My second son just turned one and the doctor says it is time to get him off tghe bottle and on milk. He was 8 weeks early but doing great. My question is did you do this at exactly one? When did you feel it was a good time to change and how to you make the change? Thanks
Note: He does know howto drink out of a sippy cup although he doesn't drink a lot from it.
Is your son comfortable with drinking from the sippy cup? Does he know how? If so, you can start weaning him off the bottle. I introduced the sippy to my son at 10 months and he is now a year old. He is on whole milk fulltime. I do give him a bottle of the stage two formula at night in a bottle just for comfort and pediatrician says that was ok. I will transition him off the bottle at night within another month.
You just need to play it at your own timing. All of my children were on whole milk before they turned 1 usually between 9 and 10 months I started to switch them over, but were on the bottle at least until they were 15 months. I always let the Dr's advice go in 1 ear and out the other because sometimes they try and grow our kids up faster than they should. My thoughts are that we grew up when we had bottles until we were going into school, and we turned out fine, so when they were ready to give it up, so were we.
My son knows how to hold a sippy cup, but hates to do it and has always preferred a bottle. Everyone around me was very adamant about giving up the bottle at 1, and I felt a lot of pressure! but my doctor told me it really isn't a big deal. Plus he drinks a lot more from his bottle then he does a sippy cup and I think it's helped him grow quite a bit. At my sons 18 month appointment the doctor said to start trying to use sippy cups more and at two he should probably be off of the bottle. I watch my sister in law struggle and fight with her 15 month old and refuse him bottles. There were days that I would try to make him just use a sippy cup and by the end of the day we were both so frustrated that in my mind it just wasn't worth it. I was starting to get really worried that he was never going to give up the bottle. But in the last month or so, I've started telling him, "okay you can have your bottle, but when you turn two, the bottles will be all gone." Now he tells me
"turn 2, no more bottles" and he's actually started doing really well with sippy cups and not fighting for the bottle so much. I'm really thinking (hoping, praying) that this is going to be an easy transition. And I'm glad that we didn't have to make a big fight out of it.
And as far as switching over to milk. I did a four week transition. The first week I would fill a quarter of his bottle with milk and the rest with breast milk/formula, the next week it was half milk, then 3/4 milk and then on the fourth week we were full on milk. He didn't seem to have any issues with it.
I started my son on sippy cups for his water and juice and then transitioned him for his daytime formula keeping his AM and PM feedings to bottles. I also began introducing milk slowly at 11 months. I would do 3/4 formula and 1/4 milk for a week. If he didn't show any reactions, I increased it to 1/2 and 1/2 for another week. Again, if no reactions or body objects, I then did 1/4 and 3/4 milk until I was on a full bottle of milk. The biggest thing with milk is helping your sons body adjust to the protein changes. His body needs to learn how to break down the protein the milk so slow transitions do just that. Good luck!!!
I switch all bottles at breakfast lunch and dinner to sippy's. Then after my children had that down, I switched the bedtime bottle.
My pediatrician gave me the break down to gradually switch to regular milk. Its been 2 years now, and I don't remember what it was.
I would also check with your pediatrician to get some tips from them.
I didn't do it exactly at 1 year. My daughter didn't take formula so I used breast milk in a sippy cup and then gradually added milk to it until it was all milk. Don't know if it makes a difference to you but she also nursed (usually just in am and pm waking) until she was 15-16 months old. Take your time and don't force things. Your son will transition at his own pace.
I did it the same way Terri R. did it. Also, at meal times we only used sippy cups at that age. A bottle was for before bedtime only. I eventually switched that last bottle to a sippy cup of milk. Even now my 2 year old will ask for a cup of milk right before bed which I try not to do unless she hasn't eaten a good dinner. Neither of my kids really missed the bottle.
