Wanting to Drink Out of a Baby Bottle Again.

Why are you going along with this? How did this come about.. did she come up to you and say "Gee, Mom. I'd really like to have my baby bottles back." ? She's almost 3!
It's NOT good for her teeth at all. And there is no reason to allow it.

Once you weaned her from the bottle, you should have packed them away (or at least put them out of sight in the very back of a shelf somewhere waiting for any future siblings, perhaps).. but well out of her ability to ever see them.

As far as why she is doing it... Is something going on in the family (a recent move, new pet, changing furniture, dad out of town a lot, starting daycare or preschool, are you pregnant with a sibling, etc)? She may need some additional comfort for some reason (she is still growing by leaps and bounds, both physically and emotionally) so try to give her some extra cuddle time perhaps, spend more time reading books together in the rocking chair or whatever. But please don't give her a bottle. Quite frankly, she'd doing this because SHE CAN. Find another way to provide her with the comfort she is seeking... Hugs and kisses, lots of love and fun play time together.

Can of worms indeed, however, I'm not going to attack you for allowing it or blame a family issue on her reason for doing it. It is absolutely NORMAL for a child to regress whether there are outside influences, ie new baby, divorce, death, or not. My almost 4-year-old sometimes asks to sleep in a crib despite sleeping in a bed for almost 2 years now. If she finds a pacifier, she uses it. I allow her to do both simply because it is her comfort for that moment. She puts it away when she is done with it. Yes, a bottle is bad for your child's teeth; no, it is not bad to allow your child some comforts. And my daughter was using the Nuby soft-spout sippies until she was almost 3. Maybe just switch her sippy to a soft nipple and hide the bottle. I broke mine of the sippy entirely by having her throw it out herself.

Good luck.

Think about what kind of parent you want to be. I'm not saying this to be mean, but she is your first child so every decision you make is hard because everything is new. There are parents who follow the attachment parenting theories -- they do whatever it takes to make their children comfortable, it seems. But I have found a healthy balance between keeping my kids happy and not giving in to their whimes. You obviously are struggling with knowing you may have done something "wrong" since you are asking this question. No, it's not harmful to give her a bottle at her age- any more than it would be harmful to give a teenager a bottle-- but neither of them "need" it. I personally think you are letting your daughter down if you allow her to regress. If there was something that happened in her life that made her regress, deal with the problem rather than letting her regress. This goes for bottles, going back to diapers after being potty trained, going back in the crib after transitioning to a bed, etc. In my opinion, it's VERY hard to watch our babies grow up, but not fair for us to hold them back from becoming independent and moving forward just because it's "easier" than dealing with it. Some may think I'm making a bigger deal of this than necessary, but it goes back to what I started off saying-- think of what kind of parent you want to be. If you aren't strong enough to tell her no for the bottle, what's in store for you next? You have a long, bumpy road ahead of you as a parent, so don't place additional pot holes along the way if you can avoid them

she's doing it because you still have the bottles in the house. To break them of habits like the pacifier and bottle you have to get them all out of the house, or put away in a box if you plan to use them with your next child.
Out of sight, out of mind. If you don't plan on keeping them for another child, have her help you box them up and donate or sell. Then give her a treat with a cool new sippy cup as her reward for becoming a big girl, again. lol

Boy did you open up a can of worms! It is hard to refuse your child anything if it is going to make them happy, but as the parent and adult of your child you need to make smart decisions that aren't based on emotion. When you have to make decisions that sometimes seem as if it would 'just be easier' to give it to them for a while..... remember this: do it once, they'll expect it forever. If you think you should let your child take part in the decision making remember this: kids will choose candy over veggies every time. This applies to all decisions.
And the next time you think about making any decision you are unsure of, GOOGLE it first :) I'm fairly sure 99% of parents would say 'no way' on this bottle issue. Good luck taking it away again. I'd make sure to toss it in the trash so she knows it's not there anymore.

Best of luck to you!
Jen M.
Mom to 3 boys - 5.5 yrs, 3 yrs, and 1.5 years.

Hi, S.. Well, not knowing your daughter personally, my guess is that she's seeking attention. This shouldn't turn into a big issue; make sure you deal with it calmly.

First, I'm guessing that she's missing the nurturing attention she got as a baby and wants to relive the nurturing as well as the pleasure of sucking on the bottle (she's only 2 yrs old, still halfway a baby). Has anything happenned in the past couple of weeks or months that has given you less time to spend with her? Is she demanding the bottle at night to get her to sleep? She might be having some anxiety about being alone in her room or going to sleep at night. This is also a time when children can start getting nightmares. If she needs the bottle again to sleep, maybe she's a little scared of her room and uses the bottle to comfort herself.

I think it's more likely that she's craving more attention and doing it this way because it's sort of negative to regress, to go back to an earlier stage. She probably knows or senses that she has your disapproval for this, and when children seek out negative attention, it usually means they need more positive attention but can't seem to get it.

I would make sure I was giving her more attention about other things (other than the bottle) at other times than when she's regressing to the bottle...and to place no special attention on her using the bottle. In other words, give her cuddling and playtime and smiles and other attention when she's NOT sucking on the bottle -- and don't give her any when she IS sucking on the bottle.

If she's doing this to get attention, and you give her the attention she craves for doing other things, she'll stop messing with the bottle or greatly decrease it.

Another factor could be that the sippy cup sort of leaks on her when she's drinking, while the bottle does not. Maybe she realizes this and is using the bottle to avoid getting cold liquid on her. It's possible.

Well, I hope you can get her off the bottle once again. It's not harmful unless she starts sucking it all the time or lets it go on for a very long time. My ex-roommate had a daughter who decided she had to have a bottle to get to sleep even when she was 6 or 7. If she didn't go to bed with her bottle, she had a fit and wouldn't sleep. Her mom made a big deal out of it and gave her lots of attention around the bottle ritual. I think the little girl finally got sick of it and lost her bottle one day -- she sometimes walked around with it hanging out of her mouth even at age 7, in front of all her friends, too -- and just quietly went to sleep. But she didn't have the words to tell us that she was done with the bottle ritual -- she just lost the bottle.

It was unnecessary drama for the whole family, when she could have had healthy attention. To this day (she's 12) she's addicted to drama and causes it all the time, just to get attention.

Anyway, these are my thoughts. I hope everything works out un-dramatically for you!

Peace,
Syl

I'm sure I won't be the only one asking this and you didn't explain this: Why are you LETTING her??