Switching from bottle to cup

[dana4nyc]

Hi all,

My DD is 13 months old and still has 3 6 oz. bottles of milk a day (1 when she wakes up, 1 at 2 pm and one at bedtime). The milk is 5 oz. full fat cow's milk and 1 oz. formula (I am trying to use up the last of the formula that I have. Once that is gone they will be 6 oz. of full fat cow's milk).

I know that you are supposed to get rid of the bottle by 1 year old. This past weekend I bought 2 different sippy cups in anticipation of her starting the drink her milk out of the cup. Needless to say, it has been a disaster! She has refused both of the cups I just bought. She happily drinks water out of her Tommee Tippee cup throughout the day (it is a beaker, suitable from 4 months). I tried putting her milk into this cup and she refused that as well. I tried putting it in a Doidy cup and that ended up in a complete mess and her choking and spluttering. I also had one other cup that I bought this past summer in America, she took a few sips out of this one but over the course of 4 hours she only drank approx. 3 oz.

In desperation yesterday I bought an Avent Magic cup which has an identical spout to her water cup and she just held it on her tongue, wouldn't even attempt to suck at all.

I am at a total loss. I feel like a failure because I can't seem to tear her away from the bottle. She has never had a dummy. She was EBF for the first 2 months of her life then I introduced formula and she was then combination fed until she voluntarily gave up breastfeeding on her 1st birthday.

I don't want to do battle with her any more than I already have to. She is incredibly strong willed and throws tantrums several times a day already. My DH works offshore so I am home alone with her 24/7 for weeks at a time. I am also 13 weeks pregnant so my hormones are out of control and my fuse is rather short at the minute.

Can anyone please reassure me that I'm not a total failure and that it's OK for her to still have a bottle for the time being. Oh, and I do brush her teeth after her bedtime bottle and she doesn't bring the bottle into bed with her.

Many Thanks!

Up to you. The advice is to swap them over at 12 months, but this is only a guideline. I swapped DS over at just before 2 as he was very attached to his bottle and I didn't want anything to interfere with the brilliant sleep routine we had . By 2 he was a lot easier to swap over.

DD was completely different. She NEVER took a bottle!!! So... it was BF until 18 months (2 feeds a day last bit) and she gradually got better at her cup and starting glugging cow's milk from it during the day from about 1 or so. She never glugged formula from it- either she didn't like formula or wasn't good enough with the cup at this stage! (have you tried the "Cow" cup this was favourite with both of ours).

I think whenever you swap from bottles it's a bit of a mind shift for them- they will resist it just because they're used to bottles and are telling you "this isn't what milk comes in". I guess there is the comfort from sucking a bottle too. If you carry on and don't give an option the hope is they will get it. What I would do is swap the one during the day with a cup- and if she doesn't have the one during the day it doesn't really matter- and keep the bottle in the morning and at night. Then when she accepts the cup during the day at some point swap to cup at night and morning.

Im in a similar situation and just wanted to show some support. DS is just 14 months and we have done cup in the morning a few times. He will drink he it takes AGES and he is not happy about it and doesn't drink as much. I have not yet tried at bed time just thought I would wean him off the morning one first.

Just about to try again but I think the 1st response on here is pretty sensible, 12 months is a guide and I figure that when he is ready i will know.

I have seen pictures on FB of my friends' 2 and ahalf and 3 year olds still using bottles so putting that in perspective you are probably ok.

Maybe try swapping over the least important bottle of the day which I would class as the 2pm one. When my DS has taken his cup in the morning it has been just "on the side" and he has chosen to pick it up and drink. As I say it took an age but he did it. I am not pursuing that atm as mornings are too much of a rush.

Good luck!

Oh and congrats on the next pregnancy.

How about the Beaba first stage training cup? We've bought it for our LO
(we're not there yet so don't know if it will be successful) it's got a teat like a bottle to start with so they get used to holding it, then you change the teat for a spout before eventually getting rid of the spout.
I read about it in one of the mother and baby magazines, it was recommended for easing the transition but I haven't actually used it myself yet.

Dont punish yourself, remember it is only a guideline but also remember when you do help her to make the change she will honestly have forgotten about the bottle within a day or two!! I would wait til you have more energy.

She sounds very like my who also loved her bottle, gave up bf voluntarily on her first birthday and didn't drink much milk from a cup. She's now 3 and hardly ever drinks milk - we just get calcium in to her in other ways instead. We gave up the bottle when the last teat gave out when she was just 2. (We always cleaned teeth afterwards and she never had it in bed.) We told her she needed to give it to the fairies and they would leave her a present instead in the garden. This worked a treat and we never looked back. She only had a morning and night bottle though, so maybe try and get rid of the 2pm one first and then take it from there?

I swapped DS onto a cup with a spout for his morning milk at about 1 yr. Just gave it to him one morning and he sat and cried for a little bit but then I got some drops of milk on the spout and held it to his lips and then he got the idea. the next morning, he pretty much just got on with it. the evening bottle we kept a month or two longer but he now happily has the cup but he likes to have his dummy in one hand and the cup in the other and alternates! we use the cow themed cup from sainsburys (just black and white splotches)

I might not work, but with dd (now 18 months) wouldn't take a cup when I tried changing over at 13 months. I was lucky and she liked using a straw so I din't bother with a beaker and just used a cup and a straw. After she got used to the straw and forgot about the bottles, I was able to use a beaker as well as a straw.

it, not I !

Same story here, I've managed to get DS (15 months) to take a spout-ed beaker during the day. Nursery seem keen to allow him to continue with a bottle.
We introduced the beaker first thing in the morning when he woke up as he likes a small drink of milk first thing so was gasping for it and would take whichever way. Same cow beaker as trixie goes down a storm
I would agree on the straw idea, this one loves drinking from a straw and I'll use that to get him off the beakers and onto cups at some point.

However confession time....at night we are still 'feeding' him to sleep with a bottle and full fat milk.
I know, I know we have totally failed on the 'putting him to sleep, awake' score but sleeping was rubbish for so long I'm still catching up on lost sleep.
excuses

Ds eventually stopped his bottle of milk at night at 3 and hasn't drunk milk since. refuses to drink it from a cup so be warned don't throw away the bottle until you're sure she's drinking milk from something else. My friends 4yr old still has a bottle no probem he likes it!

We switched over gradually, as others have suggested. I too would lose the 2pm bottle and replace it with a cup (and don't offer the bottle if you get a refusal). The other two milk feeds are enough milk so no need to worry if none gets drunk at 2pm at first. Once we had the daytime milk out of a cup we switched the morning milk next. Finally we (nervously) switched the bedtime bottle a few weeks after the morning cup was established. I say nervously because DD seemed to get so much comfort from using the bottle (so she would be quite drowsy by the time we put her in bed) that we were worried she wouldn't go to sleep. We shouldn't have worried, she was fine.

I think that doing it gradually and one feed at a time is the way to go. There were times when I thought we would never get her off the bottle as she also refused to drink out of a cup at first, but she now happily drinks her morning and evening milk from a cup (we dropped daytime milk as she would probably drink milk rather than eat she loves it so much!).

pick your battles, this is really no big deal. just remember, when was the last time you saw a child in reception turn up to school with abottle? its taken Baby number two for me to finally relax about developmental milestones. it will happen when it happens. DD2 has only just started taking milk from a beaker at age 20 months. i tired at 12 months it failed so i didn't try again until ywo weeks ago when my husband was away and i was too lazy to get a bottle washed so i brought up her morning bottle in a cup thinking what the hell if she won't take it she won't have milk till breakfast time....any hey presto...i have since chucked the bottles away......she feeds herself at her childminder but won't even chew her food with me much less feed herself....this too shall pass. as long as healthy sleeping thorugh the night and generally cheery throughout the day thats all i am concerned with [yawn].......oh yes and i bought a potty this week and she has so far used it as an extension of her whiteboard, if i take her nappy off she screams when wee trickles down her leg.....DD1 potty trained within a week.....this too shall pass. potty will be left out and nappy free time when i can be bothered, hopefully she'll crack it before school!

Think forevermore is v wise!

I rarely post but FOREVERMORE this is one of the sanest replies I have seen on this website. Thank you!