Did anyone struggle to stop the bottle feeds?

[ChristinaAdena]

My DS is 13 months and I'm still struggling to wean him off bottle. (I expressed for 6 months and then switched to formula so he has only ever had a bottle and never boob. He now only drinks cows milk.) I don't know if only ever having been bottle fed makes a difference, but when HV said to switch to a cup for his milk before day naps he was having none of it! He got really really distressed and upset and then I couldn't get him to nap. As I was worried about him consuming too much milk I have gradually diluted the milk so that now his 2 day naps are basically water with a tiny splash of milk. But he still wants the bottle to help him sleep and is really distressed if I try a cup to the extent it ruins his nap.
At bedtime he has a normal bottle of cows milk and happily falls asleep.

Did anyone else struggle to switch to cups and eliminate milk before naps?

Once he's on one nap it will be easier as there will only be one day bottle to cut out, but he still needs 2 naps.

I put all the bottles away and showed the empty cupboard! Compromise was an anyway up cup.

I didn’t worry too much and by 18 months bottles were naturally gone without any stress. I slowly learnt that generally my child did what they should without too much stress when they were ready.

I don’t worry about too much milk as DS (16 months) is only on one bottle (200ml) a day, just before bed. Not sure how I’m going to get rid of that one though - he needs it to sleep!

My 17mo still has one bottle a day before bed (call the MN parenting police, quick!) I wouldnt stress about it.

13 months is still so young. My boy stopped wanting his milk in a bottle around 19 / 20 months (so recently as he's now 21 months). He now happily has his milk in a cup - but it was his choice to switch.

Don’t stress about it too much OP. My DS is 14 months and still has a couple of bottles a day before naps and bedtime. He’s always been bottle fed like your DS. As far as I’m aware mothers are not told to stop breastfeeding their babies at 12m so I don’t intend to take away the equivalent comfort for DS until he’s ready. However we have introduced a cup for water so he gets used to drinking from one.

I found switching to a weighted straw cup worked well and my DD switched no fuss at 11 months (I do appreciate that I'm probably just quite lucky though). Although it's a different kind of sucking compared to a bottle, I still think its more familiar than an open cup for example. Weighted straws mean they can be drunk from any angle too.

@Italiandreams

I didn’t worry too much and by 18 months bottles were naturally gone without any stress. I slowly learnt that generally my child did what they should without too much stress when they were ready.

Exactly the same here. And no ill effects (I’m not sure what they’re meant to be anyway, teeth?) from that extra 6 months of having a bottle in her mouth for a few minutes a day.

My 18 month old still has 3 bottles of milk a day before naps and bedtime (slowly reducing the volume for naps), can't say I'm overly fussed 🤷 He drinks water from a straw cup or open cup no problem so I can't see any reason to stop his bottle.

My 3 year old still has 3 bottles a day !

No, we just stopped giving them to him because he was peeing through his nappies at night.

He won’t be fussy for long, a night maybe two, if you want to stop then just take them all away (I’d definitely keep some for when he’s ill though just incase).

I used to worry my dd was having too much milk at that age then overnight she just stopped drinking milk unless it was bedtime and I worried she wasn’t getting enough then.