At what age did you do away with the bottle for milk?

AntoniossMom · March 2014

Although I said of switch him over at 1 year it seemed that he was always teething & not eating as much as he should. Now at 18 months I'm just taking him off the bottle & he's not happy!!! He's been using a sippy cup for water & justice since about 8 months so I'm baffled as to why he refuses it for milk? This is my 10th attempt but I have to hold my ground this time lol. Any suggestions??

jnnfrrose6 · March 2014

michyme123 said:

His last bottle was on his first birthday. We were going to take one bottle away at a time but we realized he didn't even care. So we ended up doing it cold turkey and it was way easier than I thought.

Same here.

AntoniossMom · March 2014

Lucky you!! He never had a pacifier so I guess this will be my challenge I guess.

ss265 · March 2014

Totally going to get flamed for this but what is the big deal about keeping the baby on the bottle past 15 months? DS is probably ready to transition to sippy (he only gets sippies at DC) but DH loves giving him a bottle so I need ammunition to convince him to drop bottles. I've googled and only come across articles, advice on how to transition and not why we should transition.

And yes, I should have asked my pedi about this at 15 months - if DS is still on the bottle at 18 months, I will ask then.

jnnfrrose6 · March 2014

ss265 said:

Totally going to get flamed for this but what is the big deal about keeping the baby on the bottle past 15 months? DS is probably ready to transition to sippy (he only gets sippies at DC) but DH loves giving him a bottle so I need ammunition to convince him to drop bottles. I've googled and only come across articles, advice on how to transition and not why we should transition.
And yes, I should have asked my pedi about this at 15 months - if DS is still on the bottle at 18 months, I will ask then.

There are different reasons, but here's an article for one. The main point in it is,

"The researchers suggest that “prolonged bottle use” — drinking from the bottle beyond 12 to 14 months — adds excess calories to a child’s diet, increasing the risk of weight gain."

ss265 · March 2014

jnnfrrose6 said:

ss265 said:

Totally going to get flamed for this but what is the big deal about keeping the baby on the bottle past 15 months? DS is probably ready to transition to sippy (he only gets sippies at DC) but DH loves giving him a bottle so I need ammunition to convince him to drop bottles. I've googled and only come across articles, advice on how to transition and not why we should transition.
And yes, I should have asked my pedi about this at 15 months - if DS is still on the bottle at 18 months, I will ask then.

There are different reasons, but here's an article for one. The main point in it is,
"The researchers suggest that “prolonged bottle use” — drinking from the bottle beyond 12 to 14 months — adds excess calories to a child’s diet, increasing the risk of weight gain."

Well, given that DS is consistently in the 1% for weight, that doesn't help my case at all!

ss265 · March 2014

Nicb13 said:

ss265 said:

Totally going to get flamed for this but what is the big deal about keeping the baby on the bottle past 15 months? DS is probably ready to transition to sippy (he only gets sippies at DC) but DH loves giving him a bottle so I need ammunition to convince him to drop bottles. I've googled and only come across articles, advice on how to transition and not why we should transition.
And yes, I should have asked my pedi about this at 15 months - if DS is still on the bottle at 18 months, I will ask then.

I don't think that's a flame able comment but to me, what is the point in keeping bottles? At some point, kids have to grow up and move on with age appropriate things like cups. It's the parents that are keeping the bottles around for their own reasons. Parents are the one's who think "it's going to be SO hard, I don't want to take the bottle away, so I'll just put it off a while". When in all actuality, it's not that hard and most kids just move on to the next thing.

@Nicb13, I completely agree. And I don't think it's going to be hard to transition him (he's a pretty flexible kid), the hard part is getting DH on board with it. DH was the same way with transitioning from formula to whole milk. I might just have to start with baby steps for DH.

ss265 · March 2014

Nicb13 said:

OH! I didn't even see that it's your husband who is dragging his feet If it's the cuddle time with the bottle, I give DS a cup of milk and we cuddle while he drinks it. That doesn't have to go away!

I don't think it's the cuddle time. I think DH is just concerned because he is worried that DS won't get enough milk and lose weight. We have weight issues with him (kid is consistently in the 1st percentile for weight). Plus DH thinks giving him a sippy will take longer. Luckily DS doesn't take bottles at DC so it's only 2 bottles during the day on weekdays but 4 bottles on weekends.

DH is also the one who washes the bottles (I hate washing bottles) so that might be some incentive. I will probably start by dropping his two day bottles on the weekends and then slowly take away the morning bottle and see how it goes. I am sure that DS will be fine but it will probably be a harder adjustment for DH - he is so used to giving him bottles.

izziebee · March 2014

I never put milk in a bottle and we switched to milk at 11months so we were on sippy cups at that point.

sunnyday016 · March 2014

ss265 said:

Nicb13 said:

OH! I didn't even see that it's your husband who is dragging his feet If it's the cuddle time with the bottle, I give DS a cup of milk and we cuddle while he drinks it. That doesn't have to go away!

I don't think it's the cuddle time. I think DH is just concerned because he is worried that DS won't get enough milk and lose weight. We have weight issues with him (kid is consistently in the 1st percentile for weight). Plus DH thinks giving him a sippy will take longer. Luckily DS doesn't take bottles at DC so it's only 2 bottles during the day on weekdays but 4 bottles on weekends.
DH is also the one who washes the bottles (I hate washing bottles) so that might be some incentive. I will probably start by dropping his two day bottles on the weekends and then slowly take away the morning bottle and see how it goes. I am sure that DS will be fine but it will probably be a harder adjustment for DH - he is so used to giving him bottles.

Being in the 1% for weight is not a weight issue. Some kids are small and there is nothing wrong with that.

To answer your question, we were done with bottles around 15m.

djm31012 · March 2014

DS is 13 mos and still has a bottle before bed time but otherwise he drinks milk/water out of sippy. I started transitioning him the week of his first birthday...sort of dropped one bottle at a time...last week dropped the morning bottle (but really he just didnt want it he wanted to eat breakfast right away instead). The bed time one we will do for awhile. I love the snuggles.

hollygb22 · March 2014

we did it at the same time we transitioned to milk...she wasn't happy and went on a strike for a few days and refused to drink milk..but survived.

EandIMommy86 · March 2014

We got rid of bottles right after her 1st bday. We 100% weaned her off bottles to sippy cups in 3 days.

hmontty · March 2014

I switched both my kids as soon as they could reliably hold and use a cup (both at about 12 months). I had ZERO issues with either one.

I think if you wait too long, they get too attached.

Jerzee17 · March 2014

The last bottle my son had was on his 1st birthday. We took them all away cold turkey and there never was a problem. We have also never allowed him to have a pacifier so I feel like maybe that is why he never missed the bottle/nipple? It was funny because when I told people I was taking the bottle away as soon as he turned 1 I got criticized. They told me how their child had a bottle until 18 months, 2 years old, 5 years old etc. It is nice not having the bottle. My son drinks a lot less milk and eats like a grown man lol.

melody921 · March 2014

We switched her cold turkey around 10 months. She got the hang of it pretty quickly, and I thought it was easier than trying to make the change when we were also introducing cow's milk.

littlemurphy2912 · March 2014

My 19 month old DD still has a bottle at night when she asks for it before going to bed. There are times that she won't even ask for one and we don't say the word so she doesn't think about it. She also has a pacifier and has since the day she was born. We never were told or thought that at 12 months we should have just not pushed a bottle or pacifier on her but we did and now she is pretty hooked on both. She goes to daycare full time and only drinks liquids out of their sippy cups but refuses to drink milk at home out of a sippy because she knows we still have bottles that she can have it in. My DH and I have decided that we are going to take her out and let her pick her own sippy cup and put her milk in that and do away with bottles. As far as the pacifier goes, we have limited her to having it only when she goes to sleep and that seems to have gone well. We are just wondering when we will be able to get her to give it up completely. GL!

alake · March 2014

Bottles ended at 11 months. I have always formula fed my girls until 18 months. DD3 is 19 months and I just transitioned her to whole milk. She is also just over 22 pounds.
My 13 month old adopted daughter will be on formula until 18 months as well. She got rid of the bottle at 11 months.

salbabe79 · March 2014

we took em away between 10-12 months, except a Sunday morning bottle for a while. It was like us staying in our pjs on Sundays. Sometimes you can indulge!

orangecrush32 · March 2014

DD was done with bottles after her 1st birthday. She fussed a bit the first night without a bottle but we held firm and she's been drinking from sippys ever since. We also had to go through several sippys before we found ones that worked well for her.

MrsWindyCity · March 2014

We never put WCM in a bottle. We replaced one of his bottles with a sippy of milk at 11 months. Since I stopped pumping at a year, he stopped getting bottles then too.

Kai&Allie · March 2014

We did the same as @MrsWindyCity. DD gets a sippy of warm milk every night just before she goes to bed. Sometimes DSD has a glass of milk too, at the same time, and she's 12.

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