Trying to Wean off the Bottle

My son was the same way we bought a bottle/sippy thing at wal-mart Its made by Nuby it starts out like a bottle then steps up to a funny looking tip that looks like a nipple but yet a sippy top and then the third tip is a sippy cup. I took all the bottles in the house threw them in the trash and gave him the first tip for a week and then the second one for the next week and now he uses the sippy tip all the time. I will give you heads up if you dont take it from them by the time they are 16 months it will be real hard my friend as a two year old that still has a bottle. Good Luck and hang in there

Hi Jennifer.

As soon as you pull out the bottle....? Dah! Don't pull out the bottle! Plain and simple! Just give him the sippy cup. Or, just let him have the bottle first thing in the morning. One year old may be a little too young to completely stop. He may still need the 'sucking' action a little longer. I think my kids were about a year and a half when I weaned them off it. Worked for mine and my grandkids! Hope it helps. (There may be fussing, but he will get over it.)

Since he drinks out of a sippy cup, pack the bottles up and put them out of his sight. Or just toss them.

If you don't offer it and he does not see them he will forget about the bottle.

As long as he is eating well, he will continue to do so. He is well past the age to wake up at night hungary.

I have a 4 year old daughter. When she was 11 mts old I stopped giving her the bottle. I would give her formula in a sippy cup after meals to make sure she was getting the nutrition she needed. She would try to lay back with the sippy cup just like it was a bottle and I would sit her up and tell her that she couldn't lay down with it. At about 13 mts she was eating enough that I stopped the formula and only gave her whole milk. I have a 10 month old daughter now and I plan on doing the same with her.

I just decided last night to get rid of the bottle. My son will be a year on August 11th, but he still has the pacifier. That sooths his sucking need, but of course if your's isn't using a pacifier, that's of no help to you. heh. He did throw a fit when I tried to give him formula in the sippy cup, but when he realized I wasn't going to give him the bottle, he just took the sippy cup. It was a bit easier than I expected, but this is the first day.

HI, I am a mother of 2. my son who is now 4 weaned off easily itook away the bottle col turkey and he drank form a sippy from then on. Now my second is a different story. he is now 2 and i took the bottles away at 1 year and only gave him one at night. well i tried to take that one away and he would throw the sippy cup scream and cry and throw fits saying ma ma ma which in his language was MILK MILK MILK!!!!! So after weeks of trying I just gave him the bottle back. BIG MISTAKE!! that let him know he ws getting what he wanted about everything. So i asked the doc and i tried the transition bottles. it has three steps. one a nipple one is a nipple shaped like a sippy and then the sippy part. I will let you know he was off in 2 days of using that. He now still needs milk before he goes to bed but he asks for "cup" and i lay him in the livingroom floor untill he finishes it and he goes to bed and sleeps all night. So my advice is be patient and use the transition bottles. And get him off of the botles all day and only give it at night he needs to know that sippy is for eating time with juice or water. hope this helps.
D.
hope i didnt sound like i am telling ou what to do with your child you will know better than anyone.

my boys were harder to get off the bottles they didn't get off of them until around 2 yrs old, but my daughter who is about to turn 1 has been off the bottle since she turned 11 mo, i just packed up all the bottles and only gave her cups =) you will know if he is ready to be taken off the bottle. my daughter has been getting the sippy cup since she was 6 mo old but of course she wore most of it but when she actually started keeping it in her mouth ( 11 mo) thats when i made the switch !!

good luck!!!

I just got rid of bottles for my 14 month old. Bottles are comforting to them, but he was dripping his milk everywhere and laughing. So it was time. I basically got rid of them so I will not be tempted to pour them. He does great with a sippy and can also use a straw (under supervision).

For the mid-morning and mid-afternoon, substitute a sippy cup with milk or juice (1/2 juice, 1/2 water)or a snack (yogurt, fruit, cheese)something healthy that he likes. My 19 month old wants a "ink" as soon as she wakes up in the morning and after nap, I give her a cup of juice with a lid and straw. She started wanting that after I stopped breastfeeding her (at about 12 mos.) Take away the morning and before bed bottles last-go 1 or 2 weeks after you stop giving him the bottles during the day and take one away at a time. So when he wakes up in the morning instead of a bottle he gets breakfast. And at night instead of getting a bottle he gets a filling snack (I fed mine yogurt or applesauce before bed w/ no sugar if they would take it that way) As he gets older you should only need to give him a night time snack if he didn't eat dinner well otherwise he shouldn't wake up hungry. My daughter had very little dinner one day last week and my husband just knew she would wake up hungry in the night-she didn't-she was fine. I think after about 1 year their bodies have adjusted to not eating during the night, so you shouldn't have to worry about him waking at night. You may put away all but 2 or 3 bottles so you won't be as tempted to get them out during the day. You're doing great to wean him off at a year-I hate to see 2 year olds using bottles. It is bad for the formation of their teeth and can mess up their speech. Good for you!!

I would put water in the bottles, just water and nothing else. That way you could see if he is still needing the suckling and water is low cal and good for him. Offer other drinks only in the sippy cup. This way in a couple of days he will adjust his eating to meet his needs. Please remember Never give a bottle of milk in the middle of the night without water behind it. Protects his teeth from "Milk Rot"

My son turns 1 in a couple weeks as well. He takes 3 bottles a day at the moment, but his middle bottle I have cut down to only 4 oz and his last bottle is only 6. I would start slowly by first combining his midmorning and afternoon bottles and jut give him one around lunchtime. Then you can start cutting it down while increasing lunch. You can also give him a snack during those other times if he is hungry. I don't know what the average is for a 1 year old, but the amount he is getting sounds like a lot to me. I don't think it will hurt to start cutting it down a bit. Just play with it and see how it works. You can always go back to what he was doing if it isn't working.

Also, I would suggest you start transitioning him over to a sippy cup if he will take one. My son will not do too well with them yet unfortunately. I need to work on that too.

Oh, and one other thing that comes to mind. I haven't done too well on this yet either, but I know they are supposed to be drinking water at this point as well, so maybe at those times he wants a bottle and it is not time yet, give him some water or watered down juice in a sippy cup. I have even done it in a bottle, but a sippy cup is probably better to break him of the need for a bottle.

Good luck. I know I am needing to work on many of the same issues as well. :)

When my son was going off the bottle I got the sippy cups that had softer "nipples". At one point, I just stopped giving him the bottle and just gave him the sippy cup. If he wants the bottle when he sees it, just don't take them out. Only let him see the sippy cups.

I guess I'd move from four bottles, three bottles, two bottles, and then one bottle (only at night). This plan of action will last about two weeks. If your son is gaining weight and eating, then he can manage well enough to be thirsty once or twice.

I was lucky, Tony's bottles were all "lost" in the move when he ws quite young, as were the pacificers! That plan of action worked well for me!

Good luck,
M.

Just before my son turned one I started giving him his formula in a sippy cup instead of bottles and he seemed to be fine with that. When it was time, I switched the formula in the cup to milk. That way he didn't get the "new milk" and a different kind of cup at the same time. We also used the Gerber transition cups, that are shaped more like a bottle but have a soft sippy cup lid. I offered him milk at the same times that he would normally have had his bottle until eventually he just seemed like he didn't need it at those times everyday. Good luck!! My son was really easy moving to the cup, but I babysat a little girl at the same time that had a lot of trouble with it. Everyone is different!

Hey Jennifer, put him to bed with the bottle one night and when then you hide them...they are just gone......depending on your child, you may want to tell him the night before that it's the last bottle.....that they are gone....be sure to get rid of the nipples, nipple covers, everything associated with a bottle.....good luck....R.

Hi! When we went off bottles with my daughter, the doctor suggested starting one at a time. If you need him to be off two specific ones, start there. Just replace one with a sippy of milk. Don't give in to a screaming fit if he has one and hide the bottles. It may take a few days for him to realize you mean business or he may never have a problem with a sippy instead of bottle. Give him three days of taking a sippy at that time of day and then do the next bottle time. My daughter transitioned wonderfully using this method. You have a great start since he already takes a sippy well. Just stick to it and he should be bottle free by the time mom's day out starts. Good luck!
J.

First of all, relax. You have 2 great advantages here...you have a schedule for your child and your child is already taking a sippy cup. The following answer I give you was given to me from my friend who is a dietician and a lactation consultant. First, for future reference, babies can wait until their first birthday for whole milk. They need the formula/breastmilk for brain development and milk products tend to be somewhat allergenic. But you didn't start til recently, so that's fine. You're doing great. Now, as for removing the bottles, you're halfway there. Just put the bottles away. As of his first birthday, they no longer exist. Replace with sippy cups and whole milk. Sounds like he tolerates the milk well, so you're fine. Keep the same schedule for a while (like a week or 2), that way all you're actually changing is type of milk (from formula to milk) and type of cup (from bottle to sippy). By the way, you can switch to skim or 2% milk after the 2nd birthday.
Here's the deal about mealtimes. Offer a balanced meal...for example 2 veggies/fruits, 1 meat/protein, 1 carb, 1 dairy. Let him decide how much he needs to eat. Don't force him to overeat. Just keep offering variety. Sometimes a kid needs to try the same food 8-10 times before he decides he likes it. You can offer him milk with his meal in a sippy. Keep offering him healthy snacks. Stick to your schedule so that his little body learns to get hungry at certain times. Avoid sugars and juices. My dietician friend said a baby should have no more than 2 oz. of juice per day before their 2nd birthday and no more than 4 oz. of juice daily until adulthood. In other words, juice is unnecessary. Better than juice...water!
Remember, nothing but water after he brushes his teeth at night. The sugar in milk can rot teeth when allowed to sit all night.
As for waking up at night...just takes 3-5 days of crying out to make that better. Remember, babies do not wake in the night for nutritional reasons after 8 months or so. Waking in the night after that is just habit. You can break it. Either use the cry-out method or use the stand-by-the-bed-and-tap-the-diaper-and-put-in-the-pacifier-but-never-pick-up-or-talk-to-the-baby method (my personal favorite) or whatever you used the first time.
You will be fine. Your instincts are right on target...you answered your own question in the question itself...trust your gut!
About me: Married 33 yr. old mother of 2 under 2 years. Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Licensed Professional Counselor, Addicted to research on my babies

I understand the desire to get him off the bottle, J is 18 months and he is down to a bottle at nap time and at bedtime. He takes his bottle sitting in my lap and then we brush teeth and go to bed. I don't happen to think it is a huge deal anymore. When my 30 yr. old daughter was 11 months old I took her off cold turkey. Since she still had the need to suck she resorted to sucking her fingers. To this day her fingers are bent and disformed and her jaw is recessed. If I had to do it over I would have done it quite different. Well, I do have a second chance with my grandkids. K did fine and was totally off the bottle by 2, J is down from several a day to the 2. I talked to the Pediatric Dentist and he said as long as their teeth are getting brushed and they aren't going to sleep with a bottle in their mouth all night then they should be okay. As for Mothers-Day-Out, let him have a bottle in the morning and take him without a bottle. See how it goes for a few days. You might want to take a fresh bottle with you when you pick him up, he may be thirsty.

I am sure whatever you do will be fine as long as he doesn't get dehydrated. Good luck.

I didn't read all the responses but..
my daughter just turned 1 on the 12th. I knew I wanted her off the bottle before then. My 8yr old son was easy-her, not so much. So I bought a bunch of transistion cups. They have the shape of a sippy but they are rubber(y) like a bottle nipple. PERFECT-she hasn't missed a beat! Gerber makes some and so does Nuby. They both hold 7-8oz so just like a bottle. The only thing is-I can't believe she still wants formula knowing she's tried regular milk-yuk! =) good luck! God Bless!! ~L. C.
ps. please remember our troops! It's 110 deg. overseas. thanks-an Army wife!

when babies are young, their main source of nutrition should be formula or breast milk but once they are one and drinking milk, their main source of nutrition should be from real food. you said that he drinks from a cup fine until he sees the bottle. if he gets two bottles a day now then you could just go down to one for a bit and see how he does, then just take it away all together. sometimes it is just that the bottle is familiar and soothes them but they don't really need it anymore. once he gets in mothers day out, he will use a cup anyway so you could just try to ease the bottle away and offer more food at the table. feed him a snack before he goes to bed to eliminate any hunger but if he only cries for the bottle when he sees it, i would not bring it out anymore. instead of the bottle, offer him a sippy cup of milk for one and then a bottle for another later. if he knows that if he cries for the bottle and will get it, you will not get him broken from it.

hope this helps.

Deanna L hit the nail on the head !!! That is how I got my two oldest ones off there poppy.Mine were both off the bottle by six months. I always start a sippy cup at 16 weeks. I never changed the nipples on the bottles and I always used slow flow. I guess the sippy cups flowed faster and they liked that better.But like I said use the farmers almanac if it works for poppy's I know it will work for bottles. They never even missed them,never asked for them ever again.It was so easy!When they got up that day they were all gone that was it!

Stop giving him a bottle. Plain and simple. Offer only the cup. It may take him a while to realize that he is supposed to drink out of the cup and not a bottle, but he will eventually get it. As long as he is eating table food he shouldn't be hungry. My youngest is 2 1/2 so it is kinda hard for me to remember exactly, but it seems like he is drinking too many bottles for his age with table food. You just have to be strong and resist the urge to give him a bottle. If he is already tolerating milk you need to be trying to get him off formula too.

Good morning - your best bet might be to ask your pediatrician, but personally I feel your son is too young to take off the bottle. 2 is more the average age for that, and he truly isn't a toddler yet, he is still a baby. I don't know which Mom's Day out program you are going to, but the ones here in Huntsville, along with the day care schools, etc., only ask that a child be potty trained (or at least partially) by age 2 1/2. I never heard of expecting a child to be off the bottle (gosh that sounds funny haha) at age 1. Please don't take this the wrong way, but I am seeing so many mommies out there wanting their babies to do things way too early. Please consider carefully before you push him into doing things he truly isn't ready for yet. Good luck

get rid of the bottle and just give him a cup.

Try beginning to replace, one at a time, the formula with water. It will take some time, about a month probably, but this is what worked with my daughter. A friend of mine had her son help throw them in the trash and they "celebrated" by going to the park. She told him that he was a big boy and did not need "baby" bottles anymore and that worked for him. He only cried once for the bottle and she reminded him of throwing them away and that he was a big boy and he did not cry anymore for one.

Try self led weaning. It is very simple with breastfeeding, which is the more natural way. A baby has a natural sucking need that helps their brain development and creates security in them. If you try to change that normal need the baby will try to suck on anything and everything to meet the need. Surprisingly,the normal age for weaning in the world is age 5 (from breastfeeding), so you can see that in the US we force early weaning and it can be detimental. Both of my children were breast fed and they weaned between 1.5 and 2 years. There were no bottles, sippy cups or schedules to bother with. It was so easy, bonding and warm. I cried when they weaned! I wouldn't worry that you need to wean your baby off the bottle. He will do it when ready. You may want to breastfeed next time. You will be surprised how wonderful and easy it is. You may want to check websites from the internet on the subject when you have time. B. S. RN CCm

what we did is put the formula in the sippy cup. he might like the taste of the formula better and equates the bottle with the yummy tasting stuff and the sippy cup with the cold milk. i would start giving him formula in the sippy cup and once he turns one start the milk (babies shouldn't have cow's milk until 1) also in a sippy cup but give it as warm as you do the formula. gradually make the formula colder and colder until he is used to getting it cold all the while switching between milk and formula and weaning off the formula. until all he is getting is cold milk in a sippy. i'd stop the bottle altogether and make it a big deal that he is a big boy now and he gets cool sippy cups. also, you might try the soft nipple nuby sippy cup if you aren't already. it's a great transition cup. they even have one that is shapped similar to a bottle nipple and then you can graduate to a soft nipple that is not so bottle like and then go to a hard top.

jennifer this will sound so crazy but I swear to you it works like a charm. Purchase a farmers almanac at the book store. in there is a section on weaning babies and it will have a chart and based on your babies birthdate/time it will tell you the exact day to wean them. You say this is your last bottle, starting tomorrow you will drink from a big boy cup only. You give it to him and don't mention it again. after he goes to bed. but all the bottles away and don't look back. He shouldn't complain. We have weaned babies from both bottle and breast this way for 3 generations. It sounds nuts but really works. My son would did great. I didn't introduce milk/formula before hand in the sippy so if it wasn't juice or water he thru it at me at first but after about 3 days that stopped. good luck

Feed him his regular meals like you would normally and give him his sippy of milk. Then, on those odd times that you are not having a meal, offer him snacks (a filling snack) not junk food and offer him another sippy of milk. I also gave mine juice and water in between when they were thirsty. I found out that giving them cereal before bed as a bedtime snack helped my older one (make sure you brush their teeth though). More than likely he is taking that bottle out of habit. I doubt he is that hungry, so try these methods and see what works for you and your baby. You will find that it just all works out! Hope this helps you!

It looks like you've gotten a lot of responses! About a week after my daughter turned 1, I packed away all the bottles. I told her she wasn't a baby anymore, and she was going to drink out of big girl cups from now on. She never fussed wanting a bottle or anything. She was taking about 4 bottles at the time. I just put milk in the sippy and started giving that to her. After about a week we cut down to just milk with meals. She also got sippy's with water or juice in between meals. I hope that helps.

we had a little struggle getting my son of his bottle, he was about 14-15 months, so first of all, relax and don't set a "date" that he should be off it by. we used gerber bottles and they had a transition "sippy" lid, so he could still hold his bottle but the nipple was replaced. then we switched him to water in it only and put one in his bed at night so when he woke up in the night he could just reach over and get himself a drink. good luck, it'll happen, just don't put too much pressure on yourself! he's only going to be little for a short period of time, and i don't think, in the grand scheme of things, that a couple months extra taking a night time bottle is going to hurt anyone (or rot his teeth! puh-leeze!! :-)