Mission Impossible....Getting rid of the bottle

Sascha3

I feel good about my daughter's development in almost every area, she goes to sleep easily, plays independently, is very verbal, etc. but I am having a really hard time eliminating the bottle.  My doctor is making a big deal about it.  It seems everyone on here got rid of the bottle around the first birthday, although pretty much everyone I know in real life still has their 2-3 year olds on bottles, even in public.  I never let her take bottles in public.  She will take juice (very diluted) and water from a sippy, but she will only take milk from a bottle.  She cries for one at least every 3 hours, and it is a HUGE battle if I say no.

I had her down to only 3 a day...wakeup, nap and bedtime.  But I had twins 2 months ago and it is worse than ever.  She cries and screams every single time I feed them.  I know I am the adult and need to say no, but when you have newborn twins and are exhausted, I guess it is easier said than done.  Especially when I am stuck on the couch feeding them for so many hours a day.  It is just easier to let her have it than deal with tantrums all day.  She is great about sleeping...she will actually walk in her room by herself and lay down to go to sleep (she has been in a toddler bed since she was 14 months), but only with a bottle.

Is there a less painful way to do this, or do I need to go cold turkey?

Edit....she is 20 months

Emmit12

My LO is about 12 and a half months old. I never thought she would give up the bottle. We finally found a sippy she likes and went cold turkey. She had no issues. I was so happy. We went cold turkey with our first dd, right at 12 months with no issues. I think it was all about finding a preferred sippy and going cold turkey so that way there was no confusion.

Katie829

We went cold turkey. She watched me throw it in the trash. She fought me for a couple of days on it and now she will take a sippy of milk.
We have to use different sippy for milk and water. We use a nuby brand sippy for milk and the straw sippy for water. If you give her it and other way she will throw them.

HollyBee013

We went cold turkey too.  For us and my daughter, we figured, when she was thirst enough, she will drink from what we give her.  Side note though, she did a lot better going from bottle to straw cup, not sippy.  We only use sippy on the rare occasion nothing else is clean!

Sascha3

DaisyBlinks said:

We did cold turkey without a problem, but your daughter is definitely at an age where that's going to be trickier. I would just bite the bullet and do it. Ignore tantrums or redirect. She won't scream for the bottle forever. It'll be hard for a few days, but she'll get over it. Don't be one of those moms that lets a three year old walk around with a bottle. I can't believe that's the norm where you live, I've never met anyone who did that and can only count 2-3 times when I've seen it out in public. 

I definitely don't want to be that mom!  I feel so judgy when I see it but then I look at myself and think that's where I am heading, haha.  But at least I keep it my dirty little secret behind closed doors and not in public )

oliversmommy32912

We really liked Zoli cups for transitioning. They have a weighted straw so they can drink laying down, which is how my son was taking all of his bottles when we transitioned. It also has a really soft straw so I think that helped, too. Once he was consistently taking the Zoli cup instead of one of his bottles we cut the other two out cold turkey. We expected a battle but it was really no big deal. Now we use cheap Nuby soft straw cups and he will drink anything out of them.

jnnfrrose6

Sounds like your LO is jealous of the twins and fighting for the attention she's used to.  No surprise there!  Honestly, in your situation, I'd probably pick my battles, too.  I can't imagine trying to nurse twins while taking the bottle away from my older LO.  I guess I'd start with cutting out one bottle at a time.  Also, is there anyway to "explain" to her that she's a big girl now and bottles are for babies (like the twins)?  The idea from PP to have a different sippy for milk than for water seems to make sense to me too.  Perhaps you can find one that is designed for the transition, so the mouth piece is softer and more like the nipple on the bottle?  GL!

Jess71903

We started transitioning our daughter away from the bottle at 11 months -- first we  got rid of morning bottle and replaced it with a cup of formula, 1 week later we got rid of the afternoon pre-nap bottle and replaced with cup of formula then at 11 1/2 months we got rid of the nighttime bottle and replaced with formula but kept the same nighttime routine. Then we transitioned from formula to milk right before she turned one and there was no looking back. My only advice is be strong and consistent! you'll get through it!

FabulousMrs.P

We found a sippy cup that was a soft spout ( I think it was nuby) so it was more like a bottle and  my DD liked it. Then we just went cold turkey.

Honestly, I would just choose a weekend and go for it. Don't give in to the tantrums and eventually she will just stop asking for it. I suggest the weekend, because then your spouse might be home to help you. Just be strong and consistent. You can't tell her no one day and then give her the bottle  the next. And make a big deal about her being a big girl when she cries for it. We gave my DD a "Big girl pizza party" the first full day she was off the bottle.  She loves pizza so we tried to make it a special occasion for her and that seemed to go a LONG way.

LEIGHLOVE09

For us it was an issue of what type of sippy we used. I honestly tried prob 10 kinds and the only one that worked for her was the munchkin mighty grip. It's actually fairly close to a bottle nipple not as hard as some others so she likes it! A couple of my friends have struggled and I told them about this and their kids took to these too no issues. Maybe try it and see

LadyAph

Every kid is different.  Going cold turkey seemed too traumatizing to me so we waiting until a few weeks ago at around 20 months.  I started by giving him a sippy cup of milk before bed time, brushing his teeth, and then giving him a bottle of water.

3 nights later he didn't want to bottle and was done with it.  No screaming, no crying.  

I had tried taking the bottle away earlier but he was too attached.

ALHickok1

My son's last bottle was the day before his first birthday. We woke up, said he was a big boy, not that he understood, and went straight to cups. We went cold turkey, and he never looked back. I had been letting him play with cups since he was about 4 months with water.