Need to Be Done with the Bottle

A bottle is a very important thing for a small child. We did the sippy cup that doesn't spill as the transition but waited until the kids were ready.
That was more like three years of age. They only grow up once. Don't rush it.

Give water in the bottle and milk in a cup, let her choose which or both for while, then transition out the bottle

Cold turkey only works for kids who don't need transitions and are okay with any kind of changes. If your child is easily adaptable, then cold turkey is the way to go.

My kid needed transitions and warnings whenever doing anything of discomfort on any level. He would only drink milk from a bottle, so when it was time to get rid of it, I started watering down the milk in the bottle and offering full milk in a cup. It took a week or so for him to figure out what was what and didn't take long for him to transition to the cup and never looked back on the bottle.

Take it away cold turkey. That is the way we did it with our boys at 11 1/2 months and it worked wonders.

I let my son have his last before bed (not in bed) "bubby" for WAY too long.
O. evening, I warmed his milk a bit and put it in a sippy cup and braced myself. He took it and drank it. He never flinched. Apparently I was more attached to his "bedtime bubby" than he was. :)
Cold turkey--fast & done--like ripping off a band aid.
Good luck!

I made a deal with my daughter that when she turned three, she wouldn't need a bottle at nap and bedtime. She agreed. She turned 3. No more bottles. No big deal.

we did it cold turkey with our oldest and will do the same with the twins. our situation is different though in that we HAVE to get them off the bottle before their first birthday. all 3 were born with cleft lip and palate so they have to be done with the bottle before they have their palate repair surgery just after their first birthdays. Our oldest was 11 months old. I got him home from the in laws and gave him his formula in a cup. he made a big mess of course but he did just fine, no issues at all. that was that. the twins' palate surgeries are coming up on Dec 6th, so this weekend we will get rid of all the bottles and just give them their milk from a regular cup. they cannot have a bottle, sippy nothing like that after the surgery until their palate is totally healed. seeing as they will be off the bottle there is no use in giving it back so at that point we will introduce the sippy.

I second the notion that cold turkey is the best way. out of site out of mind. get her a sippy she likes and go from there. i do suggest to encourage she drink from a real cup most of the time though.

for 2 weeks before our daughters first bday we talked about how bottles are for babies and on her birthday she was going o tbe a big girl. I tookk her to the store and let her pick one out and then I also picked out a completely different one. Left them on the counter so she could see them.

The night before one more conversation about no more bottles in the morning. I then threw all of it away in the trash outside, so no going back..

The next morning when she was ready for breakfast I asked her do you want milk or juice in your cup?

We never looked back. She was given a sippy cup from every person at the party, so she always had a choice of cup.. She moved on to a regular cup pretty fast, except in the car. She still used the sippy.

A week after my son turned 2 we took all his bottles and binkies and boxed them up. I told him that he was a big boy and big boys didn't need binkies or bottles and that his baby cousin would love to have his. We bagged them up, gave them to daddy and he took them in the car to deliver them to his cousin. It worked like a charm and my son felt good because he thought he was doing something really nice for someone. ((Never mind that his cousin is over 1 and in Michigan and the bottles ended up on Craigslist. :) ))

When our daughter stopped using them for comfort and wanted to walk around with a bottle I took it away. I just gave her milk in a cup and said, the bottles are all gone, here's your milk. I think she fussed about it for 2 days and then it was over.

Start giving her a sippy cup of water only at nap/bed time. She will fuss for a few days, but it will work.

My daughter still liked to be held just before nap and bed time and that is usually when she had her bottle. I did everything the same, except one day gave her a cup, said that bottles were all gone and yep, it was hard for a day or two, but she got over it pretty quick. I think I gave my daughter a new little bear or stuffed animal at the same time. My daughter was around 18 months.

I think cold turkey is sometimes the best with stuff like that. And make sure you take the bottles out of the house because if she sees one, that might cause distress.

She will be fine. :-) And will probably transition super easy.

I just went through this with my daughter. About a week before she turned 2 we decided to just go for it. She was down to 2 bottles a day - 1 before nap and one before bedtime. We talked about it a lot first - about how bottles are for babies and now she is a big girl (she would say, NO! BABY! It was cute). We got rid of all bottles -threw them away. There were zero in the house so I could not give in. She did pretty good but there were times when she was sad. She was upset off and on for only about a week. We praised her a LOT for being so big! The hardest part is she had to learn to fall asleep without sucking on a bottle first...that was her only method of getting calm and sleepy. She now uses a pacifier about 1/4 of the time (other times she forget to ask for it). I went out and bought her about 5 new sippy cups - she got to pick some at the store. She liked doing that a lot. It has been almost a month now and she is going to sleep fine (mostly) and never even thinks to ask for a bottle. She now tells me she is a big girl when I ask! :) Good luck. It'll be all over with before you know it.

Our DS self weaned. We had introduced the sippy and plain cups at 8 months. Never swapped out the newborn nipples for faster flowing ones on his bottles. Just before his first birthday he started refusing the bottle and only drinking out of the sippy/ cups. I guess he wanted the faster flow and couldn't be bothered with the bottle. Maybe you can try something similar?

If you have a pet, use it! We told our daughter who had a "binky" that she was very, very attached to, that the dog ate it. She really loved that dog, but she glared at it for a couple days! She believed us, because she knew he chewed his toys, etc. When she'd ask for her binky, we'd just remind her about the dog, and she'd walk away, doing a little glaring!

Or, tell her she can have it at snack time, but not bed time, so you're not taking it away, just changing the timing. Then don't give her time to get attached to it at those times, before you remove it completely. Take it away one snack time per day at a time, till it's gone.

But, do get her bottle at bed times away as soon as you can, even if you allow it during awake times. We got lazy when our last one was born and allowed him to have his bottle at bed times, and he was the only one who had very bad cavities in his baby teeth. The first two kids had none, but they were only allowed bottles when awake, before bed times. The dentist said it was because the milk or juice, or whatever, would set in the the mouth for so much longer when sleeping, than when up and awake, and this caused the damage.

Good luck, it's never easy to listen to them cry, or try to negotiate!

I actually did the sit down talk about how my big kid was too big for th bottle and how we needed to give the bottle to someone new, like a baby. I also do this talk over everything though and donate lots of good but still useable things.

So we did it cold turkey after I had the kid put it in the donation box themselves and then take the box to goodwill.

Tell her she's too big for bottles, that only babies drink from bottles, that she's not a baby anymore, but a big girl and big girls drink from cups. Then, only present her with a cup. No more bottles, no matter what. Box them up, double seal them with tape, hide them, not from her, but from yourself, so you can't give in and give her a bottle if she fusses. If she doesn't drink anything for a day, fine. She won't let herself dehydrate and will eventually drink from the cup when thirsty. Just keep offering it to her at meals and snacks. She won't drink anywhere near the quantity she did from her bottle at first, but that's ok too. The amount she drinks will increase as she gets used to the cup and she doesn't need 8 oz. in a sitting anymore anyway. Finally, if she's laying down at nap and bedtime with a cup, make sure she only has water in it, very little water, to prevent tooth decay and to start to break that habit also. She shouldn't get too dependent on drinking to fall asleep and it will make potty training in the future impossible, so take the opportunity to break that habit now. If you remove the bottle and can avoid replacing it with a cup at sleep times, you're a step ahead. Good luck!

I think cold turkey is best. Not just for the child, but for mom as well. By that I mean, get all bottles out of the house entirely so you won't be tempted to give in.
At 2, a child doesn't need a bottle for nutrition. It's a habit/comfort thing. Substitute a sippy or something else and know that it might take a couple of days. Whatever you do, don't cave after you've made up your mind. That will just make it harder in the long run.

Best wishes.