Am I doing this right? Weaning off the bottle

[Thewalker75]

Ds2 has turned 1 so I have decided to do what I never did with ds1 and wean him off the bottle.

He has formula so I have been gradually reducing this with a bit of whole milk over the last few days and have just given him his first feed from a cup with soft silicone tip which I thought might be nice I dont know!

Anyway I gave it to him as if it were a bottle but sat him more upright. He was confused for a bit but eventually settled in. Hes gone down for a nap (he always has a bottle before sleep) and I've just measured what hes had and hes only had 1oz!! He normally has 6!

Is this because milk has only been a comfort for him in a bottle and he doesn't really need it? Is it because he didnt like the bottle? (Although hes gone to sleep and not cried or fussed for anything). Do i try a different cup or persevere with this one?

I've no idea what I'm doing, as I said I never did this with ds1 (embarrassing I know but the good news is hes easily switched to having his milk in a cup now at least).
So any tips welcome please.

I just replaced one bottle at a Time with a cup. The first few didn't get drunk properly, but quickly they did. Although they decreased to 5oz cups instead of 8oz bottles at around the same age.

I was worried about baby drinking less when weaned off bottle- bought this. www.amazon.co.uk/Munchkin-Click-Weighted-Trainer-Orange/dp/B0159BRA8E/ref=asc_df_B0159BRA8E/?hvlocphy=9046350&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=309759544992&hvpone&hvlocint&th=1&hvpos=1o1&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-524190515420&hvrand=9019219969488952622

Worked a treat- drank 6 oz. now he’s 16 months he’ll only have a morning drink and then we make the rest up with milk in cereal and cheese etc. But was happy to drink two 6 oz a day at one from this.

Now we’ve got to try and transition to a cup

We swapped to cow's milk in a bottle first then gave it in a sippy cup in the morning, then moved to a sippy cup before bed. Probably took about 6 weeks or so (he was poorly too so didn't want to rush it!). He has three small sippy cups a day of milk (so probably about 10oz total) plus cheese and yogurt. We'll move to an open cup when he's less likely to spill it every where!

I gave water in a sippy cup with meals so they learned how to drink from one before we ditched the bottles. Then just swapped out one bottle of milk for a cup at a time, starting with the morning milk and bedtime milk last, though I found that giving the bedtime milk downstairs before we took them up to bed worked best. Neither of mine got on with a soft spout one, cheap free flow or non spill but hard spouted ones are the best IMO.

I found my boy wouldn’t drink much from the dippy but would from the straw cup- perhaps cos it’s a bit more sucky?!

When stopped giving both of my boys their milk in bottles they lost interest in milk. I definitely think they were only having it for comfort. By the time I swapped, they were drinking water in sippy cups during the day just fine and just had their milk in the bottle before bed. But once we went to sippy cups for everything, they suddenly didn't want it.

If you're happy he's eating enough the rest of the time, I would just keep offering him milk in the cup you have and see if he wants it or not.

He has a basic tommee tippee cup for water but he flings it around and water goes everywhere which is fine but I'm reluctant to use it for milk too as really dont want that going up the curtains!

Part of me is thinking maybe I should work on ditching the formula until hes naturally cut down his milk a bit more (hes still on 4 bottles a day) but he does eat very well so I'm also inclined to think it's just for comfort so interesting to hear that they can just cut down straight away.

Do they drink it as fast in a cup too? He took ages on the cup earlier but bedtime bottle was gone in 5 mins

If he is eating well then ditch the bottles ASAP. He doesn’t need them.

OP, the morning one disappears as soon as it's in front of him, his evening ones usually take a bit longer than the bottle did but not much. He normally drinks it while I read a story.

He did when I gave it to him in straw cup rather than sippy. At one 12 oz milk is all they need :)

I dropped down to 3 bottles of formula per day by 12m, then I swapped out the lunch time bottle for a cup of cows milk. At first she didn’t have much of it and fussed about the lack of bottle, but a couple of days in and she was totally fine and drinking the cows milk. Then I did the same for the morning bottle. The evening bottle we kept for a bit longer as we were going on holiday and wanted the comfort factor, but weaned it over to cows milk and changed the routine to having it downstairs and before teeth brushing. We swapped that for a cup by 15 months. All went very smoothly and I did pretty much the same method for both my kids. Done with formula by 13m and done with bottles by 15m.

DD loves milk and currently has a cup with breakfast (about 6oz) and then she usually gets around half a cup before nap and then half a cup before bed. We mostly use the 360 cups for milk as I find the straw cups hard to clean