Emotional attachment to the bottle

erindawn

Somewhere along the way my little guy turned the bottle into a comfort item. He also has a lovey and when he is upset or stressed or tired he likes to hold them both. Even if the bottle is empty. It's sort of a pacifier.

I'm not sure if I should fight this or not. How bad is it really for him to carry around an empty bottle? He doesn't even really suck on it.

Anyone else have this going on or had it with an older child and have some advice? Our babysitter said that her oldest son carried a bottle around until he was four and then just dropped it in the trash and never looked back but I'm pretty sure I'll be horrified if my fouryearold is taking a bottle to preschool.

valerie.kingsley

I was like this with my son's paci for the longest time but have recently found peace about it.  I feel it's the same with your son's bottle.  My friend's daughter still insists on drinking her pre-bed milk from a bottle, even though she drinks water from a sippy all day.  She never took a paci, so this is really the one thing she's clung to for comfort.  Your son's carrying around a bottle isn't hurting anyone, and you still have awhile to go before school.  The way I finally looked at it was, no one thinks to take away a child's comfort blanket or toy or whatever, but for some reason we get so worked up over the things that go in their mouths.  The poor little guy wouldn't have any issues if it were just the blanket, ya know?  My son has nothing but his paci for comfort, so I don't want to take that from him.  I DID, however, stop him from having it during the day and in the car.  It's now reserved for sleeping.  I did that because it became an attitude thing.  He'd be unhappy unless he had his paci, and he'd ask for it specifically until he got it.  For me, I wanted him to learn to have fun and be happy without it.  I did that by giving him a paci with the end snipped.  After about a day of that, he stopped picking it up, so I stopped offering it.  When/if I decide to take it for sleeping, I"ll probably do the same thing.  but since you said your son doesn't even always suck on it, I'd say if it's a huge deal for YOU, just slowly start giving him his lovey only.  You might have to hear it for awhile, but eventually he will get over it.  As far as I'm concerned, at this age, who cares if they have it for bed.  But I understand the desire for them to not have those things during play!

RMama2012

Wow! I was considering creating the exact same topic today!  Lately, my baby has been sucking on an empty bottle and getting upset (for about 5 seconds) when we take it away.  In the past he would toss it once he heard the air noise.  my MIL and I have been taking it away once he's done.  He never took a paci and has been teething badly.

I am considering dropping the bottle this weekend for fear that he develops a strong attachment to it.  He does really love his blanket so maybe i'll let him hold that more often?  I'm nervous he wont drink enough milk without the bottle even though he does well with a sippy and was decent with the straw sippy yesterday.  He's pretty good with solids.

I'm hoping more experienced mamas will chime in.

dairygirl19

My kid did this too.

I took the "Meh. Whatever" approach. She's almost two and survived just fine this far.

I had no problem taking the bottle away..she just took up loving the sippy instead. She has to have it with her full of water most of the day.

Again, whatever, the hell.

I actually quite enjoy it's her lovey. I always know where it is, I don't have to wait for it to come out of the wash machine at naptime and if I forget it somewhere, there's more at Target.

She'll grow out of it in time..they all do.

She's a great easy kid otherwise, so I pick my battles on this one.