Weaning 14 Month Old off of Bottle with a Newborn in the House???

I would give her a tippy cup at meal time and start not offering her a bottle at nap time. It is too much transition for her at this time to stop the bottle completely at this time. She will find something to suck, a finger, a blanket, a doll dress, anything to fill that need.

Don't rush her, she will be ready someday, just not today.

We went to sippy cups at 6 months with both our kids for whatever they drank back then. My kids had bottles with pumped milk prior to that, when I was at work, and they went to the sippy cup transition easily. I think both of them really liked having the control that a sippy cup gave them! I would just perservere with the sippy cup or cup and straw (which I would think would lead to a lot of spills at 14 months and come up with a reason for your older child to not want a bottle...as in she's now a big girl and big girls use cups, babies like her sister use bottles. Maybe reward her? Good luck!

Don't yank her comfort source when she is adjusting to the baby. Help her decide it isn't for her anymore on her own terms. Don't tell her she's a baby if she drinks from a bottle. Put the drinks she likes in sippys or straw cups, put only cold milk or even formula in the bottle. Encourage her to have the bottle at night instead of during the day then she can use cups at daycare and still get the comfort of knowing she can have the bottle at night. But stick to only cold drinks or formula at night. Eventually she'll tire of it. It is hard to get enough liquid out and she'll want the more tasty big girl drinks that come in cups. Help her see the advantages of being the big girl. Right now all she sees is the baby getting everything she wants. BTW daycare should give her her drinks in whatever YOU say is appropriate and seeing other kids drinking only from cups may prompt her to drop it without any push from adults.

14 months is still a baby and now she has competition and the stress of daycare coming. Don't rush her, she will only be a baby for a very short time in life both of you should be able to enjoy it!

Hi, J.:
There is more involved here than just weaning your child from the bottle.
She is too young to understand why you are doing this.
She observes the baby and therefore wants to feel a bond with her.

Allow them both to drink from the bottle and it will resolve itself on it's own.
Good luck. Patience is a virtue. D.

Updated

Hi, J.:
There is more involved here than just weaning your child from the bottle.
She is too young to understand why you are doing this.
She observes the baby and therefore wants to feel a bond with her.

Allow them both to drink from the bottle and it will resolve itself on it's own.
Good luck. Patience is a virtue. D.

You have the right idea. Start offering the bottles with water only. Milk should be saved for the sippy cup or straw cups. This is what I had to do with my 2nd son. My first son we just switched cold turkey. One day he was drinking everything from his bottles, the next I had put all the bottles away and he had to use sippys. Every kid is different, but it seems like your daughter needs the more gentle process of offering the sucking of the bottle, but only getting water from it.

Yes! Cold turkey! As soon as a child can sit up, hold a bottle on their own and tip it back then it's time for a cup. She may go a few days of drinking much of nothing, but that's ok. Do not offer juice until she accomplishes drink milk from her cup at all three meals. Once you know she will drink milk fine for breakfast, lunch an dinner, then you can add juice at morning and afternoon snack. At any time she does not finish or drink he milk at one meal, she must finish it or have a cup of milk at snack, since milk consumption is more important than juice or other drinks. She'll eventually drink as she gets thristy. Her stubbornness won't outlast her thirst, no matter how days it takes, lol. She will get some fluids from foods. If you're concerned about the lack of calcium just remember it's only for a day or two, but you can always offer cheeses and yogart.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HarrisburgPAChat
events and chat within 2 hour radius

*I have to add that the child needs to find "comfort" from other sources rather than sucking on a nipple. Getting comfort from a stuffed animal or a human being would be much better than sucking on a nipple at such an age.

this was an important comfort for my first child too. he drank milk from a bottle before his nap and before bed until he was almost 2. have you tried the nuby cups? the mouthpiece is soft just like the bottle. give it a name like "special bottle" or "milk cup". it was a good transition for my oldest. my other two kids were much easier to break from bottles because they wanted to be like their big brother, who by then had moved on to other cups. good luck!

I agree with part of each previous post. If it were me again (mine are 17 mo. apart), I would definitely not take the bottle away, but I would make it less interesting --- only water, and not at night unless she's used to sleeping with it (another thing to deal with down the road.) She has alot to deal with right now, so let her be a baby. My son quit his paci when he was 6 mo. old, but when his sister came along and got one, he wanted one, too. I said no, and he ended up sucking his thumb instead, which continued for 10 years! PS. Daycare isn't school, and she's still considered a baby. If they won't let her have a bottle, I'd think about other arrangements. That's your decision, not theirs.