Weaning off the bottle...

FabulousMrs.P

So those of you who weaned off the bottle, I have a few questions.

 Did you just go cold turkey or did you just do a few feedings a day with a sippy cup?

Did your kids already do well with the sippy cup? My daughter can definitely drink from her sippy cup but I feel like she still looks at it more as a chew toy than anything else.

 I need to make sure she does well soley on the sippy cup at home before I send her to daycare with that instead of bottles as I don't think that our daycare provider will spend too much time helping her. Luckily I do work from home 2.5 days per week so I can work with her on it. Hopefully it will be a swift transition and we can put the bottles away soon.

mamaZbo

We've cut out one bottle at a time. First it was the noon bottle of formula replaced with a straw cup of WCM. Then we dropped the morning formula bottle and she gets a sippy of WCM. I am holding out on our 4pm formula bottle because I still have half a can of formula I want to use up.

It took DD a while to drink a large quantity through the straw cup. She was fine at taking sips, but getting all 6-8 oz in a sitting like with the bottle was hard. Now she is much better and I don't think dropping the last bottle will be a big deal.

I think it also may be one of those times when if they are hungry and they know what is in the sippy and there is no other option, they will drink. Good luck!

Julz629

DS kind of made the switch himself.  He is BF, but used to take 3 bottles at daycare.  He dropped to 2 when he started to eat more foods.  Around 11 months, he was way to distracted to stop and take the afternoon bottle, so that replaced with a sippy.  2 weeks ago, he flat out refused to take the bottle before his nap.  He would arch his back and scream.  So that was it.  We started giving him a sippy before nap, too.

We had to try a ton of sippies to find one that worked.  Ultimately, the Nuk one was the winner.  I think the soft top is more similar to the nipple of a bottle.

Also, he started refusing to nurse during the day, too.  Occasionally, he will nurse before his nap, but even that's iffy.  Honestly, he is just too busy and doesn't want to stop.  I am glad he dropped the habit on his own, but it has still been a little rough some days.

blu-eyedwife

We went cold turkey. When he transitioned rooms in daycare we just sent his milk in straw cups instead of bottles (with an empty bottle just in case).  But he was already really good at drinking water out of his straw cup.

VeilSdeGTO

DD has been drinking water from a straw sippy pretty well for months. We started giving her WCM in it on the weekends to see how she would do. Once she was okay with that (two weekends), then I replaced her 2nd bottle at daycare with just a sippy of milk. This just started this week.

She is drinking maybe 2-3oz. Her bottles were 4oz anyways so I don't expect her to all of a sudden drink 6oz. I'll see how she does the rest of the week and maybe replace her first bottle at daycare next week if her intake is increasing. If not, I'll give it another week before dropping that first bottle (which is already 50 BM/ 50 WCM).

She is still BF in the morning before daycare and at night before bed.

Elsa1984

I commented on the other post but......Gator has been using a sippy with meals since 7mo but only with water. She refused to drink milk out of it. She was getting four bottles a day. I ended up cutting the daytime ones out cold turkey, and just offering her a sippy of milk. She refused it for most of the day and then finally gave in. We never looked back. Now she gets one bottle, and that is right before bed.

TwiMom

[quote user="has been using a sippy with meals since 7mo but only with juice or water. She was getting four bottles a day. I ended up cutting the daytime ones out cold turkey, and just offering her a sippy of milk. She refused it for most of the day and then finally gave in. We never looked back. Now she gets one bottle, and that is right before bed. This is what I plan to do also.