how do you get a toddler off the bottle?

[mamaesi]

my 20 month old still drinks 6 oz of milk. once mid morning and then before bed.

but she refuses to take it in anything but a bottle. I really feel she is too old for this especially in the daytime...

she drinks water or juice from a normal cup with no problem but will spit/gag milk if I put it in a cup. I have also tried three different types of sippy cups with no luck either.

can anyone give me a suggestion please...

Those water bottles with inbuilt straw? Got ours from Tesco.

My dd1 was like this. I just let her till she was 4 then for her birthday she got a new cup to replace the bottle, no bother. I figured it wasn't doing any harm up til then.

The current advice is to ditch the bottles at 12 months, I think this is to stop problems with tooth and mouth development so it seems like the right thing to get rid of them now rather than later.

She is also getting a little over the recommended amount of milk each day 300 ml is about 10.5 fl oz. So its not too much of a worry if she doesn't take the full 6oz with a cup. You could always introduce another cup of milk into her routine if you think she isn't getting enough, maybe a midmorning snack with milk.

The cups with the straw are a good idea or you could try the bottles you have with a juice spout.

I am the same,my DS is two and a half. He is potty trained and doesn't use nappies in the day. But i put him down for his mid day nap and for bedtime with bottle a quarter full of milk. He sleeps so well and is such a easy kid that it breaks my heart to think about putting him down without it.

Sucks hate to say this but isn't putting a toddler down with a bottle of milk one of worst things for tooth decay?

I know jilted I am taking him to a dentist next week. I need to bite the bullet :-(

I had same issue with dd - milk in bottle being part of her routine. I eventually explained bottle fairy was coming (she was 3) and put them out in recycling together. She was fine as fairy left some gifts (we had chatted about what she wanted and what gift she would like).

She was fine with a cup with a straw and now seems to have dropped milk at night at all (when was previously sinking 200ml). It's also made going dry at night easier.

And i was worried re bottle/teeth but I think providing its limited use and you do stop it about now you should be ok.

That's a really good idea gigondads can I steal it?

Hang on gigondads that's better!

Not sure it's mine to steal as think I read it on here but it worked well for us- and I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was after bottles (dd was milk only in bottles and a big bottle of milk for comfort type)