How to get toddler off his baby bottle?

[mashm24]

We have a 15 month old who loves being fed by his baby bottle. He has one in the morning and one at bed time and can't sleep without it. We have tried to give him a beaker instead but he just screams. How can I wean him off his bottle?

We have a new baby coming in 6 months and I really want to get him off his bottle before this, or there's going to be hell on! Any advice please? Thank you.

@Babdoc ah yes I didn't think of this!! Great idea :-) hopefully!

He might stop waking up if you remove the morning bottle. We might weaned at about 20 months and DS has slept through since.

Same for us too until fairly recently, about 4 months ago- DS started sleeping pretty reliably until 6/7 then up for the day. Before that I treated anything before 6 as nighttime and yes he’d get a little bit of milk In a bottle to go back to sleep. I work 3x 13 hour shifts a week so no, I wasn’t prepared to mess about at 4am when there was a sure fire way to get him back to sleep and he’d get a good teeth brushing when he woke up again. I’m glad I didn’t fight that particular battle because he naturally started adjusting his nighttime sleep anyway.

I assume a lot of mums still breastfeed back to sleep for night wakings at this age?

I'd just keep giving him the 2 bottles. he's still so little. Suckling gives them so much comfort and has done since birth, so it's only natural/normal. he doesnt know that the guidelines are to stop drinking from a bottle at age 1. My 13mo still breastfeeds at night, my 3.5yo breastfed at night until about age 2. why does he need to stop using a bottle before the next baby?

@lochmaree my mum thinks I should continue as well. My worry is that the new baby will be being fed every two hours or so, so when he sees the bottle he'll start crying for it as well.

@mashm24 I guess it depends if you think he will cry for the bottle when he sees baby sibling having one, he might not or might be easily distracted. when my second was born, my eldest still bf, and he did feed more for a little bit after DS2 was born but it didn't last and he weaned off pretty easily. but I did lean into still doing the 'baby' things that he wanted and it hasn't caused any issues. He may want more bottles when DC2 arrives, and you could let him, or you could let him have a few more but distract/have a snack other times, or you could keep him at his current 2. Also 6 months is quite a long time so things may change naturally in that time.

At that age I’d guess the opposite actually and that it has become a bad habit he’s waking for. I’d give an extra supper before bed e.g. weetabix with milk and a banana so you know he’s not hungry then go cold turkey on it. Surely you want to break the habit now if you can because you’ll soon be up doing night feeds with the new baby- imagine if baby is up at 3, has their feed, you just get them back to sleep then he’s up and the activity wakes the baby again and that’s you done with sleep for the night. Yikes! That’s definitely the one you want to try to ditch if you can. I personally wouldn’t worry about bedtime right now unless you think a consistent ‘bottles are for babies not for big boys approach would work best.

So....torment the child?

@mashm24 Since the introduction of Weetabix, which DD thinks is manna from heaven, she's been less bothered about her bottle in the morning. She'll finish it, but she'll take her time messing about because she's fed and it's not the highlight. Maybe now is a good time to ditch that one, before the Weetabix loses its shine. 🤔Thankfully I don't think DD is dependent on the bottle for bed. 🙏

We're trying for no.2 and though (if successful) the newborn will hopefully be breastfed and using a different bottle for expressed milk, I'm also wondering if it might cause an issue if DD is still on the teat, so to speak. I guess if she's going to regress out of jealousy she will whatever we do, probably!

My son was around this age and I'd tried half a dozen times to offer milk in a straw cup instead, he refused and cried so I'd give him a bottle instead. One day I just didn't offer a bottle instead, and for some reason he didn't cry he just decided to not have any milk. He didn't have milk for 3 days, then the 4th day asked for some and I offered the straw cup and he happily took it, the rest is history.

So - gradual exposure? Standing firm and not giving a bottle as a second option? Good luck!