Trying My Best to Get My 1 1/2 Year Old off the Bottle!

Let her watch you throw all the bottles in the trash and put up with a few nights screaming. Tell her all the bottles are gone (and really git rid of them ALL!) and offer a sippie with the spillguard. At a year they don't need the bottle and they really don't need a sippie in bed either. Maybe a nice soft blanket or a new toy to help transfer the attachment. Its not being bad or mean, it is being a parent. It may be harder because you already let her know, If I cry enough I get the bottle back. Good Luck

i just got my almost 16 mth old off the bottle at night.
first i started putting 6oz water and 2 oz milk and she ended up only drinking some. but see daddy would give her a bottle while i was not here. then i started just water and this made her mad but she got over it. now i give her a sippy cup of milk every night, not good for teeth but hey she is OFF the bottle and sleeps through the night most nights. in my case i think it was me that wanted her to stay on the bottle but i did it i took it away, YOU CAN DO IT!!!

It feels like a big problem for you now, but in the big picture, it's not at all. She's only a year and a half. Is it really such a big deal if she holds onto it for a while longer? (As long as you're just giving her water, of course; anything else, and she'll get cavities. If you need to transition, simply water whatever it is down over the course of a couple of weeks. Maybe that, alone, will make the bottle less appealing to her, though she might not quite know why, if you do it gradually enough.)

I think that, probably, what you can do is start introducing another one or couple of comforts *while* still giving her her bottle with a smile. That way she can make the switch more easily. If you give her a super excellent teddy bear that she has to hold with both hands, she might just choose *it* over the bottle. (Try sleeping with it for a few nights, yourself, so it smells like you.) If that isn't what ends up happening, you can, after a couple of weeks of snuggling with her and her new blankie/teddy bear/whatever, gently start to make the switch. Really just focus more love and happiness on her and [fill in the blank] and just act casually bored about the bottle but say, when she asks for it, "oh, yeah. IF you really want this old thing, sure." Don't be bothered if she continues to cling to it for some time. Give the bear/blankie, whatever, special attention, even when she doesn't. Then she'll value it more.

Another approach, in combination with or instead of these is to set a big-girl graduation date. (This might work a little later, depending on how developmentally ready a 1 1/2-year old is for this kind of approach. Can't say I've been there.) Keep talking it up and have it on a calendar that she can see. Maybe it will be Christmas (with lots of distractions to help!) But maybe that will be too stressful a time for her, with Mom being busy with so many tasks. Maybe it will be New Year's Day. Or some other arbitrary day. Tell her that she can trade in the bottle for a great new present - pick it out with her, make sure it's something she really likes, and leave it high up in a prominent place and make it a big deal that she is about to earn a big-girl present. Then, during the event, allow *her* to hand over her bottle. Because whatever way you do this, it will go best if she voluntarily gives it up (thumb-sucking, etc. will be less likely to replace it).

Whatever you do, don't make it a fight. The more stress she experiences at night-time, the more she wants to cling to her favorite night-time comfort!

I'm sure you guys will do great. And no matter what happens, as long as you give her love and cover the essential needs, she will grow up to be a perfectly fine adult :)

L.

It's okay, she is still very young. I know all the experts say 12months. But really she will be fine. I know they talk about tooth decay. But she isn't carrying around a bottle of juice (or pop, or koolaid) all day. One night time bottle is fine. Relax. Many kids have a bedtime bottle up until age 2 or 2 1/2. One thing the helped for me was to fill the bottle with warm water. It seemed to satisfy the need to suck but wasn't quite as satisfying. Easier to eventually give up.

My daughter flat out refuses to drink out of a normal sippy cup. She will only drink out of the ones with a straw that reaches all the way to the bottom of the cup. We took her off the bottle at one year. (was only breast fed for two months) She's strong willed and wouldn't lift her bottle, (we used the kind with a bag) so now she won't lift a sippy cup to drink. Now she'll drink out of a normal cup, but when we're out we take the sippy cup. You might want to try that kind because it's so similar to a bottle.

You and I are in the same boat. My daughter will be 2 Dec. 27. She is perfectly fine during the day with her sippy cups. However as soon as its bedtime she wants her bottle. I talked to her doctor and honestly he really didnt show that much concern. He just told me to gradually start diluting it with water until eventually its all water. That good 5 to 10 minutes of the day with a bottle in her mouth isnt going to hurt a thing. I plan to let her grow out of it. So my advice is gradually go to water that way she can brush her teeth and it wont matter if she gets one bottle before bed. After that its probably only a matter of time. Good luck!

I talked to my Pediatric Dentist and he said that as long as kids didn't hold the bottle in their mouth while sleeping then it wasn't really a great big deal if they have a bottle at bed time. The problem is the constant dripping milk into their mouth for extended time. The saliva can't do it's job. How much milk do we give kids during the day and not brush their teeth after? They are awake more hours than they are asleep. If we brush teeth in the morning then again at bedtime it is over 12 hours between brushings. That's a lot of stuff on their teeth for hours and hours.

When we got K off her bottle we would let her drink a sippy cup of milk then brush her teeth and have her go to bed. I think if a child still has the need to suck to go to sleep that fingers are really "handy" and much harder to break a child from. My daughter that is 29 sucked her fingers until she was in Jr. High and her jaw is recessed and her teeth bent towards the tongue. We took her to be evaluated for braces and found that the problem was so severe it would require breaking her jaw and rebuilding it over a very long time.

J still takes a bottle at bed time and just turned 2 this month. We took him for his first visit to the Pediatric Dentist over Fall break and his teeth are perfect.

To me, it is not a big deal if kids have a bottle. I would rather give them something I can remove when they are done than fight with them sucking fingers. If it is really a big deal to you then I recommend you do start mixing water in with the milk. Give her the option of full milk in the tippy cup only, or her favorite drink. Eventually she will choose the cup over the watery bottle.

The longer she holds on to it, the harder it will be to get her off. So - you're doing the right thing to do it now.

I don't know where she's taking her last bottle. If it's in the bed, change that so that you are holding her maybe even in a room other than the bedroom. That way - the bottle is not so associated with the bed. Then, change to a sippy cup, still holding her and giving her some snuggle time to calm down before bed. The sippy cup doesn't give the same sort of comfort as the bottle, so she should be willing to give that up more quickly. Continue to give the snuggle time - don't snuggle her to sleep (you want her to go to sleep on her own). Just snuggle long enough to quiet her and have her drowsy (maybe 15 minutes). Eventually, she should associate the snuggling with her bed time instead of the bottle. Don't give up - the longer you wait to deal with this, the more difficult it is likely to be.

Good Luck!

I had a VERY hard time getting my daughter off the bottle too. I think it was actually harder for me than it was for her because I didn't like seeing her so upset. Now a days people say you have to do things a certain way & I am a firm believer that you just have to do what works with your family. We tried everything and nothing worked & finally she did understand that it was time. She was ready because she realized other kids didn't have a bottle & only babies had them. She was 18 months old, but wanted to be a big girl! She has no cavaties & her teeth are fine. I say don't let this issue stress your family out & when she is ready, she will stop. Just keep verbally preparing her that the time is coming soon. There is no real harm-just a social stigma. Heck! Suri Cruise was seen all over in magazine pictures with her bottle. Good luck!