So we failed to drop bottles for milk when DD was 1, as she refused to drink milk from anything else, and at that age milk seemed more important. I tell you what, any future DC will be having that bottle stolen from them on their 1st birthday to save this hassle...
We've tried periodically to get her off the bottles, but no - drinks water from every other cup under the sun, but milk comes in a bottle. So now she's nearly 3 and still has milk in a bottle morning and night. I wasn't overly bothered as it's a comfort thing, she drinks it quickly and brushes her teeth afterwards, but decided last week that really, 3 is getting a bit old. I decided she can keep the bedtime bottle for now but in the morning we would change to a different cup.
Cue epic, sobbing tantrums every morning for the past week and a half. 5 minutes of mixing between ignoring, cajoling and bribery to get her to drink from any damn cup she likes - a mug, a beaker, a Tommy Tippee cup, a glass with a straw, you name it - before she eventually breaks and decides to drink it, reluctantly, while sobbing and having a cuddle. We've started a sticker chart for it and she clearly understands what's going on, she just doesn't want to do it.
One of the big problems is its the morning, and most days we only have a finite time to get ready to leave the house.
Anyway, I can't decide if I should plug away with this or just give up for another few months when she might understand bribery even better? Any suggestions? I'd prefer her to have some milk in the morning as she's not naturally the world's biggest drinker and she's got the better part of an hour before she has breakfast at the CM's most mornings.
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Dropping the bottles. Epic tantrums. Worth it or give up?
Thurlow · 01/12/2014 12:44
Ha, we had the same 
you're half way there so keep going imo. I wouldn't try and coax her to drink, she will eventually and it's not like it's hot atm, if you are in the uk anyway. Just put the drink down and get on with something else, don't refer to it or her drinking it at all, just stop giving the whole thing attention.
And if she decides not to drink it I bet you anything she'll make up for it at breakfast
I've got a nearly three year old (such a lovely age 
) so I do get where you are coming from but I think you are making this quite hard on yourselves. I'd ditch the bottles entirely and offer milk in a cup morning and bedtime. No bribing or cajoling - just offer it. It really doesn't matter if she doesn't want it at 3 but if she's anything like my dd the more she senses you want her to have it, the more she'll resist.
Oh, I no doubt am overthinking the whole thing, that's a very common occurrence
It's a relief to hear other people have had this too. Yes, Tarka, it is indeed a charming age, bless them. I'm sure it doesn't really matter if she doesn't have the milk but I'm a bit worried about mucking up her sleep if we completely ditch the bedtime milk. Morning milk, though, you're right, it doesn't matter.
Ok, so show her the milk in the cup and leave her to drink it or not - yep, she can drink it on the walk to the CM if she wants to. The only thing at the moment is she gets out of bed, walks into the living room, sees the milk in the cup not the bottle, and starts wailing and crying. I can ignore her, but I also need to get her washed and dressed at the same time! This could be entertaining... You're right though, no attention, I'm mucking things up by giving her some attention over it. So show her the beaker, tell her she can have a sticker if she drinks it, and then ignore ignore ignore.
But then there is the little part of me that is wondering if this is really worth the hassle at the moment. It's not an enormous deal - I just got a bee in my bonnet about it the other day. Maybe in a few months time her language will be at the stage of understanding buying a special new cup for her milk and that she's too old to have a big cup.
And typing that reminds me of the other problem we're having which is probably linked to it - she's insisting that she is "little", not "big", and getting very wound up over anything to do with being a "big girl" and this is where younger siblings probably come in useful!
I would disagree about leaving the bottles bottle out for Santa, she'll get upset at seeing them again, nice idea and it's something that could have been done at the start but you're a week in now, so see it through.
My mum talks of stopping breast feeding my sister at 2 she refused to drink anything for 4 days but gave in eventually. It was obviously a big stand off as sis is 40 and mum still talks of it add if it was yesterday
Gah! Me, confusing the issue? Never
This will sound silly but we've been very lucky with DD and never really had any of the eating and sleeping issues that I know a lot of people have had, so this is genuinely one of the first times we've had to stick to our guns and ride something out!
Of course it is coinciding wonderfully with her starting to muck around with her food...
OK, thanks all. Convinced. No milk out in the mornings, just water. If she asks for something, give her it in a beaker. Just bedtime milk - will have a think about whether we will fight that battle on a beaker or not, especially if she's not had much dinner. (And bonzo, I know what you mean, I get lovely cuddles when she has her bedtime bottle 
)
Thurlow my lovely, she is THREE, she will be fine even if she hasn't had much dinner She's asserting herself that's all, if it wasn't this it would probably be something else.
I look back at photos of ds when he was 3 and wonder what on earth I was thinking giving him a bottle in the middle of the night he was a big boy then but there was obviously a big part of me that wanted to keep him a baby
You see,I was a bit like 5 mad but ds was getting more attached to it,I honestly thought he'd still be having a sneaky bottle at 15 given half the chance
Ds4 still sucks his thumb.,, age 6 so I can't be arsed to battle with dd over her dummy, it's just for bedtime or tired/poorly not out the house. She is four on Friday 
I have discussed the dummy fairy, she is not impressed by that idea!
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