Bye-Bye Bottle

Stop giving it to him in the morning right away. If he cries he will get over it. After a few days of not having it in the morning then stop the bed time bottle. Rock him instead of giving him a bottle. Read him a book, anything but don't give him a bottle. Or you could do what all of my sister in laws did and just let him throw it away on his own. Make a big deal of it. Open the garbage can and have him throw it away and then reward him with something like a new toy, book, etc..... If you can get him to throw it away the process will be easier.

Hello N.,
This was also hard for me too. We bought the nuby sippy cup with three different nips. It came in a pack. We started with the regular bottle nipple since this one was different then the nipples he was use to, then we went to the next one, and the last one was the sippy cup nipple. For us this worked best, plus the nuby nipples are soft like a bottle. It made the transition easy for us. In about two weeks or so he was on a sippy cup, now we are working on the regular cup. Good luck!

For us what worked (on the breast, not a bottle) was to cut it down in tiny, tiny baby steps.

For example, my daughter would nurse to sleep every night. Eventually I said to her "let's fly up, up and away into bed after we nurse". She loved that, so we'd have a short nursing session and then the big swoop into bed. I made the nursing time a tiny bit shorter every week or so. Eventually we were down to one minute of nursing. I said one day that tomorrow night we would not nurse. Instead we'd just do the big swoop "up up and away". She was completely OK with it.

If she had a hard day/night at any time during this, we took a step backward and did not pressure her. I think we probably did this transition over a period of 6-8 weeks... can't remember exactly how long.

We also waited on this until she clearly understood language and could communicate well with us. Otherwise I saw no point in trying to make a change. She was about 2 years old when she was completely weaned, and she was definitely not ready before that (we'd tried a similar transition, she balked, so we stopped).

I think really the most important thing is to respect your little one's needs, whatever they are. If it's a security object, it will remain one until that need is filled or substituted by something else, or if the need itself goes away. Be careful what you take away, especially prematurely, because it could be substituted by a worse habit.

Like so many other short-lived phases, I always tried to realistically determine if it was actually a problem. If not, I tried not to focus on it. This is probably one that will either disappear with time, or can be helped with tiny adjustments over weeks.

For my daughter we worked down to only having a bottle before bed and then a few weeks after she turned one we replaced that bottle with a snack and a sippy cup. The first night she wasn't so happy about no bottle but after a night or two she was fine. You just have to decide it's time to be done with it and not go back. If you take it away and then give it back it will make it all the harder. Good luck!

My daughter did the same thing initially. She had some milk from a bottle right before bed and first thing in the morning. Then, I switched the milk to cups only, and offered her water in the bottle right before bed. She still gets the comfort of the bottle, but without the tooth decay of milk. So, I brush her teeth before bed, then offer her water from a bottle and then she goes to bed. So, my advice is to offer him milk from cups only, and wean him off the bottle by putting only water in it. Btw, my daughter was 18 months when I did the switch. I am assuming that your son is over a year old before starting the transition. Good luck!

My daughter was about the same but she got a stomach virus and didn't want water from her bottle, she had only had milk or breastmilk in it, so she was forced to give it up. When she would ask for her bottle of milk while she was sick I would tell her it would make her tummy hurt, and when she was over the illness we just didn't offer it. I am not saying to give your kid a stomach virus but should the occasion arise take advantage. It was actually much easier than we thought it would be. She was sick for 3 or 4 days and she never asked for it again.
Good luck!

Hi N.,
We sat our son down and talked to him about how he was a big boy now and bottles are only for little babies. We had this discussion a couple of times with him to prepare him. Then we went to the store and let him pick out his own "special cup". We only let him use this cup before bed (as this was the last bottle time for him). He took to it right away and it didn't faze him not to have a bottle.
It's worth a try! Good luck.

With both of my older girls we told them that bottles were for babies and taht they were big girls now. This usually coincided with a birthday or major milestone event like becoming a big sister. As part of the rite of passage into "big girlhood" we gave them a new special privilege as well as taking away a baby thing.

My son was a advit bottle and pacifier sucker and it was hell on the days I lost his pacifier, but I figured if he got through it, then I could bare another day. I don't know if my method would work for everyone, but there are sippy cups called NUBE and the tip feels just like a bottle, so maybe try those. Or you can wait until he's fully up to give him the cup and show him how much fun it is to drink out of it.

Sometimes, I would let my son drink out of a water bottle because he likes that freedom it gives him. Hopes this helps.