trying to get rid of bottles

my ped says he wants the girls off bottles completely by 18 months. well, they are just over 15 months so technically I still have time but it's creeping up on us and i'm just having a hard time doing it. I tried again yesterday for the first time in a month and they just weren't having it. i even busted out some new Dora sippy cups which i thought would totally draw them in. they drink everything else in sippy cups but their morning milk and evening milk they still want in bottles. i feel like i'm setting myself up for real problems and that it's going to get harder and harder to get them off the bottle the longer i wait but i can't seem to do it. i tried 2 different sippy cups yesterday until i finally put it in bottles and they drank it. so now what?

what do i do and what is "normal" to expect with this transistion. are they not going to drink milk for a while??!!? :unsure: when your kids switched to sippy cups, do they sit their and drink the whole thing in one shot or do they drink some and then come back to it as they are playing or whatever? i feel completely freaked out at the idea of them not getting their milk and i'm worried that they won't have enough calories in their system and they won't sleep as well. was this the case for any of you?

also, i'm still heating their milk. they won't drink it cold or even just slightly warmed. they want it warm. is this bad?? what do i do??

Thanks for your help.

 

I switched my girls when they were 13 months old - we just went cold turkey. I first let them use the cups and bottles for a day and then only the cup. they will drink when they know they will get nothing else. My girls were never attached to the bottle. I didn't worry about them drinking it all in the beginning, they eat solid foods so I knew they wouldn't be hungry - I just added some yougurt or cottage cheese to their daily meals to get more calcuim. i would try to ween them from heating it - if you go out to eat - will they drink the milk cold?

My girls will take awhile to finish their cups - they will play with them and take a sip here and there - I left them carry them around till the are finished.

 

I would just go cold turkey. Their intake will probably go down for several days, but they will eventually get that the only way they are going to get milk is cold and from a sippy. I think the longer you go the harder the breaking the bottle will be. Mine had their last bottle at 12.5 months. I wouldn't warm it either.

I give mine milk with each meal, and Grace gets milk with her afternoon snack. Lily gets juice with her afternoon snack, because she drinks enough milk with her meals, but Grace's intake is a little lower.

Grace drinks about 16 ounces a day, Lily 20 ounces/day. My pedi said they should be getting 16-20 a day, so they are right on track.

 

I really stressed over this too. So many moms do things differently. Here's my experience.
I first attempted switching them right around 11 or 12 months but they weren't even going to tolerate a sippy, so experimented with different types of cups. I found the cheaper ones worked the best for my two. Anyway, after finding one they would drink from I started with giving them water and getting used to how it worked. We did that for a couple of months.
Two days ago was my second attempt to try and get them to take milk from their sippies instead of bottles. They both threw fits the first and second days I tried giving the morning and afternoon sippies. So if they didn't eat in the morning I'd save it for the snack time. Sy usually would take her by then while Eve refused. I mix their cereal with yogurt and fruit so I wasn't worried they weren't getting their dairy intake.
When they did finally decide to drink even a sip or two outta the cups I praised them like crazy! Make a huge deal out of it. They'll get it eventually.
Now just have to find and ingenious way of getting rid of the bedtime bottle.
Good luck and don't stress it, they will when they'll get it eventually.

 

I stressed over this too, even though I was nursing. They had been drinking water out of a sippy for a while. I first try to change their AM feeding to a sippy of milk and they threw it down for a while. I was also freaking out that they weren't gonna get enough. Like others, I always gave them lots of yogurt and cheese. After they were taking a bit of their AM cup, we weaned the betime feeding. They just got a sippy of milk after dinner. They definately don't chug it down. They go back and forth to it while playing. I slowly weaned the whole warming part. They love cold milk now and take in a normal amount throughout the day. It will be a transition before it gets easier. I say make the decision and go with it or they'll know the bottles will still come out. Good luck!

 

I would just do it. I get scared to do things cold turkey, but it does seem to work best, at least IME. They might not drink as much milk for a few days, so just give them a little more yogurt and cheese. This is JMHO, but it seems like people get really stressed about how much milk their kids are drinking. If they had a milk allergy or you were a vegan family, you would have to find an alternate source of calcium, so it's not incredibly important that they drink X amount of cow's milk.
Anyway, I would just start putting the milk in sippies and do away with the bottles. They will catch on. BTW, I do still heat up their evening milk, it seems to be comforting. But the times I haven't heated it up for whatever reason, they do still drink it.

 

I was super stressed about this.

I went cold turkey with the am and lunch bottle - I still give them a 6 oz. bedtime bottle. They now get am milk sippy and very watered down juice for the rest of the day. They drink what they drink and I try to add more cheese, yogurt, etc. to their diet.

Someone posted this link that I found helpful http://www.wholesometoddlerfood.com/toddlercalcium.htm

Honestly - I STRESSED about it - then I gave up...they drink what they want and I can't make them drink more. When I was giving only milk all day long they both got really constipated so watch out for that too. I didn't want to fight them on it - I don't want to create any bad food/drink issues later on.

 

I, too, was stressed out over it. My girls were used to getting sippies of water, but at first they did not want their milk in a sippy. Until, based on TS suggestions, I used the Nuby brand sippy cup. It took the girls about a week before they totally accepted it. And now, no more bottles. Persistence is the key.

 

Another vote for cold turkey. It really won't hurt them to have very little (or no) milk for a few days. And every time you give in and give them the bottles, it will make it that much harder the next time you try to get them to take it from a sippy. It might be easier on you, too, if you know that giving bottles is simply no longer an option, so you're not constantly worrying about whether to do it or not.

You might even try not giving them any milk for a day or two -- just give them sippies with water or juice or whatever. Once they are used to drinking from sippies when they're thirsty, start giving them cold milk -- almost as if it were a completely new beverage.

FWIW, mine still don't drink much milk, even though they are quite used to the sippies and don't object to having milk in them. They drink maybe 2 oz at breakfast and another 6 oz at dinner/bedtime (we use the same sippy for both, just take it away after dinner and give it back at bedtime, which is only 1/2 hr later). They get water all the other times. It doesn't seem to have hurt them.

Good luck!

 

Hello,

My DS and DD did okay with us dropping bottles. We dropped the morning one before the evening one. They fussed and refused to take their milk from their sippy; however, I just stuck with it. Within a couple of days they would take the sippies. No, they do not lay back and drink the entire sippy like they would the bottle. They will drink some, play or do whatever, and drink more. My ped said that they needed between 500-800 mg of calcium a day. They can get this from milk, yogurt, cheese, etc. I think you just have to make a decision and stick with it. Good luck!

 

Hi! I know my girls aren't a year yet, but I was "lurking" to see what is in store for me in two months and saw your post. I had issues with my DD7 when she was a year and I had a hard time getting her off the bottle. What I did was I would offer her milk in a sippy first and made sure she had at least a sip. Then if she still refused, I would give her the bottle...but I started to water it down like 1/2 oz of water to her whole bottle of milk. Since you warm the bottles, try to warm it less and less as well as watering it down. The key is to make sure they take a sip of the milk out of the cup first...all milk no water and warm the cup, too! Then give them the bottle with more and more water every few days and make it colder and colder every few days. Eventually they'll only be getting water in a bottle and that won't hurt them and eventually they'll give it up! And like all the pp said, if they don't drink much milk out of a cup it's not that big of a deal...give them more cheese, etc. to off set the calcium need. HTH!

 

I am in the same boat... and they don't like it cold. Granted they get sippies about 80% of the time right now but I still have two bottles a day (one before afternoon nap - for my peace of mind! and one before bed). I just can't get them off it either, esp. since they are such horrible sleepers and don't use pacificers. I know I need to do it cold turkey but I just can't bring myself to listening to MORE crying.

So anyway just wanted to say I'm there with you Nicole. :hug99:

 

We went through a very difficult transition to sippy cups with our boys. They have very strong temperments so every transition is difficult. So while the cold turkey method works for many, I believe that works for many people whose children aren't as strong willed. Since I don't know where you'res fall on the spectrum, I"m not making any assumptions, just telling you what we did.

We actually ended up at the feeding clinic for my boys poor eating habits due to bad reflux. The bottle because their fav and their source of comfort, so they were very attatched - the stronger the attatchment the harder the transition. Even the suggestions I got from the feeding clnic didn't help. What I finally did after trying about 10 different sippys, going crazy myself, thinking my boys would have their first communion from a bottle (seriously!!), I calmed down and finally thought long and hard. For us the love was the bottle, but they also LOVED their milk. They didn't care for water. So I started offering them a sippy cup AND a bottle at every meal. The bottle had only water in it (which they didn't like to much) and the sippy had their much loved milk. OF course they didn't like this to much, but they still had their bottle. So the basically drank mostly water for a day, and maybe an ounce of milk. But they didn't get dehydrated (the two attempts at cold turkey giving up the bottle almost landed us in the ER for dehydration, so this was a concern for me). Day two they took about 3 oz from sippy cups, day 3 they took about 4 oz. Finally on day 4 or 5 I took away the bottles with water and only gave them a sippy cup. They didn't like this a lot, but they did pretty well.

A few other key points - all meals/snacks should be in highchairs (this was highly reccommended by the feeding clinic and was something we have always followed, until recently when we have snacks outside in the summer). Food should be given first at meals and then liquids. You want your child to fill up more on food than on milk (this was also an issue for us - mine didn't eat enough because they loved to suck so much they filled right up with milk).

Anyways, I hope this helps some. If you have any questions please send them my way! Good luck! Oh, and just so you know, I didn't get my guys off sippy cups until 20 months or was it 22 months . . . so maybe that will make you feel better too!

 

We went through a very difficult transition to sippy cups with our boys. They have very strong temperments so every transition is difficult. So while the cold turkey method works for many, I believe that works for many people whose children aren't as strong willed. Since I don't know where you'res fall on the spectrum, I"m not making any assumptions, just telling you what we did.

We actually ended up at the feeding clinic for my boys poor eating habits due to bad reflux. The bottle because their fav and their source of comfort, so they were very attatched - the stronger the attatchment the harder the transition. Even the suggestions I got from the feeding clnic didn't help. What I finally did after trying about 10 different sippys, going crazy myself, thinking my boys would have their first communion from a bottle (seriously!!), I calmed down and finally thought long and hard. For us the love was the bottle, but they also LOVED their milk. They didn't care for water. So I started offering them a sippy cup AND a bottle at every meal. The bottle had only water in it (which they didn't like to much) and the sippy had their much loved milk. OF course they didn't like this to much, but they still had their bottle. So the basically drank mostly water for a day, and maybe an ounce of milk. But they didn't get dehydrated (the two attempts at cold turkey giving up the bottle almost landed us in the ER for dehydration, so this was a concern for me). Day two they took about 3 oz from sippy cups, day 3 they took about 4 oz. Finally on day 4 or 5 I took away the bottles with water and only gave them a sippy cup. They didn't like this a lot, but they did pretty well.

A few other key points - all meals/snacks should be in highchairs (this was highly reccommended by the feeding clinic and was something we have always followed, until recently when we have snacks outside in the summer). Food should be given first at meals and then liquids. You want your child to fill up more on food than on milk (this was also an issue for us - mine didn't eat enough because they loved to suck so much they filled right up with milk).

Anyways, I hope this helps some. If you have any questions please send them my way! Good luck! Oh, and just so you know, I didn't get my guys off sippy cups until 20 months or was it 22 months . . . so maybe that will make you feel better too!

 

OMG, give me strength to get through this!!!!!!!!!!!! I appreciate all the support ladies and I've been given a lot of great (and different) advice. Emotionally, I am freaking out. I just tried to give them the milk in their sippies. They took one sip and threw the cup to the side. I gave it to them cold. So I thought that maybe it was just too much for them to not only give it to them in sippies but to also give it cold. So I ended up heating it and it was still a no go. Lorien has had a fever since yesterday (I believe it's from the 15 month shots and/or possibly teething, not sure) and so she is off anyway and wouldn't drink any milk even from her bottle yesterday. Anyway, I want to just cry. I know I have to stick to this and be consistent. That's the advice I seem to always give everyone else. It's just sooooooo hard. I have to keep reminding myself that the milk is NOT what is keeping my girls alive . They do eat a lot of dairy everyday (in addition to their milk) so I'm sure they will be fine.

So, usually, they would down an 8oz bottle first thing in the am. If they are not drinking it then they are going to be very hungry I assume. (I should mention that my girls LOVE water so I'm not sure the water trick will work). Which means I guess I will have to feed them bfast earlier?? Wake up time for us is 6am so I guess I will have to give them a morning snack to hold them over until lunch?? Man, I didn't think this would be so hard. But I know I don't want to see my kids with bottles until they are 3!!!! It just doesn't look right and I'm sure it's not good for them.

 

I found that Trevor didn't really drink well from a sippy until he knew he would not be getting a bottle too. It is hard to go cold turkey, so what about just dropping a bottle at a time. That is what we did at 11 months. I just dropped a bottle and replaced it with a cup of milk and by 12 months they were getting one bottle during the day and the bedtime bottle.

It has made things so much easier since getting off bottles and not having a bedtime bottle too. I know it is hard so you have to decide to do it cold turkey and stick with it or one at a time. But you can't give in and give the bottle back. It won't hurt them to not have milk for a day or two. Just be sure they are getting yogurt and cheese and they may be a little more hungry until they get the hang of the cup.

Hang in there, they will get it.