HELP! My Daughter Won't Give up Her Ba-ba!

When they are ready to do something they will do it. Trying to make it happen just makes you crazy. How is the potty training coming? Children are all individuals and we would not want it any other way. P.

Hi,

It sounds like the bottle may be a type of comfort item for your duaghter, which would make it more difficult to give up. It would not be the end of the world if your daughter continued to have her bottle until age 3! I would limit use of it to inside the house only and not let her have it anywhere outside of the house. Another idea, we only allowed our daughters to have , let say, milk in the bottle. All other things they drank were in a sippy cup. They eventually switched over on their own. My daughter had a bottle until a late age. She is now 7 and of course does not have a bottle!!! Don't worry too much. Good luck!

C.

when my son turned two i had the same problem so what i did at night i would put water in his bottle. I think it took about a week but after that he didnt want it anymore.

K.:

First suggestion. Use big people's words, such as bottle, not ba-ba. Set a precedence that your daughter is a big girl now.
Second suggestion. Use a reward system, maybe a chart where she gets to put a sticker for each day she didn't use the bottle, but did drink out of a cup or sippy cup. If she gets at least 6 stickers per week, she gets a treat of her choice. Make the suggestions for the treats small, it's not the size or the amount that matters, it's building up consistency for both of you with follow through and follow up with promises.
She will enjoy the treats and putting up the stickers on the calendar or chart and turn over the bottle in no time. That was my experience with some of the children I helped raise.

Good luck.
D.

I would throw them all away and say that they are all gone and that is it. My sister in law would cut all the nipples off and say they were all broken. I would not drag this process out any longer. It is never easy and each child reacts different to change. This is a important step. It is up to parents to help children cope with change and learn to grow from it. She might cry all day but then be fine in the next couple of days. Give her lots of love and all will be fine. I know you can do this.

My best advice is to make them all disappear. When she asks for one just try to move on to a different thing. Like a favorite animal at bedtime or a book. Put the attention on something else!

It takes three days and three nights for your daughter to give up the Ba-Ba do not give in, do a ceramony with her, take the ba-ba with her throw it away, tell her a special gift will come the next morning for her, being so proud she has given up the bottles, make it a big deal, when she wakes up even though she might of had a bad night sleep, reward her for being a big girl, stick to your guns, do not give in or you will have to start over again. This is the right thing to do mom its way over due.

Good luck,

I had the same problem with my son. He refused to drink his milk from a sippy cup and would throw fits about it. He really enjoys watching Dora the Explorer, but I knew my husband wouldn't be thrilled with the idea of his son carrying a Dora cup around, so I got a Go! Diego Go! cup instead. Once he saw that and I told him that's where his milk will go, he was okay. I just make sure that his milk is only in that cup and juice and/or water is in a non-Diego sippy cup. If your daughter has a favorite character then maybe you can find a cup with that character on it to get her to drink from that instead of a bottle. Good luck!

Sometimes you just have to say no. My daughter just turned 2 and was off the bottle at 1 and out of diapers at 1 1/2. i don't know if you have tried this yet, but when i want my daughter to try something new, i use it first. my daughter is the type that wants to make sure it won't hurt her so if mommy can do it so can she. i know some kids really have a hard time letting go so if that doesn't work try a sippy cup with a soft top. it feels like a bottle nipple but better for her. i hope this helps.

E. V.

This helped me with my kids, I let them pick their new sippy cups at the store.

I had the same problem when my daughter turned 2 1/2! She was really into the Little Mermaid! So my husband and I took her to the Disney store (or you can find this stuff anywhere) and let her pick out 3 non-spill sippy cups with any princess on it! Then that night we told her that mommy couldn't find her baba( our daughter called it bobby) and that she would be such a big girl if she had her princess sippy! Well she loved it and then the next day we took her for an ice cream to celebrate what a big girl she was! By this point all the other kids were kind of making fun of her for still using her bobby! Just see what happens! This may work, it really worked for us!
Good Luck mom! I don't agree that the sippy cup is a bad idea to use! They can't use actual cups yet and if it is a comfort there is nothing wrong with that! We are just helping our kids to be more grown up is all!

My doctor told me "cold turkey" when my daughter was really young and I didn't know any better so I did it. It worked. I always made my daughter sit in my lap if she wanted a bottle, once she was mobile, the idea of sitting around grew boring so she quickly made the transition to sippy cup. At 3, I'd suggest going cold turkey. Perhaps ease the transition by taking her to the store to pick out her own cups and then having a ceremony for her to throw out the bottles, then take them out to the garbage can so she can see the finality of it...BUT THEN YOU CAN'T GO BACK!

Good luck.

I've heard of mom's being successful with the "ba-ba fairy" visiting their house. The child leaves the bottles by the front door at bedtime and in the morning a new toy is left in its place. This allows it to be final and gives the child a sense of control over the situation. I've used a similar strategy to get rid of my kids Halloween candy and it's been very successful. I also don't recommend going to a sippy cup as it's similar to a bottle. I had trouble getting my 3-year-old daughter off the sippy cup in the morning (we never really used bottles), but learned she didn't need it when we were away on vacation. It was just part of our morning habit at home, similar to an adult needing their morning cup of coffee. Once I told her no more sippy cups in the morning and got rid of them she stopped asking for them. If she wanted AM milk (which also had to be warm) I offered it to her in a regular cup. It took a couple of mornings of her going to the kitchen looking for sippy cups, but she soon realized there wasn't an option to have them because they weren't there. It hasn't been a problem since and the cups are gone! The thumb is my next obstacle and not so easy. Good luck!!!