How to convince a todder to not use a bottle?

[janine]

I've been slow to push this and she only uses it at night and in the morning once in awhile - its mostly for comfort. She uses cups/sippies throughout the day.

If I phase bottles out, she'd go along with it but then she would not drink nearly as much milk! A sip here and there vs. downing 8oz. She is a picky eater so I hate to give up on the milk consumption - do you ladies just offer cups throughout the day or do you gauge amonts drunk or does that get phased out. Thk you!

[sste]

I think cold turkey is best. It will be a bad 1-2 days and then back to normal. We did this with my son when he went from bottle to sippy (I think my husband broke down once and gave him his bottle on Day 1 but Day 2 no bottle and by Day 3 he really liked his straw sippy).

[lowrioh]

My DD was very attached to her bottle at nap and bedtime and I was worried about taking it away. One night when she was a little over 2 I made up her milk in a sippy cup rather than in a bottle and she protested a little bit and then was fine with it. She still gets a little milk in a sippy at bed time and probably will until we are ready to have her potty trained overnight.

ETA: DD1 is NOT an easy child so I was expecting a real battle. It just goes to show you that you never know unless you try. ;)

[janine]

Thank you. I suppose my next question is did you notice a drop in the amount of milk drunk as a result of switching to a sippy? This is one of the things I worry about. She'll take it from a sippy but just sips and then puts it down (sometimes she'll then ignore it, other times she will ask for a bottle). I think she loves the bottle more than the milk.

[sste]

Have you experimented with different sippies?

We tried a bunch before we found a favored sippy. You can just buy one each of a few different kinds and see how it goes. The straw sippies are supposed to be best for mouth/language dev. acc. to our former speech therapist.

[JBaxter]

Toddler as in how old? Cold turkey is the way I've done it. We still use soft spout sippy cups even now at 2.5

[lowrioh]

Thank you. I suppose my next question is did you notice a drop in the amount of milk drunk as a result of switching to a sippy? This is one of the things I worry about. She'll take it from a sippy but just sips and then puts it down (sometimes she'll then ignore it, other times she will ask for a bottle). I think she loves the bottle more than the milk.

My DD1 drinks a full sippy cup of milk at nap and a half full one at bedtime (she would drink a full one but we had diaper issues), she also gets half a sippy cup of drinkable yoghurt for breakfast so no, her dairy consumption didn't go down at all.

[HIU8]

DD was a bottle addict. We switched to sippies. Sippies during the day stopped and I kept one at night (water). About 3 months ago we switched to a regular cup at night (so no chugging water anymore). DD is stubborn, so it was hard, but we used a sticker chart and reward system and it worked.

[Indianamom2]

Cold turkey seems to work best here. It will be a rough 2-3 days (and this was even with some pretty strong-willed kids) but then it'll be over.

I also like going from a bottle straight to a straw cup. I think it's easier to teach and it is better for speech development.