When to ditch the bottles

ALY1981 · February 2012

So one of my college friends posted on FB about how she is weaning her 10 month old from bottles. I hadn't even given this a thought. I dont feel Henry would be ready for this at all. He currently gets 3 bottles a day (am, nap and bedtime) with straw cups of water throughout the day. I wasn't even going to visit this until 15 months-def dropping his am and nap bottle soon, but not cutting the bedtime for last. Is this normal? When did you all wean from bottle?

Ali212 · February 2012

With both my girls I dropped bottles cold turkey at 12 months. At that time, I replaced formula (they were on formula then) in bottles with WCM in a sippy at the exact same time (3x a day...1st thing in am, around snack time (4ish) and then right before bedtime; my pedi recommended they get 16-24 oz of WCM a day). They both had been getting sippies of water throughout the day since they were ~6 months.

My older daughter was a smooth transition from bottles to sippies. My younger daughter fought it a bit -- tried to swat away the sippy assuming it had the usual water in it during her normal formula time but we stuck with it and she was completely transitioned in a few days.

I'm not sure what is "normal" but that's what we did

emmyloustu · February 2012

Honestly, I really didn't have a plan. Eliza got a bad cold with lots of congestion around 14mo and the ped suggested skipping her night bottle to e the congestion. I was dreading it, but she never missed it or asked for it. That was that. I'm not a big believer in pushing them to wean, especially the nighttime session.

chocolatechip06 · February 2012

We weaned around 15 months but it took forever before that to find a sippy cup he would drink milk from.

MonkeysGirl05 · February 2012

If I recall correctly, it was just a bit aver the one year mark.

LucyPevensie · February 2012

Stick with your plan. Pay no attention to your co-worker's plan.

Jack just dropped his night-time bottle on his own last week. He's 3. HA!

Mouseygail · February 2012

Jones still gets a bedtime bottle. I cut out the daytime ones around one year, but the night time bottle is my snuggle time with DS... I'm not stopping anytime soon

AlissaCell701 · February 2012

Jacob did it on his own around 13mths or so.. I was still giving him

Bottles and sippies and he just preferred the sippies.. Now I will say that he only take the sippies w the soft spout not te hard ones like playtex but I am not that worried abt it..

nikinikinine · February 2012

We still do three milks a day - morning, midday and bedtime. I just switched the vessel from bottles to sippies. They drink from these and have no issues with them whatsoever.

midday bottle and bedtime bottle is in this:

https://www.amazon.com/NUK-Disney-Winnie-Learner-Silicone/dp/B005A3OGRA/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1330481314&sr=8-6

morning bottle is in this:

https://www.amazon.com/NUK-Disney-Winnie-Ounces-Silicone/dp/B005A3OGR0/ref=pd_bxgy_ba_img_b

I use the smaller cups twice a day b/c they only hold 5 oz. Our pedi said that the babies should only get 16-20 oz of WCM per day, more than that and it could interrupt their solid food nutrition and too much WCM can block iron absorption (from all of the vitamin D).

So they get 10 oz in the a.m. and 5 oz 2 x per day. And sometimes they don't drink all of their milk...

HTH!

amberleeb · February 2012

We were done with bottles by 13 months but she always liked the cup a lot so it was not that big of deal for us.

CJ71903 · February 2012

We dropped all of the bottles aside from the bedtime bottle right around 12 months. We will probably be trying to drop the bedtime bottle again relatively soon. I don't think there is any one right way to do it. Every kid is so different.

dusk42 · February 2012

14 months - I was terrified of cavities from the bottle, so after a couple months of trying to do it slowly, I just packed up the bottles and told her they were gone. Unless they can get the full amount of formula/BM from a sippy at 10 months (DD couldn't), you are restricting their main source of nutrition, so I wouldn't drop it that early.

LIAngel · February 2012

I am starting to think about this for Ava now. Of course we are not giving up bottles right now, but I've started to think about which bottle I want to give up next. Probably her pre-dinner bottle and then probably her wakeup in the morning bottle. My plan is to be totally done with bottles by the summer when she is 15 or 16 months old. The last bottle I plan to give up is her bedtime bottle.

Nicholas was totally done with bottles by the time he was 15 months old.

leslie&brian · February 2012

I don't remember exactly when we dropped his am and afternoon bottle. I know we slowly phased them out, though. We dropped the afternoon bottle first, then the morning bottle (I want to say around 15 months), and then we dropped the bedtime bottle at 18 months. We would always brush his teeth after his bedtime bottle, so we weren't concerned about cavities.

CMM05 · February 2012

DS1 was done by 13 months.

DS2 was done by 12 months.

DD would be done now if we let her. I am weaning her off the second the pedi gives me the go ahead. No flames, but I hope she will let me do it by 11 months. We have awful feeding issues with her and the bottle. But, she is already eating all solids completely by herself.

LVBlvd · February 2012

With Paige, we went down to 2 at 12 months (nap and bed, WCM), then around 16 months we just did her bedtime one. Dropped all at 2.

With the boys, we dropped to 1 at bedtime only at 12 months. No plans to drop that. It's the only time they drink milk!

PrincessShay80 · February 2012

11 months for the binky and the bottle- cold turkey for both.

armywife76 · February 2012

One year, partly because I wanted him to associate milk with the sippy cup and partly because I was just tired of washing bottle parts! We still cuddle with sippy cups, (when I can catch him, lol) so it really didn't change anything. I think whatever you decide to do is perfectly ok!

LisaBRM · February 2012

Cold turkey at 1 year. Gave her a straw cup with milk and she took it with no problems. We never looked back.

Mrs.MLR04 · February 2012

We went cold turkey with DS at 1 with no problems.

ALY1981 · February 2012

Thanks girls. Sounds like I need to pick up a few sippy cups. He still goes down for a nap and bedtime with a bottle. other times he will take a straw cuP. I'll start using a sippy for those times and go from there!

ladychicago · February 2012

Anna had a hard time with the sippy transition, so we transitioned to milk in bottles right at 12 months and, once she got the hang of that, we ditched bottles cold turkey at 13 months. While she would guzzle water from her sippy, she refused to drink milk from it. Going cold turkey, it took her 5-6 days with very little milk intake before she realized the bottles weren't coming back. But then she drank like a champ and moved on like it was no big deal. Our pedi suggested/advised she be off of bottles by 15 months, so that was our goal.

DeputiesWife · February 2012

Thats what we did -- cut the am bottle first, replaced with a sippy, then cut nap time bottle, replaced with a sippy, and lastly it was the nighttime bottle -- again replaced with a sippy.

For us it was an easy transition - I made it out harder than it was because I was afraid she wouldnt go for it. But she was totally fine. I dont recall her age when we weaned from everything but she was over a year and it was before she was 2. (I know that helps so much).

When to ditch the bottles

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