tips to weaning off the bottle

Marifel - posted on 01/24/2010

honey they are still young,what i did was i let them take solid food when meal,it will help to make them full for hours..still they still asked for a bottle but not that every hour when they get used to solid food soon they will forget it..it will take time be patient

Anna - posted on 01/24/2010

I have a 13-month-old son whom I'm currently doing the same thing with. He gets his milk in a sippy cup throughout the day, but has been getting a bottle before bed. What I've done is begun to move it earlier and earlier in his bedtime routine, and Monday (his actual 13 month birthday, coincidentally), I'm replacing that bottle with a sippy cup of milk that he will get BEFORE his bedtime stories.

His current routine is this:
Dinner
Bath
Change into jammies
Story
Bottle
Brush teeth
Bed

The new routine will be this:
Dinner
Bath
Cup of milk
Change into jammies
Books
Brush teeth
Bed

It worked fine for my oldest, so I think it will probably work this time, too. What I find is important is to keep most of the bedtime routine the same, and they will take comfort in those familiar things. This will help them get used to the changes (no more bottle) more quickly. At least that's how it seems to me. When I take the bottle out of any part of the day's routine, I just replace it with something else so the routine stays as similar as possible, and it just seems to go smoothly.

Christina - posted on 01/22/2010

You can do cereal in a sippy cup if you have the right cup, the nuby and munchkin cups with the soft spouts work well for cereal. I just stopped the cereal on DS's bedtime bottle because he has been really gassy at night. Good luck everyone!

Jenny - posted on 01/22/2010

I still put cereal in my daughters night bottle. We were told to do that when she was like a month old becuz of her acid reflux, but I never really noticed a difference..... not sure why I still do it! I never tried it in a sippy cup, but I wouldn't put much cuz you would think it would get clogged, and make it even harder to clean!

Misty - posted on 01/22/2010

Was anyone else still putting cereal in the bedtime bottle? I am so I'm wondering how that would work in a sippy cup. Also, I appreciate all the ideas. I'll probably try them on a Friday so I have the weekend to see how it goes...also, I can take a nap then too. It's kinda frowned upon to nap at work. (:

Jenny - posted on 01/22/2010

I'm glad I'm not the only one having this issue! My daughter hasn't had a bottle during the day since she was 4 mon old, but she has it over night, and still isn't sleeping through the night so if we take the bottle away I wont get ANY sleep, but I know it needs to be done. Some one told me to start giving them water in the over night bottles and eventually they wont want it anymore becuz it wont be as satisfying. .. Worth a try!

Christina - posted on 01/22/2010

With my twins they were off the bottle and on a sippy cup for bedtime. We slowly moved that bedtime bottle a little earlier until they took it about an hour before bed. They never changed their sleep habits. That said, with this baby he does not like his bedtime bottle messed with. He is terrible at drinking from a sippy cup so I am not ready to mess with it.

Rachel - posted on 01/19/2010

At 12 months my son had the same thing, only one bottle a day and it was his right before bedtime bottle. One night we thought we'd try having just dinner for the nignt at his normal time (6:30) and no bottle and he did fine. Of course every kid is different. The best thing to try if they cant sleep all night just on dinner would be to give them a very small snack and some water in a sippy.