 years old in May. She mainly would have it at bedtime. As far as the bottle goes she gave that up when she was 1 year old. She didnt have a problem with it because she wanted the cup exclusively. I would suggest not giving him the bottle at night. Maybe let him keep the pacifier so when he does wake up in the middle of the night he can put himself back to sleep. Just give him some time. He is still kind of young. He will get past it. Good luck you to.

M. R

Hey, S.. My son will be one next week, so I'm pretty much in the same boat. I recently stopped giving him a bottle right before bed. I instead give him a bottle (sippy cup) of warm milk about 30 minutes before he goes to bed, then brush his teeth. That way he doesn't go to bed hungry or get hungry in the middle of the night. It's too much to ask to have a toddler not eat from dinner to the next morning! At least it is for my little piggy!
As far as the paci goes, it soothes him when nothing else can, so why pull it? I don't let him have it during the day anymore, just at night, but who is it hurting? At the end of the day it's your call. Don't let people influence you too much. You know what your son wants and needs more than anyone else!!

S.,

With my daughter I didn't give her a bottle in bed at all- it's supposed to be bad for their teeth so I always made sure I brushed them after her last bottle. You may ask your pediatrician about that.
She had her bink until she was two and a half. When we switched her over to her big girl bed we stopped the bink. She asked for it a couple of times but other than that the transition was actually very smooth. We just told her that big girls don't have a bink. :) I had wanted to let her have it until she finished teething- it was comforting to her.