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SASM
02-28-2004, 11:52 AM
At what age did you completely wean your baby off the bottle and/or breast to a sippy or cup? It is rough...Ian drinks from sippys and cups throughout the day but still gets most of his milk and comfort from the evening bottle feeding, since the breast weaning :( I want to wean him completely but do not want to really take that comfort away from him. UGH.

nathansmom
02-28-2004, 12:08 PM
Thanks for asking as I'm debating on how and when to wean Nathan. My goal is to have him off bottles by May.

LucyG
02-28-2004, 12:37 PM
My DD just turned one, and takes one bottle a day (at the sitter). She also nurses throughout the day when I am with her. I am aiming to transition the one bottle to milk in a cup in the next month or so. No plans to wean from the breast in the near future, nor the pacifier, which she takes to bed with her.

Momof3Labs
02-28-2004, 03:58 PM
Colin gave up bottles on his own (just started refusing them one day), though he still nurses twice a day. But have you tried holding and snuggling him (like you do when you give him a bottle) but giving him his milk in a sippy instead? That's what DH does now when I am gone for the day, and Colin doesn't seem to mind. Taking away the bottle doesn't mean taking away that comfort necessarily (unless Ian thinks so, LOL), the comfort really comes in the holding and snuggling and the quiet time.

It's really up to you, though - it's not like you have to have him off of bottles next month, right?

SASM
02-28-2004, 04:54 PM
I know...it is frustrating. I THINK that I have weaned Ian from the breast (he prefers a bottle now that we switched to a faster flowing nipple to get him accustomed to sippys) and I think that the texture of the bottle nipple is what is comforting to him. I snuggle with him while giving the sippys, as I do with the bottle, but have never noticed its increasing his sippy acceptance. Does that make sense?

I am just curious how long people have given bottles. At what age were they weaned.

chrissyhowie
02-28-2004, 05:46 PM
Hi, Sharyn! We just went through this very thing!

Since weaning from the breast at around nine months, DD had been getting a bottle of formula upon waking, prior to naps, and right before bed. She too drank from sippys and cups through the day, but only filled with water or dilute juice, never milk. We began trying to wean DD off of the bottle a week or two before her first birthday. It took some patience and persistence actually. We also made it harder on ourselves because I also started to transition to whole milk at the same time. I started slowly, only changing from the bottle that she got when she first woke up for the day to a sippy cup. At first she'd only drink an ounce, maybe two if we were lucky, from the cup where she used to drink 4-5 ounces from the bottle. I just kept at it with that morning cup since I knew she'd make up for what calories she didn't get when eating breakfast.

After about a week or so, I started using sippy cups to give her formula/milk prior to her naps. That was a little harder since she definitely didn't drink as much and didn't get as sleepy, so it also got a little harder to put her down for naps, but she eventually started to take more and more milk from the sippy cups. Only then did I change to a sippy cup prior to putting her down for the night.

Each step took about a week and a half, with the entire transition taking about a month. Now the bottles are packed away! One thing that I think helped was buying new, different-looking sippy cups that I only fill with milk. I normally use the smaller Take-and-Toss sippys for water (and I have a different brand only for juice), so I bought the taller Take-and-Toss ones to use exclusively for milk. This way I figure she'll know what will be in the cup even before drinking it -- no surprises!

I totally know what you're going through though -- it's hard to not see our little ones take in as much and get all the comfort it had seemed to give them! But especially since he's used to sippy cups already, I bet Ian will make the transition like a pro with just a little time.

HTH,

SASM
02-28-2004, 08:45 PM
Hi Chrissy!

That is such a good idea using different sippys for different liquids. Just might have to try that... :)