how to get 18 mo off bottle

[poppy2133]

First of all - does it matter if my 18 mo is still using a bottle for his milk? It is one of the Nuby clear coloured bottles. I feel people are surpirsed when they see him using the bottle which makes me feel uncomfortable. He will drink water from a cup / trainer beaker but not milk. If I don't put milk in his Nuby bottle he just wont have any at all & I know they still need a fair amount of milk at this age. If I felt comfortable about him still using the bottle at this age then I would be quite happy for him to carry on for now but am I making a rod for my own back in months to come when I feel her REALLY should be off the bottle ? Secondly, if it is inappropriate for him to be using this bottle at 18 months - how did anyone get their toddlers from the bottle to beaker ? How can one little issue be so complicated & worrying LOL ???

Hi Poppy, I was thinking the same thing yesterday about my DD (27mths). She has a beaker to drink milk at nursery, but has a bottle of milk with storytime, just before bed. I think she is still a little one & I realise it must be quite nice & soothing having milk this way. She does have her teeth properly cleaned before bedtime, so I don't see any harm (please advise if this isn't the case).

She will be 2.5 in Dec, so I am thinking I will take away the bottles then & buy her a new 'big girls' cup. If she doesn't want it in a cup I will probably abandon milk altogether as really I'm not convinced of any benefits.

How many bottles does he have a day ? perhaps if he has more than 2-3 bottles you could drop the morning one & make sure he had enough milk in his cereal, offer yogurt/rice pudding & cheese at other times ?

HTH

Bumping this for the evening MN's to see as I'm trying to get my 15 m DS off bottles too (with no joy I hasten to add).
He'll quite happily drink water out of his Tommy Tippee beaker but OMG if I put his milk in it, it gets shoved back in my direction by a very unhappy little boy!
Have tried the soft spouts and valve-type spouts for the Avent bottles but no luck

My 16 month old is the same. She has a breakfast bottle and a bedtime bottle of milk. The rest of the day she is perfectly happy to have a cup with her water in. If I try and give her milk in a cup she will quite patiently shake her head and hand it back to me with a 'no'.

Don't worry too much about it. My DS was just three and three days and told me he was now too big for a bottle. My DD now 14 months can take it or leave it. She only has one at nursery because the other kids have one and she gets upset but at home she never bothers. If it gets your child drinking milk I would leave it for a while certainly until after 2. There are plenty of four year olds I know who still have a night time bottle.

My DS is 2 now and still has a bottle for the night, my friends little girl still has one and she is 3. If they like it and it gets them to sleep (mine goes down at 7pm) don't worry about it. He also has a dummy at night. Trust me, we didn't want dummies, but they helped.

My ds loved his bottles but I was mean and took them away not long after his first birthday as he was quite capable of drinking from a beaker. I offer him milk at breakfast time and before bed in a beaker. He doesn't drink much of it but I'm not too concerned because he loves fromage frais so he's getting some calcium. I think its easier to get rid of the bottles before a child is too attached. Thats just my personal view.

if you really want them off the bottle THROW THEM IN THE BIN!

they will keep drinking, and as long as they get lots of custard / cheese / cheese sauce / yoghurt / milk on breakfast cereal etc then its fine

before long they will probablky start drinking milf from a beaker anyway

I had trouble with getting my ds off the bottle, so didnt want to go there with dd. she a#was about 14 months. Yes she did make a performance for the 1st few nights,but eventually gave in. I had the advent bottles, then put the soft spout in.

As for what other people think about it-its nothing to do with them. Youll always someone has always got something to say about bottles/dummies etc, they should keep their views to themselves.

Im glad I did it before dd got old enough to really make a big issue & come more attached though.
The good thing is that he is using a beaker for juice/water, thats the main thing. So maybe if you just persevere it for a few nights/days....

Good luck

my little one is 17months and has a bottle early morning and at bedtime, if he is poorly teething and off his food he will have an occasional bottle during the day, i feel they will give it up when they are ready but i think at bedtime its a comfort thing.

Why the rush? When they are ready to give it up, they will.

My DD is 2.3 and has a morning and night milk 'bobo'.

If people have a problem w/it then it's their problem and they really need to get a life.

Agree NannyL

Although it was one of them things that went well for us. Have twin girls, Gave them cups of water at 4 months, and by 12months completely took their bottles of milk away and gave it them in cups. Fortuantly for us they were fine about it and didnt make a fuss!

I had read that after 12months it gets harder and harder to get them off it, so I just went for it.

But obviously it wouldn't be as easy for everyone.

Tbh I was very suprised as one of my little girls has SN and I didn't think she would use a cup but she was better than the other one!!

At the end of the day it is up to each Parent isn't it?

If you don't really want your Child to have bottles...throw them away.

If you don't mind your Child having a bottle, carry on

Each to their own.........

Very True Anniebear