Getting rid of the bottle

[alliemanningsc]

Anyone have any good tips??? DS is 12 mo. and doesn't like the sippy cup. Any tips on how to get him used to the sippy cup and finally get rid of the bottle.

 

[dsnymomof4]

Throw away the bottles - seriously. Someone told me to do this when ds13 was little - and it worked. (Of course, you can go back later and pull them out if you want to save them). Make sure DS sees you throwing them away and tell him that he is a big boy now and he's too old for bottles. If he doesn't have a choice between bottle and cup, he will be more likely to take the cup. Believe me, he will eventually get used to it. Good luck!

 

[chrismom2005]

at 12 mo i started taking them away one bottle at a time by the time he was 16 mo he didnt use them anymore more. the last bottle of the day was the last to go

 

[WildGrits]

I couldn't wait to pitch those bottles. I hated them so much. 1st birthday and in the trash they went.

 

[KELLY]

Six months threw the pacifar away. At 10 months introduce sippy cup. At 11 months just gave her sippy cup no problem no more bottle at all. DD never had a bottle in her crib not sure on your situation. At 17 months she loves driking out of a straw but make to big of a mess for me. The one down side is DD does sleep every night with a certain stuffed animal real pain to keep track of and is a thumb sucker when tired.

Kelly

 

[Plantlady]

Have him throw away the bottle. Have the "bottle fairy" bring him a super special sippy cup in the morning.

Or, have him leave the bottles out, for the "bottle fairy"... and the fairy will take them away, and replace them with the super special sippy cup.

then, just stand strong. He'll use a sippy cup, if that's all he has.

 

[bgirl29]

The advice my pediatrician gave me when I had this problem with my son was to put some of his beverage in a sippy cup and offer it to him, then when son rejected it give him a diluted beverage in the bottle. Every day I added more water to what was in the bottle. When his apple juice was almost all water my son said yuck to the bottle and took the sippy cup and that was all there was to it. I realize this will only work if your child is willing to at least take a sip from the sippy cup before taking the bottle. It worked really well for me we had no confrontation this way and he was happy to chose the sippy. Good luck however you chose to make the switch.

 

[karenTX]

We did really well by using the Nuby sippys. It has a softer spout similar to the bottle. From there we went to harder spout sippys and now to straws and regular cups. Good Luck!!

 

[LISAVWL]

we started replacing the bottle with a sippy cup one at a time, breakfast first, then AM snack, then lunch ... you get it... the last one to go was nightime. I replaced one every few days and they hardly noticed. I thought my youngest would be on the bottle forever but in no time he switched over and that was that. It really helped that I found Cars sippy cups at Target, he loves them!

 

[RangerPooh]

We introduced sippy cups at aorund 10 months but didn't get rid of the bottle entirely until around 16 months. She took the sippy cups with no problem but when she was sick she wanted a bottle, and it was easier to cave in rather than hear her cry. One of the things that helped us was that she started day care around 15 months and we didn't rbing it there, so it was sippy cup all the way. One of the sippys that we found around the time of weaning was by Nubby and they ahve different designs and spouts that might help with weaning.

 

[PistonsFan]

My son didn't like sippy cups, so we switched to straw cups when we threw out the bottles. He did great with them (Gerber makes some nice ones and Playtex - just make sure you get the ones that won't leak if turned upside down). Within a month or two he started liking the sippy cups better.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I guess I am of the opposite camp here. I don't see the big deal with the bottle. My kids all had bottles for a long time. The pediatrician didn't see anything wrong with it either. If there is some sort of problem then sure you have to eliminate them, but I am just trying to understand why everyone makes such a fuss over a kid with a bottle. Not trying to be rude- I genuinely don't get it.

 

[pbharris4]

We tried at 12 months and she wasn't ready. My deadline was 15 months. I hid all the bottles and got several Nuby sippy cups. The spout is soft like the bottle nipples. At first she balked at it, but she got thirsty and drank it. From there the bottle was history. Out of sight out of mind. I did cold turkey with my older DD too and worked like a charm. In fact, I did this when it came to potty training as well for both girls...they were both trained in less than 1 week (both ways). To me..you are just dragging it out if you don't go cold turkey, but other kids do better different ways. Now, my DD is 3.5 and still won't get rid of the binky. So I told her when you're 4 you have to get rid of it because only babies have binkies. I think we'll leave them at Disney World!

 

[alliemanningsc]

mouse house mama.....our daycare said that he has to be off the bottle in order to move up to the next class. That is really why we are trying to get rid of it.

 

[Blueyed Girl]

We did really well by using the Nuby sippys. It has a softer spout similar to the bottle. From there we went to harder spout sippys and now to straws and regular cups. Good Luck!!

This is exactly what we did. Worked like a charm! The spout is soft but is shaped like a sippy cup rather than a bottle nipple.

 

[Fintastic]

DD had her bottle until she was 15 months old, but she didn't learn to use a sippy until then! She's been behind the curve everywhere. Once we were sure she had the sippy cup mastered, we just stopped giving her bottles. She never missed them, thank goodness.

 

[Elmo888]

Eliminate one bottle every few days (even up to a week), substituting food and milk at the high chair. Start with the least important bottle, usu. the afternoon, and eliminate morning and evening last. This seems to be how to wean (from breast or bottle).

I did this with both DDs, and it worked very well. As long as you get rid of the bottles in the next month or two, babies don't seem to get emotionally attached. The longer that you wait, the worse it gets.

And I never put anything in a bottle except formula or breastmilk. I never put water or regular milk in a bottle. Water and regular milk were only in sippy cups. I think that it helps to separate the two.

If your DS doesn't like the traditional sippy cups, try different brands or even the straw sippy cups. My second DD never used the regular sippy cups. She went straight to the straw cups. She didn't like the others or couldn't figure them out or something. The nice thing about being able to use a straw is that you don't have to bring sippy cups to restaurants. Avent is another with soft spouts, except they have so many parts!

 

[Mouse House Mama]

mouse house mama.....our daycare said that he has to be off the bottle in order to move up to the next class. That is really why we are trying to get rid of it.

Ohh.. That stinks that they get to decide when your child is ready. I'm sorry you have to deal with that. I was just curious. Thanks for anwering.

 

[karenTX]

I did cold turkey with my older DD too and worked like a charm. In fact, I did this when it came to potty training as well for both girls...they were both trained in less than 1 week (both ways).

Not to change the topic...but PLEASE tell me your secret method!!!!

 

[Stephres]

My littlest one was very stubborn; she would never take a sippy cup. I finally bit the bullet and threw all the bottles away away and she did not drink except from water fountains for a week. It almost killed my back!

I was about to buy a stupid bottle when she came along her brother's bottle of water with a spout. She loved it! She drank water out of that until she finally gave in and tried a sippy cup with a straw that she would drink milk out of. She still loves those water bottles with a spout though!

Good luck! The trick is not to give up!