I went to the pediatrician yesterday for my daughter's one year check up. He suggested that it is best to wean from the bottle by the time a child is 15 months. Actually, I had already started weaning her from the bottle about a month or so ago. So now she only gets a bottle at nap times and bed time. I never let her take a bottle in the crib with her. My daughter looks forward to these cuddle times. Actually, so do I. She drinks from a sippy cup the rest of the time. When my daughter was four months old, she weaned herself from the breast. I am not sure how to go about weaning her at this point. Any advise would be much apprecriated.
Thank you to all of the Mommies for thier wonderful advice. I haven't taken away her bottle yet. I don't want to take it away until either her allergic reaction or her virus rash goes away. But as soon as her issue clears up, I think I am going to pick a weekend when I have three or four days off and go cold turkey. I don't want to prolong her wanting a bottle and not being able to have it. Until then, I will only offer her a bottle at night. Thanks again.
I was in the exact same situation with my daughter at her 1 year check up. I too enjoyed those cuddle times, so I kept the bottle at bed time until she was about 20 months. Then, I would say there wasn't a clean bottle so we would occasionally use a sippy cup and eventually, went to using only a sippy cup. She was completely off the bottle before her second birthday. Good luck and enjoy the cuddle time, it goes away much too quickly!
JS-
It sounds like you are doing just fine. When my son was at this stage, I would give him his sippy cup at "relaxing time/our time" and he was fine with it. You may consider trying the sippy cup right before cuddle time and then setting it aside.
Best,
C
If she takes a sippy cup i wouldn't offer a bottle anymore. You can cuddle with a sippy cup it's doesn't require a bottle. But what i did was at 1yr exactly. (on her birthday) I just took the bottles all away i threw them away. I didn't bring them back and you would be amazed at how easy it was. If you ask anyone it's harder when someone say you can only have something at certain times. What is someone told you "you can only watch tv at 8pm for one hour" you would prob. rather just be told you can't watch tv. It's torture to be limited. Also the only reason she needs a bottle is to get drink because before that she couldn't drink from a cup alone. But now she can so what is the purpose. It takes a few days to get over WANTING it but after that she will just forget. Good luck
I struggled with the same decison a month ago. My doctor said to wean her cold turkey but I really felt like she still needed the bottle to wind down before naps and bedtime. I decided to do it cold turkey with a twist. I gave her milk in her sippy cup but when it was time to bring her up for bed, I put a little water in the bottle so she had that comfort. (Also at bedtime, when she is finished with her milk you can brush her teeth so she doesnt go to bed with that coating on) I did this for a few days and then she was fine without it. I was afraid we would both miss that cuddle time but luckily she still likes to lay on me while I rock her in the chair. She goes up on my shoulder and we rock for a few minutes before I put her down in her crib. She never struggled with giving up the bottle and we never looked back. Good luck!!
We weaned our son from the nap/bedtime bottle dependence at 9 mos, as recommended by our pediatrician. Then at 10 mos we ditched bottles altogether.
We did this by gradually pulling it away from the sleep routine. We were doing dinner, bath, bottle, bed. So we changed the routine by doing dinner, bottle, bath, bed. Then a week later started giving the bottle while our son was still in his feeding chair, but after he finished eating. Then a week after that, we started giving it to him with dinner.
With the nap bottle I started offering it while he was still in the feeding chair from lunch, then with lunch.
Cody still gets plenty of cuddle time. He eats dinner around 6. Gets a bath around 7. Then we brush his teeth while rocking and reading (we do his teeth first, then let him do them while we read a story or two). He's in the crib between 7:30 and 8:00, and asleep within 15 mins of that (most nights).
We just weaned our daughter at 13 months old. Let me tell you it was 2 days of terriable crying and whining and then she was done with the ba ba and onto her sippy. For us the cold turkey approach worked the best. She gets 3 cups a day of milk. One in the morning, one before her afternoon nap and one at night. Now only if I didn't have to heat up her milk still! If you go cold turkey do it over a weekend when you have time to deal with a terriably cranky child. Best wishes!
