weaning 1 year old off bottle

[rubyroot]

He's one- just! He doesn't drink loads of milk so I am worried taking him off the bottle will reduce it even more. He glugs two six oz a day and an extra 4 occasionally.

He has been drinking water from a sippy cup for a while now, and does drink a bit of water over the day- but never really more than an oz at a time. So I am worried if I go to a sippy cup he'll drink very little milk. How did everyone else manage this, I realise that I'm a bit late as should be weaned by 1 and I am just starting at 1! Also anyone use straw cups instead, apparently they are better for oral motor development and speech develpment.

I didn’t worry about doing it straight away when mine turned one tbh. I don’t think we gave up bottles completely until he was nearly 2, he was having one morning and evening. I just swapped the bottle for a straw cup one day and he wasn’t fussed. I kept the straw cups for milk only and he drank water from a munchkin 360 cup.

Mines 14 months and still on two bottles a day. I would worry too much at this stage, try a sippy cup with milk but if not interested, leave a few weeks and try again.

Just read all this stuff about tooth decay and how it causes milk to cling to the teeth more, I guess thats why I want to change over. Though t we brush teeth after milk at night generally

Hi the best time so wean him off is by 1. Around 15-18 months they develope attachment to things like bottles. The longer you wait the more attached he becomes to the bottle. I've seen some kids with a bottle at 4,5! I weaned my son off the bottle 2 weeks before he turned one. I threw them all out. By one they only need about 8-12 oz of milk a day anyway. What I did is I bought him dr.brows first straw cup. He cried a lot the first two days. Third day Was probably the worst. He didn't drink any milk at all for the first three days. I reminded myself he wasn't going to starve. Around the forth day he tried the milk from his straw cup. What I did to get him to drink milk was I added a tiny amount of strawberry milk flavouring into his milk. He loved it and began drinking milk from the straw cup! Around the 5td day I reduced the amount of strawberry flavouring. In another two days I added hardly any, and I'm another two days I completely stopped putting strawberry flavoring in it. By then he was used to the cup. Now he drinks milk out of anything I give him. My friend really encourage me and helped a lot. Pretty much it will be very difficult for a week. BUT you have to be strong and just say no more bottles. After a week he will act like nothing happened and you'll be so relieved you've done it now rather than later. If you try when he's 2.3 wow then it will be difficult because the tantrums will be big. Also you're right, bottles are bad for mouth development, speech and tooth decay. The best thing for them to drink out of after one is a straw cup or a normal cup. Anyway hope this helped. Stay strong, you can do it! Xx

Here's the picture of the cup.

Thanks
I'm going to purchase a straw cup on amazon today- will see how it goes. I'm not really worried about his attachment to the bottle, he generally doesn't have a bottle at bed time. It's just I cant imagine him drinking so much out of a straw cup. Well we will see how it goes, I'm not going to resort to the strawberry flavouring yet, but I may have to!

1 is still so little and it may be his comfort. If you’re brushing his teeth well then it shouldn’t be a problem and he will probably naturally self wean as he gets more interested in playing etc and finds there are better things to do than have a bottle !

I would recommend the Oxo tot straw cup off Amazon. It's got a really fat straw so easy to get milk out. My ds got frustrated with smaller ones, he wanted milk NOW! It's also really big, I think maybe 500ml but don't quote me on that, it easily takes 300ml with room to spare so more equivalent to a bottle in size. Most other cups are way smaller. Also there is no valve so it's easy to keep clean. The straw twists down away, you putting in a bag etc. We save this cup purely for his milk, tends to use Tommy tippy straw cups for everything else.

Hi all

Thanks for all your messages. I bought a munchkin straw cup from amazon and used it today and he's had 11 oz so far in it. 6 oz in one go so I'm happy, he's happy and he's weaned! Bloody cup is a pain to clean though as it has some contraption within the straw bit to control sucking etc. So I'm going to have a look at the oxo straw cup, purchased this one before I saw your message @Haypanky, but very grateful for the tip

Ha @Haypanky- that must be the valve.