Getting Off the Bottle

ShortStuff5

Mother's who have been bottling feeding what are you doing to get your now one year old off the bottle. We started a transitional formula mixed with whole milk half and half she does not like whole milk by itself. She will drink from straw cups not really from sippy cups. She signs when she wants milk and I will try it in a few different sippy cups but she will shake her head no and keep signing for milk until she gets a bottle I hate to cave in to her but that's how she goes down for nap number one and bed time still with a bottle. Trying not to stress to much but I know pedi said it will get harder the older she gets and can mess with her jaw and teeth obviously not something I want to happen. Thinking of trying the 360 cup.

KFrob

I'm in the same boat! We made the transition to whole milk just fine but LO will only take it from a bottle and only water from a straw sippy.  DH and I decided we would transition to milk first, then stop warming it up (is everyone else still warming bottles?! This is one I'm at a complete loss on when we're not supposed to anymore...) then work on the switch over to a sippy.

Part of me isn't ready to lose the bottles!! I love holding her in my arms and looking into her eyes while she relaxes and does things like play with my hair or rub my leg ugh where did my tiny baby go!? But like you said, I know it's only going to get harder. 

krrpe99

We tried the 360, but DD won't use it. She drinks water well from a straw cup, so I've ordered some insulated ones to try milk with. We're going to try taking away the day bottles first, and eventually get to the night one. I'm not in a hurry to try bedtime without it! 
We did stop warming our bottles a while ago. DD actually seems to like it better a little chilled. And we're about to start the switch to whole milk. There just seems to be so many changes all at once. 

cali1710

Can we not use straw sippy cups?! I was hoping so as she drinks water from it already. 

BarrettJ89

Brynlee wants every single sippy cup and refuses to actually drink from every single sippy cup... because of the allergies/sensitivities, our pediatrician doesn't want us to try milk, so we will be on formula for a few months (unless she starts eating table food sooner and more consistently). I'm a totally sucker and keep caving in and giving her a bottle to keep my sanity. Ugh

jodiedrich18

Yea, I'm at a complete loss here too. My LO still seems to treat any type of cup like a toy mostly. We've tried the regular sippy cups, the 360, and straw ones with water and milk. She maybe gets only a couple sips from any of them so I can't imagine how she would actually get a few ounces in! Her bottles are still warmed at daycare. We just started adding whole milk with breast milk in her daycare bottles so I guess we'll work on getting up to all whole milk and off the warmed part. I would love to begin weaning off nursing but am so scared to how much liquid she would not get if she's not drinking from cups!

JanuarysBaby1

Same boat. She wants nothing to do with a sippy cup. I actually just ordered the 360 so I'm hoping she likes it. Fingers crossed. She's totally on whole milk now. Is anyone's LOs holding their own bottle yet? Mine also refuses that! 

BarrettJ89

We haven't warmed up bottles in months... probably close to 6 months. She never seemed phased by the temp of her bottles. 

stephanienjer

I don't know that we ever warmed up bottles. Since we went for formula pretty early, we just kept nursery water on the counter, and mixed and served them at room temperature. I know at daycare they did, but it didn't seem to matter to Birdie.
Birdie will take all straw cups/sippies that we've offered. It took her a while to get the hang of the 360, but now she really likes it. She does still want a physical bottle at bedtime and in the morning, but I figure we went from all bottles to only the 2 in one fell swoop and she's never complained. We're still doing half formula/half milk for the bottles, and straight milk or straight water the rest of the time, but only until our formula runs out.

charliesmommy6

My LO is hit or miss with sippy cups (still just water so far at home but at daycare I think they do formula in a sippy). Some days he will drink 3-4oz of water and some days it's one sip and thrown on the floor. I try to just keep it out while he's playing and sometimes he will take a break and have a few sips. 

As for warming up bottles - we really only warm up the night time bottle. As PP said I'm really not ready to take away the night time bottle. 

As far as holding his own bottle - mine can hold his own but if I'm there holding him or laying next to him he refuses and makes me hold it. 

One sippy cup suggestion: we started on sippy cups that have a bottle nipple as the sippy part so it was a really familiar feel, flow etc. so that may be worth looking into. The Avent Trainer cups have both a nipple top and a more traditional sippy top you can change in when they are ready. 

grkgdss00

We made the transition super easy, but she's been drinking from sippy cups for many months with water. That would be my first suggestion - make sure she's comfortable with sippy cups with water. Then, just cut an ounce or two at first so she can't really taste the difference. Start with 1 daytime replacement (cup for bottle) and work your way up.

We started with the Playtex Sipsters around 5 months with water and she figured it out no problem LINK
She also likes the Gerber (we still use these for water so she knows the difference) and now we just use the cheap plastic ones for milk. Hope that helps!

KFrob

LO does hold her own bottle but morning and bedtime bottles I hold it for her cause I like to and I'm babying her haha 

We introduced the sippy with the convertible nipple to sippy cup opening around 6 months and she never really liked it. Then we tried the straw style probably around 9 months and she took right too it and is a pro with water but will only take a sip of the milk before throwing it. 

I tried not really warming her bottle this morning and she only drank an ounce and refused it so I warmed it up more and she drank it. 

I consulted with google and read an article that said to treat the switch like weaning, start by giving one less ounce in the bottle and put that once of milk in the sippy at meal time. Then after a few days make it two ounces in the sippy, and so on. I think we're going to give this method a try with daytime bottles this weekend. 

We've successfully made the switch from breast, to pumped breast milk, until around 10 months to a combo of formula and breast milk, then to straight formula, and now to straight whole milk, you'd think the temperature and apparatus wouldn't be a big deal to this girl! Babies.... 

mesamyt

Lacey still takes a bottle but only at night for bed. During the day she will drink from a sippy cup with a soft spout. She will only drink water/ juice from a hard tip sippy cup. She is just barely a year. I'm not stressing the bottle thing too much. She is still hitting milestones a little slower than her siblings and I am OK with that. I don't mind my baby staying a baby for a little longer. 

Mamabeagle

Two weeks ago we just legit went cold turkey on half his bottles now being sippies. He didn't care. The ones I'm afraid to get rid of are the wake up bottles, in the morning and after both naps when its the only thing that calms him down. 

jgonzalez20

How many bottles are your LO's getting? 


My my daughter is the same. Some days interested in sippy cup, others not.

I worked hard on weaning her from breastfeeding at 10 months. She wouldn't take a bottle or formula for the longest. Now we just got used to it and bang time to change again and take it all away?

She also still takes 4 bottles a day. She eats but not a ton and some days are also hit or miss. 

cali1710

@jgonzalez20 we arent having much luck with milk in sippy cup. Just water so far. Mine takes 3 6-8oz bottles a day. Eating solids is hit or miss for us

mhamik

We were very lucky with our LO, at about 10 months she was getting 4 bottles a day with three meals plus a snack and water in a sippy but she would never drink much of them so we just stopped offering them and only gave her one if it was clear she wanted one.

The biggest thing for us was she switched rooms at daycare and was in a room where maybe two other kids consistently got bottles so between being busy and not seeing bottles she just quit asking for them. They also have very structured meal times (breakfast, lunch, snack) which seemed to help). This led to a huge increase in the amount of food/pouches she would eat. It was also around this time we started doing yogurt every morning which seemed to help for whatever reason. 

So when we were at her doctors office around 11 months due to an ear infection I asked about starting whole milk a month early and he said go for it since she consistently had cheese and yogurt with no problems. 

we had been using the 360 for water since about 9 months so we figured it'd be an easy switch to milk in them however she never really wanted it. For whatever reason she must've associated the 360 with water too much so we tried one of the cheap munchkin spout ones and she chugs milk out of it all day now.

So long story short my best advice is to try a different cup if yours has always taken water but may not be interested in milk! Now we do one bottle at night but that's probably more due to us not wanting to risk messing with her sleep since she is finally sleeping again! I'm pretty positive she could go without it.

tamararamadan

Same boat here too..mine drinks sips of water from sippy cups but doesn't accept milk from them at all, tried giving her she basically refused and kept crying till I gave her bottle back...Have introduced the sippy from 6 months ago and she still barely takes water from sippy cups, prefers open cups which drenches her everytime..Also tried the 360 didn't work with baby at all and honestly baffled me as well not so easy to use! My plan is to try to wean and keep trying gradually over a few weeks n hoping shel eventually accept I guess with different cup from the water, guess we're all on similar boats 

KFrob

LO really loves drinking out of a regular cup and I didn't think to try milk in it! I'm going to try tomorrow. 

SuperherosMom

Mine was stubborn. If i put milk in a bottle she would drink it but not from a cup. Went cold turkey one weekend and stopped bottles and only offered in a sippy cup. Took 2 days but it worked! We only offered a bottle at wake and bed but any other time only offered whole milk cold in a sippy.

Kelley421

We started trying cups at about 6 months so by the time the one year mark came, they were accustomed to them. My LOs refused to drink anything from a bottle except warmed formula so we dropped bottles and formula same time. Our favorite cups are the 360 and playtex insulated sipsters.

mestokes

How's everyone doing with dropping bottles? We weaned from breastfeeding over the last 2 weeks, so LO is now getting 3 6oz bottles of whole milk daily. He's still not loving sippy cups

KFrob

We're still at 6 bottles but we're down to between 3 and 4 oz per bottle. I was going to try to give LO a push towards milk in the sippy this weekend by putting water in the bottle instead of milk but both my DH and daycare lady told me not to push her yet, that's she's not ready. I'm just so nervous about it becoming a battle if we wait too long... 

How are the breastfeeders holding up now with the weaning?  I went really slow and it still took such a toll on my hormones and emotions, I was a complete mess! 

mestokes

Weaning was definitely tough! Graham took to it much better than I did. I packed up my pump and breastfeeding pillow this morning and was so sad!! My hormones were crazy but I'm finally starting to feel like my old self again

cali1710

Sippy cup for milk is failing hard. We do 2 6oz bottles and one 8 oz a day. I think I might start putting the smaller hole nipples on the bottles so that she will hate working so hard to use them and hopefully start liking milk from the 360 cup! Fingers crossed. 

JanuarysBaby1

At this point I feel like she's never going to get off the bottle! Ugh., she's currently getting 2 6oz and 1 8 oz before bed. She also isn't a fan of water out of a sippy cup either. I tried the 360 and it was a no go. Also isn't holding her own bottle either. This is a very slow process lol 

cali1710

JanuarysBaby1 said:

At this point I feel like she's never going to get off the bottle! Ugh., she's currently getting 2 6oz and 1 8 oz before bed. She also isn't a fan of water out of a sippy cup either. I tried the 360 and it was a no go. Also isn't holding her own bottle either. This is a very slow process lol 

Mine didnt like the 360 either but it was the only thing I offered water in for a while and now she loves it. It is a slow process though! 

krrpe99

For anyone who's had success with a sippy, do they drink the whole thing in one sitting like a bottle? Or is it more strung out? Since many of the cups are insulated, I figure it would be ok if it sat out a while. 
We're taking a break from trying cups. I got too frustrated. Maybe we'll try again ina month or two. 

cali1710

krrpe99 said:

For anyone who's had success with a sippy, do they drink the whole thing in one sitting like a bottle? Or is it more strung out?

I'm curious about this too. I'm hoping in a sitting.. it works best for us!

fishee333

My LO likes a sippy cup (never was into bottles, has been breastfed and is now down to 3 feedings a day) but she never drinks all the milk out of it in one sitting. She doesn't eat in one sitting either. Playing is more important to her, so I just let her take her sippy with her and she drinks and plays. Otherwise she gets frustrated and refuses to drink all together. I offer cheese and/or yogurt at least once a day instead of milk/breastfeeding and she likes that. 

Kelley421

My older DD would drink from a straw cup all in one sitting (she started this @ 9-10m so I stopped bottle then)
Now I give milk in 360 cups with meals and snacks. At bedtime we finish off milk from dinner. They don't drink a certain number of ounces all at once. Between meals water from straw cups. I put milk cups in the fridge after meals trying to cut waste. 

ekscopp

Still breastfeeding, and will until she decides she's done. But she does take milk from the 360 cup. While she is with me, I just give it to her with meals and water in the 360 through out the day. At daycare they want all her milk from the sippy, but it isn't going well. My husband still fed her from the bottle this weekend. I personally don't think she is ready for all of it like that, but that's what the daycare wants. She is only there 2 days, so I plan to let her take whatever she will from it while she is there and make up for it when she is with me. She drinks fine out of it, and will to an extent but doesn't take a lot. 

Cricket99

Still breastfeeding here, mostly because of a dairy allergy, so milk isn't an option for us. We have cut one feeding a day so far, but I feel like the weaning process is going to be really slow for us. At this point t we are down to 2 feedings during the daytime, bedtime, and an early morning feed. Unless teething is involved. Then we are just a hot mess all the way around.... 

cyanope

Still doing the bottle thing over here. LO does four, 6oz bottles a day. We're trying to cut out her 5:30 am bottle by offering her water instead, but so far, that's been a bust (and I love my sleep, so I usually give in)! I was also going to try doing milk in the 360 this weekend, but then LO got sick (my poor baby), so there was no way I was going to mess with her routine! LO understands the concept of the 360 (it took her a day or two to really get it down), but seems to prefer a straw, so she doesn't drink as much water when she's drinking from the 360. My fear is that we'll have the same problem with the milk. We shall see! I may do her milk in the straw sippy, and keep the water in the 360 for now. Why do 1 year olds have to be so opinionated?? 

mestokes

Anyone else still doing bottles? How is it going?

KFrob

We're still on bottles 

cali1710

We are still on them. My husband and I are taking a 4 day vacation without her next week ans when we get back in going to wean her off of them. Shes getting too attached and the longer we wait the worse it'll get. 

JanuarysBaby1

We're still on them too. Out of curiosity when are they supposed to be off of bottles? My LO barely likes drinking water from her sippy cup and hardly holds her own bottle still! 

BarrettJ89

We're still on bottles here too... she tries to drink juice from her sippy, but isn't so good at it. She's definitely getting some out, but isn't a fan of drinking her milk from them. 

mestokes

Mine won't hold his bottle either!! My Dr recommended having him weaned from them by 15 months. Not sure that will happen!! 

juliaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

My pediatrician said bottles are fine till 3-4 years old, so surprising to hear the huge differences in what people are told...   We do 4 bottles of milk (~125 ml each) a day.  Water we do from regular cups or sippy cups.  Our pediatrician recommended 500 ml of milk a day and said when people switch from bottles to cups babies usually drink less and thus no rush to drop the bottles but that it's recommended to stop bottles by 3 or 4 years old cause it could impact teeth/mouth shape after otherwise...