How do I wean 12 month old off of the bottle?

Question

We successfully got our baby off of formula last week and she is now on homogenized milk exclusively. We give her 2-4oz at each naptime (2x/day) and 6-8oz at bedtime. However, each helping of milk is being given in her bottle. At her one year check up yesterday, the DR said it's now time to get her off of the bottle all together. We have tried milk in a cup (sippy and regular), but she won't take it unless it's in a bottle. Has anyone been through this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

Many baby stores sell sippie cups with a soft nipple to sip from instead of the hard plastic, which is so foreign to those babies after having used a bottle for so long. We are also weaning our baby from bottles, and this seems to be the thing that works best. This is the second time trying to wean her, and I would suggest to switch to sippie cups exclusively. They prefer the bottle, so if you ever get lazy and just give her the bottle, you have to start the process over again. She will get it. If the soft silicone sippie doesn't work, I would try a few cups until you find one she will take. It took my baby awhile to get it, but if they realize that's the only way they're going to get the milk, they usually give in.

Answer 2

Some good old fashioned advice:

Get a spill proof sippy cup (the soft tipped ones are best for weaning) and wait for her to get hungry. Put her in the high chair and just the sippy cup. You will have to take so time and patience. She may reject it at first and drop it on the floor. Just calmly retrieve the cup and put it back on the tray. If you yell at her for dropping the cup, she will associate the cup with negativity. It may also help if you sit and drink something from a like sippy cup. The only real way to get a baby off the bottle is to discontinue it and not give in. With patience and perseverance, you can have her weaned off the bottle in a day or two.

Good luck :-)

Answer 3

Try different sippy cups, some have different mouth pieces and she might not like the feel of the one you are using.

Other than that, just don't give her the option of the bottle any more. Hold the sippy cup in her mouth as you would a bottle (even if she has previously been able to feed herself). Eventually, she will come to accept the sippy cup.

Answer 4

First start with a sippy that has a soft tip, not the hard plastic kind. That helped us. Some children will take longer than normal, but when we did it, we actually started with a sippy at around age 10 months and gave it to him at meal times and one day, the bottle just went bye bye and he never missed it. Bedtime was a little difficult at first as we gave him a bottle right before bedtime, so at first we would just rock and rock and rock. Now, I can rock him to sleep in about 3 minutes, it doesn't take long.

Answer 5

i personally didn't have this particular problem. i started trying out different sippy cups since she was 8 months old. i couldn't find one that she liked or she just didn't catch on to how to drink from a sippy cup. finally a few weeks before her 1st birthday i found a cup she would actually drink from. that night, i gave her the milk in her cup and she took it. so i figured no more bottles, and threw out all of her bottles. every child is different. i believe in consistency and repetition for babies. you just have to be consistent. don't take her bottle away and then give it to her when the going gets tough. it'll confuse her and make it more difficult the next time around. i believe in repetition because you have to repeat these steps until she gets the hang of it. at first she might not like it but next week she might. you just have to keep trying. it'll come to you. you'll be fine. good luck.

Answer 6

We tried all sorts of sippy cups and my son did not like them. We finally found 1 that worked, it's at Target. They are the First Years - Take and toss cups. There are 2 different sizes, get the smaller ones. They are very small and lightweight. He liked to hold them himself and we didn't have any problems after that. Of course he still wanted the comfort of his bottle, all babies will, but keep offering it in a cup all throughout the day and one day it will happen. I think the lightweight sippy cup and the repetition was the key. Best of Luck!

Answer 7

use a sippy cup for milk, put just milk in sippy cup. still offer the bottle and with each bottle put 1/4 water in bottle for about a week and then the next week put 1/2 water and then following week put mostly water with just enough milk to give the color. the following week give just water there will come a point bottle will not be wanted.

Answer 8

Try putting the milk in a sippy and just water in her bottle. If she wants the milk, she'll get the idea that it's only in the sippy. Just make sure that you're not letting her have the sippy of milk as she's going to sleep, just as you wouldn't with a bottle - it's really bad for her teeth.

Answer 9

This may not be the answer you're looking for. On the day after my son's first birthday all his bottles went in the garbage. Gone. There was nothing to do BUT use the sippy cups. I kept telling him they're all gone baby! He was just fine when he knew they absolutely were gone and they weren't coming back. Maybe once your child knows that there just are NO MORE bottles in your house for him to use, then she'll be all right! Good luck!

Answer 10

I had to try a few different kind of sippy cups, and II took the bottle away at breakfast, and nap time first and then a week or so later I took her night time bottle away and she was fine. Oh and when I say tried diff. sippy cups I started that at 12 months and she was 14 months when she finally took one. It could also be she herself just does not want a cup yet. My ped told me his daughter would just play w/ hers until she was 15 months.