When to Wean from Bottle to Sippie Cup??

It sounds like she is ready to give up the bottle. my son was done with the bottle at seven months old. he started doing the sippy cup. do the formula until she is a year old. at that point you will need to transition into whole milk. if her tummy gets upset from it then you do milk and formula until it is decreased to just milk. I am a older Mom also. I am 40 and my son will be 2 in July. may be mix the formula with some soy milk if she does not like the formula. sometimes i think they lose interest. be happy if you can get her off the bottle by a year. sound like you are on the right track.

Hi A.,
I was told that when my son was 1, we could forget the formula and transfer to whole milk. You might want to mix it at first so the "change is not so drastic. But it certainly sounds like she's ready to ditch the bottles completely. My son clung to his pre-bedtime bottle (with milk--he called it "moo") for tooooo long--just didn't want to give it up, it was a comfort thing. The longer she takes a bottle, the harder it is to get them away from them. So, I say just follow her lead. She is self-weaning from the bottle! There is no reason she needs to stay with a bottle. If she wants the sippy cup, just give her her milk (or formula til she's ready for milk) in a sippy. Just make sure not to put her to bed with a cup of milk. And make sure to brush her teeth after her night time milk to avoid the "baby bottle" mouth decay of her baby teeth. I'm sure you know that, but just thought I'd mention it. As she transitions to milk and starts eating more and more food she will probably drink less milk than she was drinking of formula. If she likes yogurt, cheese, etc, that will help her get extra calcium. She sounds like an independent little miss!

I think I remember my pediatrician saying they should be getting about 24 ounces per day at one year (approximately) and that you should try to wean from the bottles to sippie cups by a year as well, so if she is willing go for it!! She will let you know if what she is taking is enough, so don't stress about the numbers as long as she is growing and following her growth curve when you take her in for her well child visits.

Just keep doing what you are doing. I started giving my baby the sippie cup at 4 months; but, the is only because she was a breastfeed baby, so see never took the bottle from me, only in day care (she's 1 now). Anyways, she took right to the sippie. Your doing a good job, but let her get the feel and get comfortable with the idea of the sippie, she'll take to it like a champ.

You are very lucky, it sounds like she is weaning herself for you. The hardest thing for my girls was giving up their night bottle. When all of my kids were one i started the whole milk. I had to mix it with a little formula for the first couple of weeks.

If she seems to be uninterested in the bottle, I'd say GO FOR IT. It's much easier to wean her now than later. If you wait too long, it's MUCH harder. They can really get attached to the bottle and then you have a two year old or older walking around with a bottle in her mouth.

As for the formula, I can't advise you about that, because I exclusively breastfeed my kids, but you can give them cow's milk at that age. Some kids are sensitive to it, so watch for possible sensitivity.

My advice ? Just go with the flow. Whatever works for you and your daughter is fine. Take your cues from her, and it sounds like you're taking them in . . . parenting is a balancing act between the child and the parents -- you have things that are absolute and some that are negotiable. She shares her needs, and you cope and help her to cope. And together with Dad you make your family special.

You're doing a great job !

Hey. My ped. said around 12 months but we are still working on it. My son is 15 months old and around 6 months I started introducing the cup but he didn't take to it. I gave him watered down juice in the cup from then on and at about a year started replacing his afternoon bottle with a cup of milk. He doesn't drink much so I feel guilty taking the other 2 bottles away but am working on it since last week he saw the bottle and clapped. He will drink 8 oz in one sitting with a bottle but sips on a cup and usually doesn't finish it. It is a work in progress. I suggest just going with the flow with your child. Try to wean gradually but I think as long as you work toward having her completely weaned by 18-24 months it will be fine. Remember to brush her teeth, especially at night. BTW my son also does not take a night time bottle. He gave that up around 10 months I think. He usually has a bottle when he wakes up, a cup after his first nap which he sips all afternoon, a bottle (switching to cup) after his evening nap, which he sips on throughout the evening. I give him a juice cup throughout the day that he sometimes drinks sometimes doesn't.

Pediatricians recommend to discontinue bottle feeding at 12 months. Both my children quit cold turkey on their first birthdays & never looked back. It was much easier than I thought it would be, but a little sad because it's another reminder that our babies grow up too fast! Good luck!

Hi A.,

I started my two boys on sippy cups around 6-7 months and they were both off bottles and formula about a month after they turned a year old. They were both drinking milk after this. At night time instead of a bottle, we have snacks before getting ready for bed. Usually milk and fruit, graham crackers, etc. Hope this helps.

i posted a similaur question about a month ago, and loved most of the responses i got, so if you like to read them they may help you too. i started her on a sippy of formula at 9 and a half months and just stoped bottles completely, the only challenge i had was fidning the sippy she likes, i had to buy a few till i found one that she would drink from, after i did it worked perfectly, she gets more excited to see her sippy then she ever did her bottle, she never held her own bottle but she holds her sippy. i miss feeding her the bottles but im glad i did it when i did because she never got attached to her bottle

Ideally, babies will be off the bottle by 12 months. It isn't an emergency if they aren't (my pediatrician doesn't get cranky about it until 18 months) but the way the milk (or formula) sits on their teeth is much more likely to cause cavities with a bottle rather than a cup. In fact, the rapid decay of many teeth in a baby's mouth is called "baby bottle mouth" and has life-long consequences (though it is fairly rare.)

If you can get her off the bottles now, do it. My son wasn't ready until about 13 months-- at 12 months he couldn't figure out how to drink from a sippy (even the very soft silicone ones), by 13 months he could drink from anything. I think it is just a development thing. So, if she can drink from the sippys, I'd ditch the bottles because in the next several months she will become much less pliable!

My pediatrician also said that the harder spouted sippy cups are preferable because they are less likely to cause decay. At first my son couldn't work them, so we used the silicone (Nubby) cups, but now we're on mostly hard ones.

At around a year you can start to trust them to regulate their own food. If she's eating lots of cheese and yogurt, she may be wanting less milk/formula. Make sure you are offering water in sippy cups too, especially if she's not taking as much milk.

Good luck!

My daughter also self weaned. She just turned a year old in the beginging of April, and is now totally weaned and only uses the sippy cup. I also felt the same way you do about the night time feeding. I felt like I was forcing her to nurse when all she wanted to do was NOT eat and go to bed. So a little over 11 months I just stopped nursing her at night. It seems as if you should just follow your instincts about which feedings you should give up and when. It seems like your daugher will help guide you to knowing what she needs. I replaced breastmilk with whole milk...she didn't like it too much at first, and would only take an ounce or two a couple times a day, but she got used to it and now does great. So don't be alarmed if she doesn't suck down whole milk like the formula right away. It took us about 2 weeks till my daughter got comfortable with the taste. Good luck, it sounds like you are on the right track!

Hi A.

In all honesty, as soon as my babies would use a sippy cup, I stopped giving a bottle. My oldest was 8 months, my middle was 11 months, and my youngest is 7 months and he is just learning how to use the sippy and I am hoping he masters it soon! It's just a vessel for the liquid and if you let it go on too long then it becomes an attachment. As for how much formula for an almost 1 year old? I'm thinking not much. By a year they are usually pretty exclusively eating table foods and then starting on milk, so I wouldn't get too worried about it. If she doesn't want it before bed I wouldn't push it. Although if you feel she needs something in her tummy try giving it to her in the sippy cup, she might be interested in it that way. BTW, even now I sit with my daughter in the rocker before bed while she drinks her milk in her sippy cup and she is almost 2 so you don't have to give up the snuggles before bed.
S.

Well, when my daughter [2 1/2 now] was around 10 months she started not wanting her bottle at all. She had been using a sippy cup since she was about 6 or 7 months, drinking a little water with meals and stuff. So, when she hit about 10 months she was only letting me give her about 2 bottles a day. The day she turned 1 yr old she didnt take another bottle and hasnt looked back! haha. She was so fine about giving it up [we are still working hard on the binky though!]. I was always told that the baby should be off of the bottle at 1 year, but now Im hearing new things like it doesnt really matter so much because the formula is so good for them. I guess its really all just personal choice. I'm fine with my babies being off the bottle at one and I plan on weaning my son at 1 yr.
They do make the NextStep formula though for babies from like 9-24 months or something like that, if you didnt know. So, if you want your little one to stay on the bottle & formula, that might be something to look into. But, if you chose to wean her off the bottle at one, I'm sure she will still be getting all her nutrition. My daughter is quite healthy and happy and hasnt had formula since one. Just make sure, as I'm sure you already do, to give her all the healthy foods she'll eat! We sometimes give my little girl PediaSure to get some extra nutrients. She calls it her "special milk". So, basically, do what you think is best. Whether or not you decide to wean her off the bottle or not, I'm sure she will be a happy healthy little girl, especially if she keeps eating three great meals a day! :]