Bottle breaking advice needed please!

[KristinU]

Just want to ditto all of the suggestions for straw cups. DS did wonderfully with straws as a little guy. Our pedi suggested the same thing you're doing OP, where the bottle was for formula (or BM) only and the cup was for milk and water (and eventually juice) - she recommended cold turkey right at 1, but DS was also a chunkey little monkey and pretty agreeable about the swap, so I had no worries about not getting nutrition. One thing that came to mind, though, is that we always held him and fed him his bottles for attachment and bonding purposes (we're an adoptive family) and never let him feed himself with bottles without us holding it too and making eye contact and giving him love. But by age 1 he was probably all set with that and ready to hold the cups himself, which we of course allowed him to do. So that may have played into the transition too.

 

[bellebud]

My kids used bottles till about 3yo... they were their 'lovies'... dd used to walk around with 3 bottles (all filled with water) - she'd have them lined up across her chest - holding them there w/ her arm, and take sips from each one. I admit it was a pain sometimes (washing nipples - ugh!), but I'm a softie and saw no harm in it. If you want her off now, I don't think there's any harm in doing that, but if it's used as a 'lovie', just try to replace it w/ something else.

I honestly cannot remember how I got rid of them (fried mommy brain!), but I like the idea a few pp's said about watering down what's in the bottle, and offering something good in the other cup. Or just put only water in the bottle, and something yummy in the cup and place them both out for her.

And it makes sense that if she's drinking less, she'll eat more anyway, so it may be a good move for you because of that too.

good luck!