Ditching the bottles - gradual removal or cold turkey?

[TheBlonde]

My 2 year old still has milk in bottles
In Nov we managed to ditch them but then the cups started leaking so we went back to bottles

I want to ditch them completely - so do I do it gradually or not?

DS was on two bottles (morning and waking from nap) aged 2. I ditched the afternoon one first and several months later the morning once. It was very painful with lots of tantrums so I was dreading it with DD, who didn't blink an eyelid! So all hers went at once.

We went cold turkey after trying the gentle weaning approach which did not work at all. Having said that, if after a few weeks of the turkey your LO is still not drinking milk you may need to return to the bottles - some kids just don't do milk from cups. (would give it at least a few weeks though, a fair go IYSWIM)

Went cold turkey with both of mine. DD gave in after 24 hours of protesting but DS still hasn't given in! We ditched the bottle about a month ago and he won't touch milk from a cup although keep trying. I just make sure he has plenty of dairy everyday, cereal with milk, yoghurts, cheese etc plus lots of green veg. Good luck!

I've just got my 18mth old off bottles, and we first stopped the lunch drink,replacing it completely with water and a fromage frais/yoghurt. Then we changed from bottle to beaker at night, and finally changed her morning one as well. So not completely cold turkey, but once we changed it, that was it. She didn't always like it, but we stuck with it and she's fine now.

Thanks, he has learnt to unscrew the bottles so we had milk everywhere this morning and I've had enough

Just give an open cup. At 2 he can easily manage if given a day or 2 to get the hang of it - try with straws in ordinary cup. hth

DS is now 15 months and at 12 months I put his morning milk in his cup (sippy cup thing without valve - he had got used to it already with water). He screamed and screamed but after a few mins drank from the cup. Then he was fine for a few days but then had another screaming episode. Having had a few days with successful cup drinking I refused to back down and he gave in again after 10 mins of screaming. I waited another few weeks before trying with the evening one, but he didn't bat an eyelid.

However, he does like to tip the cups upside down if he feels he is being ignored, and the milk does flow fairly fast, but not as fast as a bottle with it's top off!

Good luck.