Weaning off a bottle

Wife4Matt

One more question for the day. When I had emergency surgery last month, I had to wean Madison off the bewbie cold turkey. That was successul. But now she takes a bottle. I give her water in sippy cups, which she takes no problem, but when I put formula in it, she doesn't want it.

I'd like to wean her off the bottle completely soon, and need ideas. Karen gave me a good one yesterday...start by taking the bottle away in the day for a start. Which I will try today.

So I turn to you ladies for advice! Help! TIA!

Fenella

Don't have any advice, I'm still fighting to take the boys bottles away. When I give them milk in a sippy, they cry and throw a fit! So I am glad you posted this!

Jenn09/04

Reese went strait from the bewb to a cup, so it's been awhile since I've bottle weaned. We just started by giving Rhian a cup during the day, but still letting her have a bottle a night. She resisted at first and wouldn't take formula from the cup but loved when we switched to whole milk in a cup. It was something new for her and I guess she didn't associate milk with a bottle.

 

Now if I could just get Reese off the pacifier. We've started only giving it to her a nap and bed time but she FREAKS if we try to put her down without it. We've tried letting her cry it out but that doesn't seem to work with her. She's stubborn and I'm convinced that she would cry all night just to make her point.

tmp-535278437507318

Nat is still drinking milk from a bottle.  She's 21 mo. 

She had a very long hunger strike, refusing to eat many many things she used to like.  So we let her drink milk + vitamins (1x a day) from her bottle.  Before this we had her down to a bottle only at night to go to bed.

I'm hoping that now (now that she seems to be enjoying food again), we can cut back on the bottle and stop all together.

Jos was very hard.  She stopped using the bottle during the day while at day care, prolly around 18 mo.  But Dh and I let her have the bottle at night.  Time marched on and it wasn't until after she was 2 that we had to plan stop letting her have a bottle before bed.  She cried...it was a tough 2-3 days, but we did it.

Long story longer, I don't think it was hunger at around age 2 that makes them want a bottle before bed.  I think it's soothing to them.  I say this because we tried having snacks before brushing our teeth and getting ready for bed but that didn't seem to do anything.

Ok...I think I've gone on for too long now...

julnmatt

Katie stopped the bottle cold turkey.  No problem.  I decided to give her milk (formula for the last month) in a sippy cup with a straw.  She would not drink very much milk from the cups with a spout thingy.

Emily227

One thing that we used to tell parents at my old pediatrics practice that seemed to work very well was this:

Start diluting the formula in her bottle over the period of a week or so, until she's just drinking water from the bottle. After awhile she shouldn't want it anymore.

And remember---she's not going to starve/dehydrate herself intentionally. She might throw a bit of a fit and be stubborn, but you need to hold out! She will be fine.  

tmp-535278437507318

Great idea Emily!  Thank you so much!  I'm gonna try that!!!

Lisa Figueroa

 Ella's ENT was adamant that she stop drinking a bottle so we had to pull the bottle cold turkey. F'n nightmare...especially where she was so used to drinking one right after her bath and prior to bed. She cried for hours one night.

That said, we bought several different sippy cups....nuby, first years, advent, gerber....and let her decide which style she likes. Right now she's loving the sippy cup with straw that Julie mentioned. It looks like a sports bottle.

Our only issue at this point is the damn pacifier. Because she had such excessive sinus pressure and drainage her ENT was not opposed to her keeping the paci to help alleviate some of the pain involved, so we gave it to her. She went from using it on occasion to using it 24/7. UGH!!!

I'm basically waiting to be laid off to tackle that hurdle....

MissMarinaT

I started with the sippy cups with the very soft top (nubie?).  The ones that most feel like a bottle.  And I just let j-man quit cold turkey.  But because it was the very soft sippy, the transition was not  hard.  After that, I slowlly introduced the harder tops.  It worked for him.

shellybellmw

I'm glad you posted this.  T still drinks one bottle at night before bed.  During the day she doesn't ask for it at all.  If we put milk in her sippy she throws a fit.  My problem is.......she STILL can't drink from a straw or a hard top sippy cup (because you have to suck out of it too).  She's almost 2 and can't drink from a straw, we just don't get it.  We've tried every way imaginable to try to teach her and nada.