When Is a Good Age to Start Weening from a Bottle?

He'll give it up by kindergarten....lol! Honestly, I think we put a little too much worry into the 'breaking' of habits that will right themselves eventually. Just relax and taper it off slowly, he'll be fine either way!
~L.

Each kid is a little different, but I think the sooner the better. I took my kids' bottles away on their first birthdays (Happy Birthday!)

I am no dr, but my from my experience, here are my thoughts. One year and the bottle should be gone. My oldest was on hers til about 14 months and it was very hard to take away. My second one was transitioned by one year from the bottle and formula. They really don't need it after that. My now almost 9 month old is on a cup and a bottle at daycare. He will be weaned from bottle by one year as well. I agree with some of the other posts, the longer you wait, the harder it will be.

He does NOT need a bottle anymore. Most doctors recommend to get rid of it before 12 months. Sippy cups are fine. He is also most likely getting all the nutrition he needs from his food. Kids this age should only have one or two 4 to 6 oz glasses of whole milk per day, and one 4 oz glass of juice. Other than that, they should be eating meals and small snacks and be drinking water. Bottles are not good for their teeth and they will end up just drinking their calories and getting too much of the wrong calories and not enough of the right ones. Now is the time to start weening or you will end up with a two year old still on the bottle. By that time it will be very difficult to get rid of it. I suggest (what worked for me) is find a sippy cup with a soft sipper (similar to a bottle) and gradually move toward the hard sippers and then to no lids at all. The last bottle to get rid of will be the bed time one. But you should go cold turkey on the daytime bottles and tell his daycare provider to do the same. It might be tough for a day or two, but he really should be off the bottle now. You might see that he starts eating better during the day.

You will probably hear that you need to stop the bottles know from other parents, that it isn't healthy or good for the teeth. But not from me my 16 month old still uses a bottle and I wont even try to curb that until he is around 2. I brush his teeth often so that takes care of teeth, next most people move thier children over to a sippee cup, which lets face it it is just another bottle in the form of a cup. I am of the thought that a bottle doesn't hurt anything and in time most of mine have just broke themselves of the bottle, especially once they start having regular meals. So if it is working for you and you are brushing the teeth let him have it, I know I go against the grain here but I am OK with it. Do what is right for you and your little one, you know him best.

We weened our kids by age one. They both were soy formula babies so we started mixing soy milk with formula and then soy milk with whole milk. They both were off of bottles by their first birthday. It was really easy. I suggest getting rid of them ASAP. Good luck.

I had trouble with that and the longer you wait the harder it is. He should be usuing a sippy cup by now and no more formula unless, he has a problem and can't eat. If you take away the bottle, he'll eat more food. Good luck.

M., try weening with the new rubber tiped sippy cups made by Gerber. They have them in real nice colors and cute cartoons on them. I used it for my grandson when he started growing his front teeth. However when he would go home to his Mom she would give him back the bottle and not the cup, and lost his top front teeth from the acidity that built up on his teeth. With me the cup worked real good. And please if you don't do it brush his teeth often. Good luck with weening. God bless you both

We switched our daughter to whole milk 100% at 1 year and continued the bottle until 15 months - because she just didn't like using the sippy cups. We found out that she is drawn to one brand of cup - just like she only liked one type of bottle. I will tell you it was a few painful days when the bottles went away but we did it "cold turkey" and would do it that way again. Her pedicatrician had told us that she could continue to have an increased amount of ear infections the longer she was on the bottle so that helped us make the decision. She is a little over 2 know and has done great with only one ear infection since. Good luck.

hi--I'm a dental hygienist--we always say to start introducing a sippy cup at age one--you have to be careful of baby bottle tooth decay after that--the teeth that are coming in now will easily start to decay when they have a bottle--fall asleep with it and the milk stays on their teeth and the decay process starts--
Another things you can do is start to dilute the milk in the bottle with water--keep adding more water than milk--and pretty soon it's all water--also be careful with juice in the bottles--it also acts the same way--all these things, milk, juice, will turn into sugars on the teeth and cavities start--
So--try a sippy cup several times a day--pretty soon he won't want that bottle at all--and he'll be getting all the milk he needs from him sippy cup----Good Luck and Happy Smiles--S

I agree with the other moms about being on a sippy cup, but I don't know if you have to go cold turkey with all the bottles. One thing you could try is having him eat first in the morning before offering milk, which might be really hard for him but I think offering the food first at meals helps them get the nutrition they need. We waited awhile before taking away the bedtime bottle and really he did it on his own, I just started offering him a cup of milk at night and eventually he took that instead. But that was after he was not having any other bottles durring the day. I would try taking away one, or two bottles at a time and wait a few days in between. Like you could take away any bottles he has durring the day and just give him one in the morning and one at night. (he really doesn't need any more milk then that) Offer him a sippy cup at meals and if he is thirst durring the day, with water or maybe diluted juice. Then I would work towards dropping the morning one. It might be really hard but he will adjust. My son is 18months now and I give him a cup with milk in the morning, sometimes he finishes it sometimes not, and then we offer him milk at night, sometimes with a snack. Anyway, I hope that makes sense! Good luck!

IMO bottles should only be used for nutritional purposes, so I feel he should be taken off right away. That is a lot of liquid for someone that age, who should be getting most of his calories from nutritious solid food.

I do feel kids should never walk around with a bottle, for one it looks aweful, and second they become dependant on it, and wont give it up. Both of my kids were nursed and used a bottle, but they gave them up at 9&11 months.

Hope this helps.

GL:)

Our Dr. said off teh bottle and formula at 1 yr. Our daughter was fully off the bottle at 13 months..she was a hard one to get started on a sippy cup. But she was on whole milk at 1 yr. that transition was easy for both our kids they love milk. My son was on a sippy at 1 yr. It was a little easier getting him off the bottle just because he seen his sister using a cup. I would stop the formula and start whole milk. I would take away the bottle at meals and give them a cup. THen gradually replace the other times he gets a bottle with a cup. If they refuse it don't worry, missing one bottle will be ok. I also keep a sippycup available all the time with water. They can have all they want of water. That helped the transition too. Good Luck!

M., I used to work in daycare, so I am shocked that they are even still giving him bottles. When they start taking a sippy cup about 6-9 mos, you should automatically decrease the bottle time. Don't get those Nub or Nubby cups as they don't teach children the proper way to drink, as it is too much like a bottle nipple. I have always prefered the good old tupperware kind with a simple small 4-6oz cup with a lid that pops on. Like the ones I had when I was little. Without all the fancy gadgets. There is no stopper. Give him a sippy with all the meals. Between meals if you think he needs something to drink, only give him water as juice is bad for the teeth, and milk will fill his tummy so then he won't want to eat at the meals. With the Nubby cups, I look at my neices. My eldest one just turned 4 and she was given these up through her 3rd birthday. When she came over here and I gave her some water in a sippy that has a no leak thing in it, she didn't know how to suck it, same with one of those simple ones. There is a difference between the sucking for cups and bottles. The same thing happened recently with my youngest neice. I handed her a gerber tippy cup, and she just put it in her mouth and didn't know how to get the milk out. You can always contact me, if you feel like it.

We weaned from the bottle at 1 year. We made sure he could drink from the sippy cup then one by one replaced bottle feedings with sippy cup feedings. But, do what works for you.

The sooner you get him drinking out of a "real" cup the better. I finally have my 4 year old off of sippy cups. My babysitter insisted that 1 year old was too young to wean so being my first baby I listened. When trying to wean her later, she refused milk out of a sippy. Milk came from a bottle. We finally got her to take milk out of a soft tipped sippy (to me, a toddler bottle). Now, at age four and in preschool, she is the only kid at preschool who doesn't drink her milk. She will finally drink milk and juice through a straw but it's been a long hard battle. The same thing will not happen with my 4 month old. Sippy cups are nice for protecting your floors, but I will be starting my baby on real cups long before we begin weaning her from the bottle. It was not worth the struggle with the older one.

I don't think there is a designated time, however, the longer they have it, the more attached they could become. With my girls, I introduced the sippy cup at 6 months and it gradually replaced the bottle. By the time they were a year-they were done. Start by giving him a sippy cup at meals and work up from there. I personally found that right at first, the cups that are soft (where they suck) were easier for them than the hard ones (I like the Avent trainer cups). My pediatrician and their dentist also told me to take out the valve (unless they are roaming with them) because it will do the same damage to the teeth as a bottle does and it doesn't teach them to drink from a cup.
I hope that helped--Good Luck!!

Hi M.:
My son was off the bottle by the time he was 11 months old. He did just fine without it by this age and there was never an issue with nutritional deficiencies. The real struggle was at night because i would always rock him with a bottle and when i tried to use the sippy cup to do this he did put up a fight but it didint last long. I think that you should possibly try and start introducing sippy cups and get rid of the bottles. The longer you wait the more of a fight you may have on your hands. Oh and with the sippy cups you may need to leave the plastic guard off, in the lid under the mouth piece, because he will not know that he needs to suck hard to get the juice out. Yes it may be messy to do this but it's only temporary! Good Luck
K.

We started bottle weaning at 15 months. My daughter didn't want to at first, but caught on fast. I just substituted her bottle w the Nuby cup w soft straw. First we started w breakfast, then added lunch a week later, etc. After 1 1/2 months we were switched over. If you hide all the bottles and just have the cup out, if he is thirsty enough, he will drink it. Or try having a few different sippy cups out for him to play w on the weekends....good luck!

We were told to switch to a sippy at 12 mths. We did it gradually (introducing it at meal times) until we offered only sippy, no bottle. It went very smoothly with both my kids.

M.,
To answer your question simply and directly... before 15 months. (That is what our doctor suggests - it is also what we did with our first and what we are doing with our second.) The way we made it work for us: My son was down to three bottles a day. One in the morning after waking up, one before nap, and one before bedtime. All were 8 oz. We weened him off of the morning bottle by giving him 6 oz. for one week, 4 oz. for another week and then the third week we continued his other two bottles as normal (8 oz. each). The following week we gave him a 6 oz. nap bottle, the next week a 4oz. nap bottle and then one week with just his nighttime bottle at 8oz. We are about to start the week with a 6 oz. nighttime bottle and then one week with a 4 oz. nighttime bottle and then we're done! Keep in mind that while we have been weening him, we have also given him milk in a sippy cup during every meal and water in a sippy cup while playing. At first he was not keen on the idea of cold milk in a cup since he had only ever had water in a cup before this... but he slowly warmed up to the idea and is now doing wonderfully with a sippy cup. Also, we have never allowed our children to walk around with their bottles or sleep with them which I believe sort of helps the process along. What I think you need to do is get your son on the same bottle schedule at home as he is at day care and once you are able to accomplish that, begin slowly taking away how much you give him at each feeding until each feeding is gone. Usually the last feeding to go is the nighttime one because it is typically a comfort thing for them. To get rid of the last feeding (which may be the most difficult to do), I recommend that you have a really nice bedtime routine down, including a story, a lullaby, a bath (whatever works for your family). That will help him in the transition. The longer they are one the bottle, the more difficult it will be to make the switch. Sorry this is so long - I just start typing and off I go! Hope this helps!

K. :)

We weened both of our kids from their bottles as soon as they turned 1 year old. Also, at this time, we switched them from formula to whole milk. We pretty much just switched from bottles to sippy cups, and did it fairly quickly. I didn't make the weening a long drawn out process. Both kids (a girl and a boy who are now 3 1/2 and almost 2) did fine. They formed an attachment to the sippy cup at bedtime for a little while, but that eventually stopped, and now they just have their drinks before bed. Also, you may want to start limiting your son's milk intake if it causes him to not eat his meals as well (something that happened with our kids). Check with your doctor on how much milk they recommend for your son.

M.,
I know this time it is a little late, but at 9 months is the best way to wean them from a bottle into a sippie cup. At a year they should be almost completely or completely off the bottle. Since your baby is 14 months now really try to offer a sippie cup instead of a bottle. Maybe for a week or two give him a morning and evening bottle. Then just throw them out. It will take a little adjustment for the little one, but it will be for the best. At this age they will ususally be eating table food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No worries though the first child is a learning experience. Good luck.

Hi i would say to start weaning him now. It took up pry until our son was about 15 or 16 months to get him off the bottle and onto a sippy cup but we quit the formula at 12 months because they say to put them on whole cows milk which they need for the fat. so he still had his bottle but he was drinking regular milk out of it. it just took him longer to get used to the sippy or else we would have switched him off the bottle use at 12 months. but the longer you wait the harder i hear it gets due to them getting attatched and not wanting to give the bottle up so i would def. start now