getting rid of bottles

sad5781

C is great using a sippy cup and doing pretty good on a straw cup, but he never drinks as much through either than though a bottle.  I know he has to get rid of the bottles eventually so I'm thinking I need to make the transition now.  But, I'm not sure how this is going to affect the quantity that his drinking and if I even need to be worried about that.   He's eating 3 meals a day with bottles in between.  

So my questions...

assuming your LO was taking milk/formula from a bottle at some point..

when did you take the bottles away?

how did you do it?  

how often was LO getting a bottle and did you just replace them with cups or did their schedule change?

Thanks!

darva

I switched Sam once she was no longer on formula.  I refused to put milk in a bottle.  So she was getting formula and milk for a couple of weeks.  (Mainly just 2 bottles at that point... 1 in the morning, 1 at bedtime). Once we were getting to the end of the formula can, I went cold turkey.  I started giving her milk with her meals and snacks (now we do water with snacks, milk with meals) since she like C wasn't taking as much at a time as she did with a bottle.   She adjusted.  Since she's getting actual meals and snacks, she doesn't need as much liquid so she gets a drink with meals and snacks... that's about it.  Water in between if she shows that she wants it.

kvinh546

we started trying to wean my DD off the bottle at 15 months, eliminating one bottle at a time (she was taking 3 at the time).  she wouldn't drink milk out of cup...she'd suck down water but if it was milk in there she'd look at us like we just tried to poison her.   it was taking her some time to just accept drinking milk out of the cup, since we would only give her a bottle at night.  well turned out my mom was sneaking her bottles during the day while we were working.  so we ended up having to get rid of all the bottles in the house and she had to do it cold turkey...which she just accepted in a couple of days.  

DS wouldn't drink much when we started on the cups (13 months).  then we got those toss and take sippy cups and he just started downing his milk.  he replaced his bottles with cups.  

 good luck!

brideonjuly8

Maybe you could do 3 oz with every meal and then 3 oz in between with a snack?  If he got 5-6 sippies of 3oz of milk that would be 15-18oz of milk a day, which is what is generally recommeded at a year.  And water whenever?  Do you think he could do 3 oz at a time?  When we started giving sippies with meals I had to wait to give it to him until after he had eaten about half his meal because he would gulp down his milk and then be full and not eat LOL.

sad5781

Thanks for all the input. I'm do excited to be done with formula and bottles!

brideonjuly8:

When we started giving sippies with meals I had to wait to give it to him until after he had eaten about half his meal because he would gulp down his milk and then be full and not eat LOL.

We have the opposite problem... he's only interested in the table food. Ha.

kreeper611

I can't remember when, but I think around 10 months daycare asked us to send sippy cups.  They went a day only give him a sippy cup and no bottle - he drank all of his milk and asked us to put the bottles away for daycare use.

We continued to use the bottle at night because he didn't drink his milk as fast through the cup, but we dropped that at about 12 months as well.

CareBear01

I switched around 10 months - 1year.  We did the Munchkin soft spout sippies, so he was drinking just as much from those b/c they are similar to a bottle nipple.

During the times where I knew he would drink the most (when he first would wake up, or right before bed), I would make sure to use the bottle that he would be most likley to drink from.  That way, I knew he was getting a good 16 ounces a day (8oz with each feeding), the rest of the day that he had with just his food, I didn't worry about whether he drank everythign or not - so would just give him the sippies to get used to it.

brideonjuly8

OH, I almost forgot!  Nuby makes these transition sippies called "stages" and it comes with a nipple top, a sippy top, then a straw-like top.  We used these and it made it really easy!  I've only seen them at Walmart though:

https://www.amazon.com/Nuby-Stage-Feeding-Bottle-Ounce/dp/B000MQQR9U/ref=sr_1_26?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1300909555&sr=1-26

sad5781

Everyone told me to get the soft spout cups but those just didn't work.  He would only chew on them and never drink from them. I just went right on to the hard spout ones and he does great with those.  We are working on the straw cups now and he's getting the hang of that too.  

Thanks again for all the info!