Giving up the bottle

Mine are 13 months and have a bottle only at bedtime.
When did you start to wean your kids?

 

We started to wean before 12 months in preparation for 12 months. I think we dropped morning bottle a couple weeks before 12 months and then dropped the bedtime bottle at 12 months.

 

I think I started around 14 months, my kids were underweight so the pediatrician wanted us to have an exact count of the milk they were taking in at the time...at 15 months she was pleased with the weight gain and we could go off the bottles completely.  I think at that point, they were getting a bottle after breakfast, before nap and before bed.  We stopped the breakfast one the first week, the nap one the second week and bedtime one the week after that.  So they were completely off bottles by 16 months.

 

We gave up the last bottle right around that time.  I expected it to be harder than it was. 
 
They were already drinking their morning milk out of these and i think they actually preferred them to the bottle.  
They like those cups because they can get the milk a lot faster. I like them because they can not get the straw out and they are fairly spill proof.

 

We gave up the bottles and formula at the same time, the weekend they turned 1. They were already drinking water out of silicone straw sippy cups - but they refused to drink milk out of the same cups - they would flat out say it - water water, when we gave them milk in the same cup. So we had to try different cups - I think we tried 5-6 types X 2 . They finally accepted the cheapest Take and Toss cups you can find at Walmart and they kept those until 3 -  after they turned 3 they started to drink milk out of regular cups. I think their milk intake went down for about 2-3 days, but I made sure to give them more yogurt or cheese. After 3 days they were drinking the usual amount. I think it took them a few days to adjust to the new taste of the milk vs formula and to the new cup.
 
It was easier than I expected to be. 

 

My kids had their last bottle on their 1st birthday.  Like the others, we had started them drinking milk from sippy cups instead of bottles and that process about a month before.  I couldn't WAIT to get them off of bottles and was super happy when I no longer had to clean and prepare bottles. :woohoo:

 

The boys are 20 months and still take a night time bottle before they brush their teeth. They sleep 12-13 hours a night so I would rather top them off before they go to bed. Plus they hardly drink milk otherwise. They drink a few sips of milk out of their cups most days but they drain their bottles. I have had kids that were weaned off their night time bottles and had issues like night waking due to hunger, waking up super early because they were hungry and weightless. Then go back on bedtime bottle under doctors orders. The Dr. is great with them keeping their bottles as long and they brush their teeth after their bottle.

 

I did all mine right around 12-13 months.  Josh was down to a bottle at night and I just started giving him a sippy instead.

 

Thanks all! Not sure what I will do yet, but it's good to have some options!

 

Well the boys are now on sippy cups at night. I am expect them to loose a little weight but I am glad to not be washing dr brown's bottles. They went from 8.5 oz bottles down to about 2oz in a sippy cup and they did not finish it tonight.

 

Mine had their last bottles just shortly after turning one.