I am looking for a little help/reassurance. I really want to wean my 16 month old from her nightime bottle. She is very attached to it, and it is her only bottle. We made the mistake of putting her to bed with it long ago because it was so easy. I know she doesn't sleep with it in her mouth, because we go in and take it out of her crib shortly after she falls asleep. She drinks it, tosses it aside, and falls asleep. She refuses to drink milk from a cup, but drinks a lot of water from a cup, and eats plenty of dairy throughout the day. Any ideas to make weaning easier? Should I go "cold turkey"? Should I water down the bottle until it is uninteresting? What have others done that worked? (She doesn't take a pacifier, never has.)
Thanks for the help! We read the book where Kermit says bye to his ba ba, I spoke with her about it during the day, and we said, "Bye Bye Ba Ba" that evening. She was fine - a little whiny for a week or so, mostly because she thought she should take her sippy cup with her to bed. Now she goes to bed smiling!
maybe put a scoop of Ovaltine or a couple of drops of Vanilla in a sippy cup just to get the ball rolling. After she starts getting use to the cup you can back off of it & just give her milk.
good luck :)
COLD Turkey all the way, put water in the bottle immediately, or her teeth will ROT! start puttinng milk and only milk in the sippy cup, she needs about 16 oz of whole milk each day. Remember you are the parent and you are in charge!
Hi there!
My daughter also loved to sleep with a bottle at night. Even though I started pretty early cleaning her teeth (6 months) I was surprised to see one day a brown spot in between her lower teeth. After talking to a dentist I found out that the naturally occurring sugars in milk could cause cavities if the appropriate steps were not taken. I got scared of her prematurely losing her baby teeth and started right away to wean her off the bottle. I weaned her of drinking milk in bed just around 8 months. At first, I gave her heavily watered down milk and by the 3rd night just water. She didn't complain – I guess that I got lucky. What was really hard to deal was taking the actually bottle from her. Around 13 months we decided that it was time! I can only tell you that in most cases there is no easy way. In my daughter's case it was really tough the first 4 days, tagged with every-so-often whining for the next 2 weeks. It was heart breaking hearing her cries! The only advice that I can give is this: ONCE you decide to take it from her DON’T fall back and give in! Otherwise, your sweet thing will figure out that if she cries long enough, her baba will return! Stay strong and remember that the longer you postpone it the harder it will be for your daughter!! Just my two cents!
Good Luck!
M.
I'm sure every child is different but we did the same thing right around 16 months. We started by talking about it, just saying soon, no more bottles. Then one day it's all I talked about and she got it and as I put her to bed she just kept saying "no more ba ba" as we read her stories. Maybe we were lucky but cold turkey worked best for us.
I gathered them all up, put them in a bag, and my husband threw them away! That was that!! Never had a problem. Although, neither of our children were really attached to the bottle.
Good luck!
We switched to a Nuby cup (nipple is similar to a bottle) and give it to our son before bed (in a rocking chair) and then do a quick teeth brushing, story and cuddle, and put him to bed.
We did it when my daughter was a little older. We made a big deal about the bottle fairy coming to take the bottles away for babies who need them on a particular night chosen. The night the fairy came she brought a few different sippy style cups and a lovey.
My 5 year old took a bottle till he was four. It was soy protien and powdered vitamins mixed in milk. I knew the contents were important, but the delivery method was purely habit. I finally gave a good enough reward to drop the bottle and go to sippy cup; I gave him a trip to Fairyland (in Oakland) and to Thomas town (In Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo) and he was thrilled to give up the bottle knowing that the reward was waiting. He was much older though, and easier to reason with. Now I have a 1 1/2 year old that uses sippy cups happily because he is no longer offered a bottle. We have one emergency bottle in the house and he just never sees it. He's a huge milk drinker including a big cup at bed time.
A friend of mine made the rule "milk only in a cup" and then gave her daughter a warm bottle of water for bedtime. She still had her bottle, but without the concern of milk just sitting in her mouth all night, and when the girl was about 2 1/2, she gave it up on her own- at first just sleeping with a warm bottle, and then not even wanting the bottle at all.
Angela,
If she doesn't ask for it don't give it to her.
Also, if going cold turkey doesn't help you can start watering down the milk and making it so she doesn't want to drink the bottle.
