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So, I'm having some serious fears that my 15-month-old little boy will not give up his bottle until he becomes mortified that he's still drinking from one on his first day of kindergarten. Many times during the day he'll run over to the fridge and adamantly do the sign for milk until I get some in a bottle. We've tried doing sippies during meals and giving him a sippy instead when he asks for milk and he will have none of it. In his opinion, milk should only be served in a bottle! Our little girl never really used bottles, so I don't know any tricks in this area. Any advice is very welcome!
7 comments:
I want an answer to this too! My kids are all bottle addicts! Parker and Mayli didn't give it up until they were 2. My problem was that the only way I could get them to fall asleep was with a bottle before bed! And we tried some different things but what it finally cmae down to was just making the bottles disappear! I tried substituting with a sippy cup at first but that didn't work, it just made them mad! So the next time we tried we just put them in bed with nothing and I was very surprised, it worked! We didn't have any hard nights!
So basically I would just have the bottles disappear! Even if it means milk disappears for a couple days and then comes back only in sippy cups! I bet he'll drink it like that eventually!
For me I stop giving them the bottle at 12 months. With my first one I let him go until about 14 months but was harder to take it away so I thought it would be easier to take it away sooner. I now just take it away cold turkey and they do cry but it only lasts a few days. With my oldest I started putting water in his bottle and milk in a sippy and pretty soon he learned that if he wanted milk he could only have it in a sippy. My kids do not like water very much at that age so this was the best thing I could think of and it worked.
I think you should just go cold turkey! You are the one in control and just let them know the bottle is gone..get rid of them... and if they would like a drink they may have it out of a cup. You might try leaving a insulated sippy cup out so they do not have to ask for a drink of milk.
My way of thinking..If they were asking and crying to jump off a cliff would you let them??
Hmm, well, my girls didn't have much of a problem weening from the bottle to the sippy. I did, but sippy's are better because they don't leak. I guess you could go cold turkey, or just let your older kids use a sippy for a bit to make it seem cool, then maybe your 15 month old will want one too. Now just convince your older kids that drinking from a sippy is "cool". If you have older kids, if not you and your husband could show him how cool it is. My 17 month old is just getting the hang of a cup because her older sister thinks cups are cool. Hope that helps.
I wish I had some advice for you too, but I don't. Ian weaned himself from nursing and the bottle at 9 months. It made for an interesting time. He wouldn't drink formula and he wasn't old enough for milk. I think I bought every kind of sippy cup to see what worked best. He is now drinking milk regularly but only until recently and he is 2 1/2! Not a big milk drinker I guess. He made up for it in his cheese consumption. I wouldn't worry too much though, I think they will give it up when they are ready. And if it is in Kindergarten... they will soon see that the other kids don't use a bottle anymore. I think there is real peer pressure even this young. Good luck!
Maybe you should sit him down and talk to him about why you are taking the bottle away...ha ha! I'm totally just making fun of the pediatrician who told you that when Ian was a baby. Jared had the bottle until he was 15 months and then he just wanted anything that Kara had. I think the reason the sippy cups make babies so angry is because they can't get the milk out. Maybe if you start with a Nuby sippie cup it will seem more like a bottle and help with the transition. (like this one http://www.flickr.com/photos/22965164@N07/2306492922) I personally hated that sippy cup because it leaked everywhere (which is funny because it is called the "no leak cup") and was a beast to clean but it was easy to drink from. Aren't you guys moving too? I would let him have it until you are situated with the move. Too many changes stress kids out...and moms.
We just moved closer to my hubby's school and in the process the bottles and sippy cups got packed in a box that never made it to the new house. My girls (4 and 2) didn't even seem to care. Before the move I established the rule that bottles and sippy cups were ONLY for water! My 4 yr old quit real quick, but my 2 yr old didn't care what was in the bottle and I found myself giving her 6-8 bottles a day and therefore changing 6-8 super soggy diapers! Maybe that helped the girls deal with the loss when we moved. Try the "I'm sorry, but the dishwasher ate the bottle" story, but try not to terrify them. Maybe it's a magic dishwasher that makes things disappear. Or if you findyourself without a magic dishwasher, maybe the bottles slipped down the drain when you let up the stopper. Use your imagination.
This helps when the kiddies are a bit older than 15 months. Is he walking yet? Make the rule that you can ONLY have the bottle when sitting at the table. Give him the negotiation of getting the bottle in confinement and he will most likely choose the freedom of getting down to play over having a bottle. Both my girls stopped nursing once they walked. Sad for me, I wanted to nurse for at least the first year, but my girls walked at 10 and 9 months.
Hope it helps. Just remember that kids are resilient and will get over it and respect you more for establishing and inforcing rules and boundaries.
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