my 14 month old is still on the bottle i cant get it away from her especially at night she wakes up for the bottle my husband said i shouldve kept her on the pacifer in the day time she drinks from the cup but at night she wont she also have 1 tooth coming and i want her off scared to go cold turkey please help
2006-09-30 12:18:42 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Parenting
You do not need to worry at this point about orthodontic problems with the teeth- I checked on this with my dentist. He also said that as long as the baby wasn't sleeping with the bottle, there wasn't risk to rotting the teeth (this happens when baby sleeps with bottle and the milk pools in the mouth). My 16-month old gave up the bottle a couple months ago. At 12 months, she was eating all regular food- 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. She was still drinking a bottle of regular milk before bed, slightly warmed in tap water. I did not want to rush her as she does not like milk, warm or cold, in a cup- so the bedtime bottle was all the milk she was drinking. The doctor said as long as she was eating dairy foods, not to worry about it. What worked for her was decreasing the bottle to 2-4 ounces rather than an 8-ounce bottle and giving her a healthy snack about 30 minutes before bed. She was full, so she would take a few sips of the bottle then push it away. Within a couple weeks, I put her to bed without the bottle and she hasn't had it since. If your baby is waking up in the middle of the night wanting the bottle, try to determine if it is hunger or comfort. If hunger, the snack before bed may do the trick. If comfort, try water in the bottle. Good luck!
2006-09-30 15:49:12 · answer #1 · answered by teacher/mother 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Each child is different realated to the need of the sucking satifaction, but when you started her with the bedtime bottle you created the situation.
If she is eating healthy, then its time to pull the bottle. Especially now that teeth are coming, this is the number one cause of dental caries in tots. Give back the pacifer if you fear you will dramatize her, but odds are it won't.
I feared this with my first two children.....but after only a couple nights they stopped fussing at bedtime, they had been drinking from a cup and eating solid foods during the day for months.
With my third child safety of her remaining in her crib stepped up the process........my daughter had learned from about 10months old how to crawl over her crib rails, so as night after night she freed her self from the confines of her crib........we decided that a fall from a youth bed would be less sever as a fall from the top of a crib rail!
She was just twelve months.
She was fussing for a bottle as we were setting up the new bed up....... we joked with her that she was now a big girl because she was getting a big girl bed ..........that big girls didn't need bottles if they could drink from a cup. When we finished and my husband made her a bottle, she says "no, ( very reluctant of course) I can drink from a cup. can I sleep in my bed?"
I guess she was afraid she would not get to sleep in her new bed if she took the bottle.
We said ok, and she never once fussed for a bottle! But we had learned with this one about not putting her to bed with a bottle in the first place that I think really made it work.
Also the fact that she had older siblings and cousins to learn from.
Try somthing new that lets her know that she is getting bigger, if you have a older child, or a niece or nephew that its older, or one that is younger.......too was helpful for my nephew......he saw that the tiny baby had bottles and big boys drank from cups.
2006-09-30 12:54:28 · answer #2 · answered by pirate 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My 14 month old twins are still pretty much on the bottle. They like their sippy cups, but they have to have a bottle at night. They have 8 teeth a piece (they do not have buck teeth). I'm limiting their bottle usage, but sometimes they just need that security. I wouldn't worry if it's just at night.
My mom said that I bit the end off of the nipples on my bottles, to break me from the bottle she sewed the nipples back together and left a lot of short, loose threads. I couldn't stand the feel of the thread in my mouth and gave the bottle up in 2 days, - just a thought, but it's one option that I'm considering.
2006-09-30 12:31:05 · answer #3 · answered by pjt 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Give her only water in the bottle if she needs a feeding do it with a sippy cup... She will quickly lose interest in a bottle fillled with only water and will get rid of it on her own....
The first few nights you will be tempted to go the easy way and give in to her want for a bottle when she refuses the cup at night... stand your ground offer her the cup with milk/formula/juice or the bottle with water... She will choose the cup with the good stuff very quickly over the bottle with the water...
If she wants a bottle of water for weeks relax it's just water get orthodontic nipples (designed to lay between the teeth rather than pushing against them) and let her have the water it will not rot her teeth....
2006-09-30 12:34:37 · answer #4 · answered by Diane (PFLAG) 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Consider also that the formula is bad for her teeth as it lays in her mouth at night. My neice had her baby teeth all screwed up because of that!! I went "cold turkey" w/my daughter per the pediatrician. It was tough the first night but by night three the crying was over and she was completely off the bottle! But make sure she has a favorite toy in the crib w/her. Something she can hold onto. Good luck!
2006-09-30 12:30:42 · answer #5 · answered by scarlettrhett 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
start cutting the formula with water -- she doesn't really need a night feeding for nutrition. or do all water, but she might be kind of angry at you for that at first. Usually if it is gradually turned into water, they stop demanding it when they wake up.
My son nursed until he was 2, but during the day he took bottles of breast milk that my m-i-l gave him when she watched him. I tried to get her to get him off of the bottle when he was one, and she tried cold turkey (not what I suggested) -- and was miserable that day. I gave her sippy cups and told her to gradually change them out. She allowed him to use the pacifier more during the day (something he used periodically) -- and he did use it more after he weaned off of the bottle and from nursing. In order to stop that habit, I used a "binky fairy" to stop the binkies when he was about 3 -- we gathered all his binkies and left them for the binkie fairy to take to the new babies, and the fairy left him some stickers. He did that transition pretty well (but you have be sure that there aren't any more binkies lying around!!) By the way -- whenever we went into a store or anyplace he always had to leave the binky in the car..... even when he was a baby -- though that's something that can be started in order to cut back dependance...
When my son woke at night (after the age of 1) I never nursed him back to sleep though I rocked or patted him -- nor did I nurse him before sleep after he was about 16 months old -- I'd nurse when I got home from work -- I didn't want him to relate nursing to sleeping.
I know it's hard, and you really need to take your daughter's lead in some of this. Hope some of the ideas here help you think of some things to try.
2006-09-30 12:37:22 · answer #6 · answered by kaliselenite 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why remove the bottle its like a security blanket for her. Continue to give her the bottle at night until she is older. My son drank his bottle at night before going to sleep until he threw it away after two yrs. Good luck and dont' turn this into a struggle, let it happen natural when she is ready to give it up she will. Just like toilet training when she's ready she'll go.
2006-09-30 12:25:33 · answer #7 · answered by men 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i personally would say at that age if she is happy with the bottle at night then leave her,but do check her if she has teeth coming through ,,as sometimes they bite the teet,,, i don`t see why we need to rush babies,, they grow up soo quick,,you can introduce a soft teated spout cup, i get the non spill, anyway up cups they are fab,, can you get them there,when the child is ready and wants to take the cup to bed instead of the bottle then he/she can,,
2006-09-30 13:18:26 · answer #8 · answered by mam26 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
tell her shes a big girl and that the bottle is for the babies lol thats what we did with my daughter and i threw the bottle out the car window infront of her and she's never went back!! goodluck to you! its not that hard!
2006-09-30 12:26:42 · answer #9 · answered by cutenwild1769 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well i think you should juat take the bottle away from her and let her choose a really nice little beaker cup off her own
2006-10-02 08:01:33 · answer #10 · answered by icemadan 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋