Is your toddler still using a bottle???

[kmblc3]

Well my "favorite food" question got such a great response I thought I would ask another couple of questions. I am going to put them in separate threads though.

Ok so my question here is this....Is your toddler still using a bottle and if so are you OK with that?

DD weaned herself from BF at 10 months but is NOT as willing to let go of her "bobby" . Her Dr. wanted no bottles by 1 yr!!! Yeah right!!! I need to sleep!! I am a SAHM as of April 2nd but while I was working my motto was whatever allows me more sleep! I would give Gwen a bottle before bed and then send her to bed with water...I will not lie and tell you that I never give her milk in bed!! Sometimes she demands it...am I horrible for giving in?

If you have moved your child off the bottle I would love some tips for doing it with the least amount of stress for her. She loves her sippy cup and REALLY loves big people cups but when she is tired she wants her "bobby"!!

[TtownAnne]

Hmmmm. Caroline did it with no stress whatsoever. We just said that since baby drinks (formula) were going byebye, baby bottles were too, and she never asked about them again!

As to help getting your daughter off of bottles - what about saying the bottles are broken? Poke a hole in them with a pair of scissors or something and show her that milk doesn't stay in there, so she can't use them? Is there any holiday or event or vacation that you could "donate" them? Maybe you're going on vacation to the beach and tell her that the baby fishes need bottles, and she has to give hers?

[kmblc3]

I should have said that she is 20 month so some of those idea would be over her head I think. They are great ideas though. I guess I feel like she shouldn't be using a bottle because of her Dr.

[Dennis]

This just shows how much doctors differ in opinion. We stopped giving Joe bottles at a year without any problems and our ped said we should keep giving him the bedtime one because he could use the calories since he was so small. We were going to stop it at 18 months and our ped said we could keep going until he was 2, so we did. We just replaced it with a cup of milk downstairs before bed and he was fine with it.

Dennis

[~Andrea~]

Gabrielle rarely ever took a bottle so I can help from personal experience there. However I did break my cousin's son of the bottle when he was about 20 months. She and her DH went to LV for a vacation and John (DH) and I stayed there and watched the kids (this was years ago before we were even engaged). Anyway, she told me that Michael got a bottle at bedtime and me being the wise know it all, told her that he was too old for bottles and he'd be off by the time she got back. She was so upset because she said he couldn't go to sleep without it. Well the first night I just didn't offer it to him and he never asked for it. He was fine w/o it. I think it had just become habit for him.

Not to say that your DD would be the same way, but maybe changing her bedtime routine a little at a time to eliminate the bottle might help.

[Karri]

Just after Aidan turned 1, we took him down to 1/day...at bedtime. he relished that bedtime bottle, more as comfort than anything. At 16 months, I decided that it was long enough and didnt want his teeth to suffer. So one night we just didnt give it to him. He asked for it and we told him that the bottles were all gone and that if he wanted milk, he could have a cup.

You'd be surprised at how easy it could be...I think sometimes, we (parents) make it harder than we think it'll be. The same thing goes for pacifiers (I thought that would be hell to wean and it as easy as pie!)

[Nocona]

Matthew gave it up no problem at 11 months when I switched him to whole milk.

I was going to suggest what Karri did -- just tell her they're all gone. She'll probably pitch a fit (maybe not), but she'll probably get over it quicker than you'd think.

[olcott]

Trey was still on the bottle at a year...he refused every type of sippy cup I could find to try with him...finally, one day we were at walmart and I saw a new kind there, and it has a latex sippy part instead of it being hard and plastic...I grabbed one of those, and as soon as we got home, I filled it with water and handed it to him..he had a meltdown, and I held him for a while while he cried, and finally he tried it...it took a while for him to get used to it, but that was the last day he had a bottle..there were times those first few weeks when he would cry for his "baba", but I just kept trying with him, and never gave in....I'd comfort him as much as I could when he wanted his baba, but never gave it to him...

[TtownAnne]

You'd be surprised at what they do understand. She has a concept of "broken", doesn't she? (or is every single toy and item in your house still intact after a baby?) I'd try that one.

Originally Posted by kmblc3

I should have said that she is 20 month so some of those idea would be over her head I think. They are great ideas though. I guess I feel like she shouldn't be using a bottle because of her Dr.

[Karen&Tess]

With Tess it pretty much happened all about the same time (around 15 months). She was only getting bottles at sleep times. My Mom started putting her to sleep without the bottle. A couple of days later, she grabbed her sippy glass to take to bed. She did that a couple nights and then I eliminated that.

However a few months ago she decided that she wants her sippy cup in bed with her even though she doesn't drink from it.

[Brooke]

I was sure Rebekah was going to have a tough time giving up the bottles because she was so attached to them. But when she turned 1 yr old, we started replacing them with cups and she was off the bottle by 13 months.

However, at 27 months old, she is VERY attached to her sippy cups and goes to bed with one every night. She also still likes to be held when she's drinking. It's her security item.

Rebekah wouldn't have understod "broken" when she was 20 months old. She still wasn't very verbal at all so explaining concepts like that didn't work. She did understand "all gone", though. Does Gwen know where you keep the bottles? Maybe you could put them somewhere else and show her that they are all gone and then offer the cups. Or maybe you should just throw them away in front of her. That's what my mom did with my sister. Paige learned to open her bottles so one time when she did it, my mom threw the bottle in the trash and never gave her another one. Paige cried, of course, but she got over it.

[olcott]

Originally Posted by Karen&Tess

However a few months ago she decided that she wants her sippy cup in bed with her even though she doesn't drink from it.

Trey does this too I fill it up about halfway with water, and its still got just as much in it in the morning as it did when I put him to sleep..I think its just a comfort thing for him

[bunybomb]

Our ped recommended 18 months as a cut off. By 14 months, we were down to one bottle at bed time (there were times I put him to bed with it too, Kim).

We took a trip to Mexico at 17 months old. I only brought one bottle with us. By the end of our trip, it stunk. Alex had to have it on the plane and it didn't matter with the smell but he didn't ask for it when we got home. I think it grossed him out. The next few nights, I only offered a sippy cup. He didn't ask for a bottle anymore so I threw them away.

Now days, I occassional give Alex water in a sippy cup to take to bed when the weather is warm.

[kmblc3]

Well I have to say that we don't really talk about things being broken yet. she tends to be pretty gentle with her toys so far ...maybe I am lucky I think you all are probably right though, in that it is harder for me than it is for her. The real problem is that she uses it like a pacifier and if she can't find the empty bottle in her sleep she will start screaming and nothing calms her down. She "bucks" and throws a tantrum without even opening her eyes. Once I find the bottle I put it in her mouth and sometimes she falls right back to sleep but sometimes I have to try putting water in it and on the rare occasion she will go crazy until she gets milk. I have tried walking & rocking but I have never had any success.

[spryte332]

Logan is 21 months old and still takes a bottle. His Dr recommends that he be weaned off it by 2 yrs. DH and I have no problem with his still being on it. A couple things we've noticed too are that when he's cutting teeth he clings to it much more than any other time - it's a better comfort than tylenol and orajel for him. No way I'm taking that away from him! However something else we've noticed is that when he's feeling well he's starting to lose interest in it somewhat. We just plan to follow his cues and take it as led - I have a feeling he'll be off it soon enough. He just last week decided out of the blue he no longer wants to be rocked, so I have high hopes!
Kimi

[togirl]

Carter is almost 18 months and drinks juice out of a bottle - he'll drink milk out of a sippy but won't drink juice out of one ...weird. But no one seems worried about it.

[Bonnie]

Caroline will be 2 next month. She loves her bottle, even though she drinks fine from a sippy and even a regular cup. She never took a pacifier, and she still gets comfort from her bottle, so I have not decided to take them away... I think some time after she is 2 and before she is 3, I'll do something, but for now, I just don't care. Her doctor has not said anything, even though I know many of them say 1 year, but even if she did, I'd do what I'm doing. My SIL had a bottle until she was 5, and no issues have followed her, so 2 or 3 is reasonable to me!

[mybabygarrett]

I think Garrett (20mon) will be going to college with his bottle!!! We have tried several times, in vain, to get him off it. I swear every time we did and were making progress, he got sick (which he has been frequently since 4 days old... plus asthma since 8mon) and needed it for comfort.

[koalita]

Jason wasn't really attached to his bottle, but wouldn't drink much out of a regular cup and had a hard time learning to drink from a sippy. At 18 months we started him in a new daycare, and when he saw all the other kids his age using sippy cups, he learned how to use one really quickly. So after he was able to get the same amount out of a sippy as his bottle, we just stopped giving him bottles. He never asked for one or seemed to care one way or the other.

[Mrs. Smith]

After I read this thread I tried getting Abby off the bottle (she's 21 months and seemed very dependant) and so far it has worked great! We have gone 5 days now with no bottle. We have tried in the past with no success, usually due to other things affecting her mood and making her even more dependant on the bottle (sick, teething, etc.). Thankfully this time none of that was going on, so she let go of it pretty easily.

We still send her to bed with a spillproof sippy cup with a little bit of milk in it, but she doesn't drink much of it during the night so I may take that away this week and see how that goes.

Also, when we decided to cut out the bottle, I tried to replace it with something new. Every night we pick out a stuffed animal that she would like to sleep with. It gives her some security and something to look at when she is trying to fall asleep.

Two days ago, she asked for a "baba" and I told her they were all gone. She cried for a few seconds and then was fine.