Help Weaning 2.5 Year Old from a Bottle...(bad, I Know!)

I had 3 awesome kids too! : )

I have to admit that I hyped the "big boy or big girl" cup. That worked with my oldest. My middle child was sold when I pointed out that his sister was using a cup so he wanted one. My youngest weaned at 12 months and never went to a bottle. I just made it sound pretty exciting so that they dropped their bottle like a hot potatoe. I have found that the child who breast-fed longest drinks milk the least... I wonder if there is any correlation. Good luck with this one.

We made the bottle weaning fun and it worked so well with weaning my daughter off the bottle that we used it again to wean my son off the pacifier that he really did not want to let go. When we decided it was time to wean, we started to build up a special day, for both of them going to Build a Bear was a really big thing for them. So when my daughter was about 2.5 we told her that on that day she would be able to make any bear that she wanted and from then on she would not have her bottle anymore but would have her new bear to cuddle up with. On that day she helped me pack up the bottles, we said goodbye to them and we went to Build a Bear where she had a great time. She is 11 now and still has her Dalmation she made that day that she appropriately named "No mo" for no more bottles! As I said it worked so well for her that when her brother was about 2 that he wanted to be big like his sister and get to go make a dog too. So we packed up the pacifiers together and went on to the fun. Worked well for both of mine maybe it will for you too. :)

I might be in the minority here but what is wrong with him keeping the bottle? My boy is 3 about to be 4 and is totally against having his bottle outside of the house or in public, but in the house he is quick to ask for it right before bed,at nap time, or when he is having a bad day. He does drink his milk or any other drink out of a glass during the day without a fight. He I believe is using his baba as a soothing reasuring article just like his blanke, and "George". I don't see an immidiate danger or life altering problem with him keeping his bottle when he is ready to let go of it he will. Just remember that they are little people with feelings and taking things away from them that they consider so dear, soothing and reasuring to them might cause more harm than good. As for the potty training part I also have let him do it at his own pace and guess what at 3 1/2 he woke up one day and said I want to put those on (his micky underwear that I had put in his drawer) and has not gone back to pull ups and has been dry day and night with no accidents for over 5 months and counting. By the way I did the same with my 8 year old and he on his own left the baba right before he entered pre-k at 4. This time around I let my kids let me know when they were ready to do certaine things like weaning of breast milk, potty training, etc. that I imposed on my older boys who are now grown adults and I'm getting the same results as I did with my two older ones without the heart break of hearing them cry, the tantrums, or the headaches. Good luck

The older the child the harder it is, BUT he is old enough to understand that he is a big boy. I'd suggest taking him to buy cool straw or sippy cups...or even try a big boy cup for milk. He will put up a huge fight, but if you stay firm and tell him no more bottles...and you don't give in, he'll quickly realize if he's thirsty his only choice is a cup.

Our rule for our 3 year old is he stays in his chair until he drinks his milk at dinner. He fights us almost on a daily basis, but he eventually drinks his milk. We stay firm on the rule...he's figured out he's not going to win this power struggle.

I also think you'll want to stop giving him a lot to drink before bed. Once you start potty training you won't want him having a full bladder at bedtime. After we brush our teeth our son gets a few sips of water...he's perfectly content with that. Good Luck!

You probably should worry more about potty training him which means NO drink an hour before bed. Kids pee right after drinking. All that milk is not good for his teeth either, especially sitting in his mouth all night can rot his teeth. I've seen babys teeth turn black also. It's not a pretty sight. If you cut out that nighttime bottle and let him have the morning sip cup, he may want the milk jus because he didn't get it at night. Good luck. I never had this problem with my 2 babys because I trained them very young. Good luck mom.

I'm like your daughter. When my mother weaned me from my bottle I stopped drinking milk. To this day I don't drink milk. I would not be so concerned about the bottle issue. I would be more concerned about making sure he brushes his teeth after his bottle before he goes to sleep.

B.

I sent you a PM and later found this link that I had mentioned in the PM. I hope it helps.

http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&action=detail&...

Hi B., my son was a little over 3 when I stopped giving him the bottle. I would only give it to him at home - nap time and bed time. Yes they say you should not go past 1 with the bottle, but I listened to my mom - who told me we were on the bottle till 3-4 and we turned out ok....
When he was 3 and my daughter was born, I simply explained to him that he's a big boy now, the bottle is for babies like his sister and that was it....
He's still drinking milk am and pm till this day (5-1/2) out of the Nuby sippy cup...

He will be okay without milk if that is what he chooses after he says goodbye to bottles. The concern of bottles is the pull on the tooth structure development and the fact that usually when done with a bottle if they are sleep there is an imcomplete swallow leaving milk to sit on the teeth while they sleep and develop dental caries. No parent usually can get inbetween teeth really well with floss on a child under 5, so the fact that they drink water before they lay down is important to rinse food away. Our doc wants kids off the bottle at 1 as root development starts then. Good luck, maybe have a ritual to get rid of bottles like leaving them for a friends baby who is pregnant? Nutrients are there if offered, calcium is in broccoli, cheeses, yogurt.

Not drinking milk is not the worse eating habit a child could develop. There are many other ways the child could get the Vitamin D and calcium that is needed. I would just stop giving him the bottle. Hand him a sippy cup with a soft top and tell him he's big and that's the only way he will get anything to drink from here on out.

Then if he insists on anything but water at bedtime then make him brush his teeth before he lays down.

If he stops drinking milk, then so be it. It oculd be worse. Make sure he gets his Vit D and calcium from other food sources or start giving him a supplement like Poly-visol (think that's how you spell it).

I'm not sure I have any specific weaning advice, but please please please don't consider your actions "bad." You are a good mom doing what is best for your child. Just because it's not the norm or certain people don't agree doesn't make it bad, just different. When the time is right, the right things will happen. Give yourself a break!

Put just water in the bottle. Nothing else. Then if he wants something else to drink it goes in the sippy cup. at this age your going to want to drop the drinks before bed anyway. You don't say but the potty training will start soon and a bottle right before bed will totally sabotage that. So put just water in the bottle and he will be done with that . at his age he can understand and talk with you so tell him big boys drink out of cups. let him pick out a totally cool sippy cup at the store. and then have the "drink" at the counter before bed. not with the story. its not whats in the bottle its a comfort thing. have the drink and then the story or vice versa. do you do the brushing teeth thing before bed? just say nothing else after the teeth are brushed. start a new routine and just skip the bottle thing all together. he is old enough to have the throwing away the bottle thing. good luck.

Hi,
I don't know if you would like this suggestion, but... as far as him not drinking milk 2 things. 1. you can get nutrients from milk in other dairy, and 2. when my son turned just over 1 he wasn't interested in milk. I could only get him to drink it from his cereal bowl. With my daughter I took the leftover milk from her cereal bowl and poured it into her cup with more milk added to it. Then, to get my son to drink it from a cup I would add just a little flavoring (strawberry, chocolate, etc). I wouldn't add a whole lot, but just enough to change the color and add a LITTLE flavoring.

My suggestion is to water down the milk until it's eventually just water in the bottle (that is if you are adverse to just saying no more bottle.) I wouldn't be concerned about the whole drinking milk thing; we don't need as much as we think we do. If you give him things like cheese and yogurt and calcium rich veggies then milk isn't a necessity. Also, pediatricians recommend weaning from the bottle at a year because of the damage it can do to the teeth to continue to suck milk from the bottle. My aunt gave her son a bottle until he was 5 and his teeth had quite the problems!

I encourage weaning from the bottle and pacifier at 1 as well. As a early childhood professional I can tell you firsthand the problems that arise when a child is given these for a extended amount of time (problems that you don't see with breastfeeding, for those that say "well nobody says anything when an older child is breastfeeding!)
That being said, if you still want to give your child the bottle, I'd suggest limiting the time he has it, getting it to the point where there is just water in it, and brushing his teeth after each use.
Good luck!

I hope this help you. Buy a sippy cup that is similar to a bottle nipple. the one i bought my 2 yr old daughter the one she had to somewhat bite down so the water, juice and milk could come out. What i did with my 9 yr old i took her off the bottle at 8 months, Ny two year old i took her off at the age of 9 months. I gave them sippy cups the one with the soft tip and a hard tip. My daughter is drinking out of regular cup. Have you even tried to see if your two year old would like a regular cup. Some kids go straight to a regular cup.

I saw an interesting solution on a TV show once, but I think the kids might have been older (like 3 or 4). In any case, the mom told the kids (they were twins) that her friend had a new baby and that the new baby needed the bottles, and her kids were actually very enthusaistic about helping the new baby. She then gave them a set "end date" for the bottles, maybe five days or a week, and she marked off the days on the calendar. At the end of the days, they helped package up the bottles to give away.

I'm not sure if this would work with your child (2.5 might be too young for this to make sense), but who knows? Good luck!