Maryland Babies

weaning from a bottle ?

My daughter is mostly weaned, but she still gets 1 bottle of milk first thing in the morning and another right before bed. 

I want to get rid of the morning bottle ASAP and give her a little bit of time before to adjust to that before we work on taking away the night time one.  I am hoping to have her completely weaned from bottles by the end of the year.

We have tried unsuccessfully to get rid of the morning bottle a couple of times, but DD is stubborn and just refuses to take anything else.  She won't drink milk from a cup. and she cries if I try to give her water.  I feel bad sending her to daycare with NOTHING in her belly, so I give in and let her have the bottle.

Did any of you deal with something like this?  What did you do?  How do you handle it if LO refuses to eat or drink anything else?

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Re: weaning from a bottle ?

  • can you give her something to eat instead?  piece of toast or a waffle, etc.?
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  • I did attempt that, but Evie just looked at me like I was crazy and kept saying, "Muk, Muk."  I offered her a copy of milk and she had a melt down. 

    No! Bobble! Muk! and other unintelligble irate screaming.  None of us are morning people, so I think that is part of the problem.  I know I cave way to easy.

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  • I'd just put less and less milk in the bottle and start showing up w/ food too.  So - here's some milk, but you need to eat something.  And, then start showing up w/ a sippy w/ milk, plus a bottle w/ a tiny bit of milk and food.  Does she eat in her room or in teh car?  We used to give DD a sippy w/ milk in her room/our room and a bag w/ cheerios or crispix for breakfast. 
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  • Her room is actually a nook, so we have breakfast in the living room.  She sits in my lap we cuddle and I feed her the bottle while we watch Wow Wow Wubsy.  Embarrassed

    This morning I tried to get her to sit by herself, but she got mad.  So ofcourse I let her crawl into my lap to cuddle.  I am 4 months pregnant and starting to get a belly, so I know this needs to change.  I won't be able to hold her like this much longer.

    ETA:  She usually eats breakfast once she gets to daycare.  She arrives there at 7 am, and usually eats around 7:15.  Normally she has a waffle and either yogurt or fruit.  I have never let her eat in the car.  I am too nervous that she will choke.

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  • Maybe you could try putting water in the bottle and then offering the milk in just a cup. That's how we got A off her nighttime bottle. She mostly drinks water during the day but wasn't interested in having to work for it from the bottle. Eventually she just stopped asking her the bottle all together.

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  • Does she not like sippy cups? What does she drink with at daycare? In a cup? dixie cup? Sippy cup? Personally I just cut cold turkey with both. Like Kathryn give her some food in the morning.
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  • You guys are right...  I need to just suck it up and do it.  I guess I was hoping someone would have a magic solution.

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  • you can also start talking it up - and how big girls don't use bottles, they're for babies, etc.  I did this w/ DD for binkies and basically stopped offering them to her.  If she asked, I'd give it to her.
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  • We stopped bottles cold turkey with DD.   At first, she wasn't drinking much (she had been using sippys for water for a while, but wouldn't take WCM out of them).  After two days or so, she was fine taking the milk from a sippy.  I guess she finally got thirsty enough Stick out tongue.  It was probably a little easier for us, since DD was younger and couldn't ask for it.  I think cold turkey is the way to go though!  Good luck!
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  • imagebridetobe920:
    We stopped bottles cold turkey with DD.   At first, she wasn't drinking much (she had been using sippys for water for a while, but wouldn't take WCM out of them).  After two days or so, she was fine taking the milk from a sippy.  I guess she finally got thirsty enough Stick out tongue.  It was probably a little easier for us, since DD was younger and couldn't ask for it.  I think cold turkey is the way to go though!  Good luck!

    This exactly.

    We do have a designated milk sippy, which he seems to like/recognize - we did this b/c we had one style of sippy that had the oz marked off the side and it's the best way for us to track how much he's getting (we struggle to get him to drink anywhere near as much as he should... he just isn't interested).  We also wound up having to do milk at mealtimes only b/c that's the only time we could get him to sit still and drink his milk - if we gave it at other times, he wouldn't drink it, but giving it w/ meals winds up in him drinking most of it.  He gets a sippy of water when he gets up, and usually a handful of Cheerios to snack on.  I feed him breakfast later in the morning and give him his sippy of milk with that.

  • UGH... I feel your pain!!! 

    DD loved her bottle, that was her "security" item.  She refused everything, but her bottle was always her "go to" item to go to sleep, to comfort her, to sooth her, etc.  I knew I needed to get her off of the bottles, but I knew it wasn't going to be easy.  She loved her bottle and I hated taking that one thing she clung too.

    I did it cold turkey.  I was given advice to let her have the AM/PM bottle, and I understood the rationale.  However, I knew if I was going in for this battle, I wanted it to be a one time shot and be over.  I was given a pep talk from a friend and the next day I did it.  She actually did great.  It wasn't easy and it was a rough day but overall she did much better than expected.  It took maybe 3 days to not have any crying/whining from her.  So it was rather quick for her to "get it".

    She refused milk for weeks.  I had to show her there was only water in her sippies so she'd even drink that.  We tried a ton of cups and she refused everything.  Honestly, she wasn't starving and she was plenty healthy in size, so I just let it go.  I knew she'd give the battle up eventually and knew a few weeks of no milk wouldn't harm her.  I tried to supplement where possible, i'd give her yogurt for breakfast and add some cheese into her diet.  She lived and is perfectly healthy.  She still refuses milk in a sippy, but she will finally drink the drinkable yogurts.  So we are now giving her the drinkable yogurts.  My sisters kids were the same way, once the bottle was gone, they wouldn't drink milk.  I started to mix the yogurt with milk because those suckers are $$ and also to try to get her back to liking milk.  She likes the yogurt better "straight", but will drink it mixed. 

     Given Evie's size (mine is big too), she will probably be ok without the milk for a few weeks if she refuses it.  You can supplement the intake other ways until you can get her to accept some form of calcium (milk, yogurt etc).  I personally also believe that she is bigger because the amts of full fat milk she was drinking daily.  She had to be over double the daily amt needed.  So she's now starting to average out into a normal size for her age. 

     Good luck, it's not easy but it's typically harder for us than it is for them.  MH said she'd still have the bottles if it was up to him.  He wasn't home the morning I did it and when he came home, he wasn't thrilled that she was unhappy with no bottle.  I told him to back off, LOL.  I knew I'd win the battle if he'd stay out of it.  He's a pushover with her...YES she's wrapped around his finger!

  • Kelley- I totally underatand what you mean about DH...  he is not helpful in doing anything that might disrupt bedtime!

     

    Thanks for all the encouragement you guys!

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