Switching from Bottle to Sippy - Need Help!

[lisak80]

My son just turned one and our ped. said no more bottle (which I am so ready to be done with!). Well, we are on a combo of 2nd step formula and whole milk. My son has been doing fine with a sippy with water and juice for a few months so I thought, eh, no biggie. However - now he will not take milk or formula from a sippy! We've only been at this for a few days, but I don't know what the "right" thing to do is. He has had small amounts from the sippy (both regular and w/ straws) of both formula and milk, but he's only taken it at random times and only a few ounces. Do I hold out and know that he'll eat when he's hungry? He does eat some solids and I am sticking with our feeding schedule and just leaving the milk and formula out in case he decides to pick it up. Any advice on how to ditch the bottle without starving my kid? Thanks for any help!

[nellonello]

I would love to hear other's advice as well.

[JTsMom]

DS never took to bottles, so I'm not sure how useful this advice will be, but I'll throw it out there anyway. :)

Think about trying an open cup or a straw cup. We started with an open cup very early- around 6 or 7 months, and it worked surprisingly well. I'd stick with water the first couple of times, then try milk if that went well.

Play up the cup as a special new thing. Wow! You're so big! You get to use a cup now! You're so lucky! Just like mom and dad!

Give it some time and try not to stress too much about it. A lot of kids are very emotionally attached to their bottles (just like a bf baby is attached to the breast) b/c it is a form of comfort for them- and has been since birth. I'd say most kids have a hard time weaning from bottles.

At 1, I wouldn't try the cup or no milk strategy, but that's just me- YMMV. I'd make it a 100% positive thing, and not pressure much. I'd keep offering it every time, and if he resisted, put it in the bottle. It'll take longer that way, but I'd be ok with that. This is the same approach I use for a lot of new things, and with my DS's temperament, it is the best way for us. If that approach was getting me nowhere after a few weeks of consistent offering, then I'd try to wean down the bottles per day, being slightly more aggresive.

Some people have success watering down the milk in the bottle, a little more each time, until it's just water, no milk, while also offering milk in a cup.

I think a lot of times peds present bottle weaning as a matter of fact, just do it, kind of thing, forgetting how attached babies are to them. Weaning- whether from breast or bottle- is more of a process, not just an immediate switch IME.

Hope this helps a little. Good luck!

[hbridge]

It's been a few years, but DC has a REALLY hard time giving up the bottle. We actually waited until age 2...

We ended up playing around with nipples until we figured out that the nubby sippy nipples (which are soft like bottle nipples) fit the avent bottles we were using. So to transition DC we would give a bottle with a nubby nipple and eventually transitioned to the nubby cups altogether, then to a regular style sippy from there. We are typically a "this is the way it will be so figure it out" family, but DC LOVES milk and needed the comfort of the bottle for much longer than most.

The ped was not happy but since DC only had the bottle for short times it wasn't a problem. Do the best you can and don't worry too much about having a bottle over age 1...

Best of luck.

[Nooknookmom]

It's been a few years, but DC has a REALLY hard time giving up the bottle. We actually waited until age 2...

We ended up playing around with nipples until we figured out that the nubby sippy nipples (which are soft like bottle nipples) fit the avent bottles we were using. So to transition DC we would give a bottle with a nubby nipple and eventually transitioned to the nubby cups altogether, then to a regular style sippy from there. We are typically a "this is the way it will be so figure it out" family, but DC LOVES milk and needed the comfort of the bottle for much longer than most.

The ped was not happy but since DC only had the bottle for short times it wasn't a problem. Do the best you can and don't worry too much about having a bottle over age 1...

Best of luck.

What she said. DD1 had the bottle till 18 mo or so and I let her drop it when SHE was ready. We didn't do milk at night so there was not an issue for tooth decay. I am a fan of letting them help guide when they are ready to let go of things (bottles, boobies, binkies, etc.)

You'll know when the time is right and slowly moving to the sippy should work great!

[chozen]

our daughter is 16 mo. old and is just now really drinking from a take and toss cup the ones with straws , i introduced the sippy to her around 8 or 9mo. she never would drink much(tried all kinds) so i continued to offer it at meal time, around 12mo. she was still getting 3- 8 or 9 oz. bottles a day, one at 10:30 one at 2:30 and one at 8:00pm. at around13mo. i took the 10:30 am one away she still didnt drink much from sippy, cup etc. i waited until she was15mo. and took the 2:00 pm one away only because she started to drink more , she would only drink from take and toss with straw cups they arent spill proof but they arent bad, the spill proof ones restrict the flow to much for her i think these are easier to drink from. i will wait and try spill proof ones again soon, i dont let her run around with her cup i give it to her at meal time and hold it other times. im going to wait alittle while and take her 8:00 bottle away. she just wasnt ready yet and when she was she was.

[lisak80]

Thanks for all the advice. I like the idea of trying the open cup too. We are doing ok and he's taking more from they sippy every day. We've got several different varieties of sippy cups, but I think we are figuring out which ones work and which don't. With most of them I've taken the restricters out so I don't have much in the way of spill proof!

Thanks again for all the advice. I think my little man will get the hang of it soon! :)

[sste]

At thirteen or fourteen months, we transitioned to Born Free sippy cups (I would rec something cheaper but our baby would only do the Born Free). Then, at sixteen months, we transitioned to the playtex straw sippy. It was a little tough for a couple of weeks and we sometimes had to hold the straw sippy for him "bottle style" like we did when he was much younger. We were told that the straw sippy was better for speech development and dental health. I don't think we could have gone directly from the bottle to the straw sippy though - - at least not with our DS at 12 months. He now loves his straw sippy . . .