How to move 14 month old away from a bottle....

[2bayumimum]

Hi there,

My 14 month old DS is proving extremely stubborn, with regards to being moved off baby bottles and onto a beaker....he absolutely refuses to drink out of the beaker but happily slurps away when we give up and resort back to the baby bottle....I am really keen to move him ontoa beaker, but he is adamant that he is not going to cooperate...can any give me any hints and tips on what helped them with the transition ?

Thanks a lot

put something in the beaker that isn't milk, play with toys offering them drinks only out of beakers, have a bottle and beaker together when he's eating and offer him a slurp from bottle, then slurp from beaker and constantly praise him telling him he's so grown up every time he drinks from beaker and maybe explain that babies drink from bottles. Perhaps have a friend round with a baby and show how the baby drinks from a bottle but he's a big boy and doesn't need one anymore. You could always ask him to give his bottle as a pressie to the baby (not entirely sure this last one would work!)

Thanks Luciemule. He does drink water out of a beaker, its just at milk time ( breakfast, mid morning, afteroon and before bed ), that he refuses the beaker and will only drink the milk out of a bottle....at 14 months, he's not quite old enough to understand me explaining that he's too old for a bottle, but have tried the reverse, getting his older brother, who is 3 to show him he he drinks out of a beaker....will try the toy offering technique and see how we get on. Thanks very much for the advice.

what's wrong with a 14 month old having a bottle? My dd is the same age and has morning and bedtime milk in a bottle. she's quite happy with a cup for water through the day. I though at this age they still quite like the sucking comfort?

I agree. My DS is 21 months and has his morning and evening milk out of a bottle. the rest of the day he uses a beaker for water with no problems. At 14 months he was still having a midday bottle of milk as well as three meals.

You could always get a green avent spout with three holes in which fits onto bottle. So that way, he's sucking like with a beaker but having the bottle. My DS did still have a bottle and spout, rather than teat with FF at that age but I still BF until 21 months. He drank water out of beaker.

Saw dentist last week with my 3.5 DS and she recommended that I get youngest onto a beaker for his milk, ASAP...tooth development apparently. Eldest was off the bottle, by 14 months, but he was quite happy with that. Ive tried the avent spout with 3 holes, but no joy either unfortunately. Will just have to perseverve I think.

Im not going to rush him ( mind you, he's not giving me any choice in that ) though, would rather he drank his milk out of a bottle, that not at all !

It's good to be relaxed about it - otherwise they will sense the stress and it'll all seem much worse than it is. The dentists are always over cautious and weaning him slowly won't be detrimental.