Author Topic: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle  (Read 4071 times)

Jim Fiction

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Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« on: October 23, 2019, 06:44:57 AM »
So DD is 18 months and we are trying to get her off of the bottle. She's been drinking water out of a variety of sippy cups for awhile now, so we know she is fully capable, but we've tried making the switch and she refuses to take milk from anything other than a bottle with a nipple.

We've decided on the cold turkey method, as our doctor said that is his experience that is the quickest and what most of his parents choose, but we're on day four and she's still refusing. We got her to take a single sip on day two and thought we were making progress, but she hasn't taken a sip since. We've tried with all of her existing cups and we even bought new cups with different styles to break-up the potential association with water, but still no dice. We've tried showing her the process of warming the milk and pouring it into the cups, but no luck. We give her multiple cups to choose. We drink from them ourselves in front of her and we give her encouragement, but she still swats the cups away.

Anyone have any tips or experiences to share?

Laura33

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2019, 11:15:37 AM »
Don't get too worked up about it?  It's 4 days; I know it feels like a lifetime (BTDT!), but it's not.  Some kids are very, very determined and set in their ways (ask me how I know).  With these kids, I always ask myself:  what's the worst that can happen?  At 18 months, she has other sources of nourishment, so she's not going to starve if she goes a week or two without milk (and you can probably sneak some in when you're making her food anyway if you're worried).  So this isn't a battle you need to fight.  Just put the cup of milk in front of her at mealtimes and pay no attention at all to whether she drinks it or not.  I guarantee she can tell that this is a big deal to you, just based on all of the effort you are putting in to finding the "right" cup and the "right" way to present it to her.  And she is rapidly reaching the age where her brain development is starting to tell her to reject what you push, because she needs to separate herself from you.  So the more you focus on this, the more you ensure a continued battle.  This isn't the fight you need to win, so stop worrying so much about figuring out how to "get" her to do this, stop making it such a big thing, and just start treating it as a normal part of mealtime.

(if you're worried about her getting dehydrated, (a) she's probably getting enough water from the foods she eats, and (b) you can always give her a cup of water between meals, or make lunch water and dinner milk, or whatever).

starbuck

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2019, 11:32:29 AM »
Well, I have a 14 month old that I weaned at 12 months, and she only drinks water now, so you could just NOT offer milk at all and be done with it. Once our kids have weaned, we never continued giving breast milk or formula, since they were, you know weaned. And I've never felt the urge to pump them full of other kinds of milk (cow or non-dairy) and instead just make sure they're semi-regularly eating dairy of some kind, both for calories and nutritional content. Both my kids go bananas for cheese, so I've just never really worried about it.

So feel free to just throw in the towel, hand her a water bottle, and move on about your day!

cats

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2019, 11:41:29 AM »
I would also not worry too much about it, and continue with not offering a bottle.  Obviously make sure you are offering plenty of other calcium rich foods (and there are a surprising number of non-dairy foods that have a reasonable amount of calcium, if you do not feel like plying her with cheese every day).

GizmoTX

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2019, 11:50:17 AM »
Stop warming the milk. She doesn't need it warm & she may be associating sippy cup with a cold liquid. Just provide a cup with meals with no comment.

DS decided he no longer wanted milk at age 4. He would drink chocolate milk but that was a treat. I made sure that he had access to other calcium & vitamin fortified foods. He loved white grape juice & apple juice. He was at 5% weight/height so no worries there. At age 26, he only drinks water.




trashtalk

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2019, 12:03:48 PM »
It takes 21 days to form a new habit.

It is soooo hard *for the parents* to adjust to a new system but you guys can do it. ;)

Hang in there. You'll be sooo proud of yourselves when it works.

GreenQueen

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2019, 12:15:12 PM »
We went cold turkey and it sucked for 3 days and then was fine. You're smart to start sooner...we waited too long and it dovetailed with toddler bed and nighttime training. Ugh.

You can slightly warm milk in a sake cup or small teacup and see if that's appealing. Our girl loves to drink milk through a metal straw, which gives the whole thing a novelty. I don't think they need much milk personally. She only drinks water except a little cup of warm milk at night.

Otherwise smoothies are a great way to get liquids in there.

ABC123

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2019, 02:37:08 PM »
She's drinking water, right?  So milk isn't usually a necessity.  Does she eat cheese or yogurt or similar calcium filled things?  Then I would ignore the milk.  Try again in a week and see if she will drink it out of the sippy.  Or, for meal time, try putting in a regular cup.  If she is sitting at the table, she may be able to handle it.  Obviously, just put in very small amounts at at time so spills don't make a huge mess. 

GuitarStv

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #8 on: October 23, 2019, 02:39:30 PM »
Fill the bottle with lemon juice.

TVRodriguez

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #9 on: October 23, 2019, 03:11:41 PM »
Add me to the "don't worry about it" camp.  My oldest stopped taking a bottle at 8 months.  I was still breastfeeding, but I was also working 4 days/week (in an office away from his daycare), so during the workday, he got yogurt.  He eventually learned to use a cup. 

La Bibliotecaria Feroz

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #10 on: October 23, 2019, 05:53:34 PM »
My kids were both allergic to cows' milk, so drank mostly almond milk (unsweetened) and water. They could tolerate yogurt and ate a fair bit of that as well. I think they were better eaters because of it--they weren't getting all their calories from milk. Unless you are worried she's dehydrating or wasting away, or unless her ped is worried (maybe call for reassurance?) I wouldn't sweat the milk issue in particular.

Abnormal Housewife

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #11 on: October 23, 2019, 08:06:51 PM »
When I decided to wean my daughter from the bottle, I thought I'd mix the formula with some cow's milk and just up the cow's milk every day until there was no formula left.  Nope.  She would not drink it.  Turns out she hates milk, still does at 4.5 - could that potentially be what's going on for you?

FireLane

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #12 on: October 23, 2019, 08:56:01 PM »
Will she drink milk from a sippy cup during the day, with a meal or just at a time that isn't bedtime?

That's what I did with my son. I got him to accept milk from a sippy cup during the day, without changing his usual sleep routine. Once he was used to it, I integrated the cup into bedtime.

FrenchToast

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #13 on: October 24, 2019, 07:30:26 AM »
Will she drink milk from a sippy cup during the day, with a meal or just at a time that isn't bedtime?

That's what I did with my son. I got him to accept milk from a sippy cup during the day, without changing his usual sleep routine. Once he was used to it, I integrated the cup into bedtime.


How did you do this transition from bottle at bedtime to cup?

Hula Hoop

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #14 on: October 24, 2019, 07:51:27 AM »
I stole the idea of the "bottle fairy" from an episode of British Supernanny.  In the episode, Jo Frost has a "binky fairy" come and take away all the pacifiers and leave some gifts in their place.  So for my super bottle addicted almost 2 year old we did something similar with the bottles.  The fairy came and took them away overnight and left her some gifts - stickers, a small doll, her favorite foods and a new cup if I recall correctly.  She was thrilled and only spoke the bottles once after then and it was something like "little girls use bottles but big girls use a CUP".

FireLane

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Re: Tips for getting kiddos off of the bottle
« Reply #15 on: October 28, 2019, 08:24:52 AM »
How did you do this transition from bottle at bedtime to cup?

I offered him a sippy cup of milk during the day, so he could get used to drinking from it without changing the established bedtime routine. Once he accepted it, I did the swap and offered him that same sippy cup at bedtime instead of the bottle.

 

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