Stopping the bottle!!!!!

[poshBecks]

My 2 1/2 year still drinks his milk from a bottle. Yes I know its bad!! I want to stop it but dont know how to go about it. He has a bottle when he wakes up in the morning then again about an hour before dinner at night.

He was doing ok drinking out of those tommy tippee sippy cups that have the soft rubbery tops (if you know what i'm talking about) but I got sick of replacing them every 2 weeks as the lip bit would keep splitting :banghead:

So now I'm back to square 1 again. If I put his milk in his normal drinking cups he has a major tanty. Maybe I should toughen up!! :rolleyes:

Any advice?

[rynosmum]

Not at all. Ry still drinks his milk from bottles as well....I tried to wean him at Christmas but after 2 weeks gave up.:hugs:

*Watches thread intently*

[poshBecks]

Glad I'm not the only one K!! ;)

[drewid]

Have you tried different style sipper cups? Andrew uses those 'Dinkee' sipper cups that you can get from Coles/Woolies etc for his milk. They are cheap and last the distance... and you can get a few different coloured lids, if that helps, a bit of bribery so he can choose his favourite colour to drink from IYKWIM.

[poshBecks]

Yeah tried them. The lid sometimes mysteriously :rolleyes: comes off, with a nice milky mess everywhere!! LOL!! I need a screw top!! :laughing:

[drewid]

LOL, Andrew hasn't got the dexterity to take the lids off yet....I guess thats a joy I have to look forward to!

I have one of those Tommee Tippee cups you mentioned and they are SO hard to get the lid off...I almost break a nail every time I have to open ours. Thats the one cup I leave in his cot, with water in it. Certainly baby proof!

I hate how all those cups are SO expensive, and the bits need replacing so often. Its such a rip off!

I think in your position, I would just stay with the bottle for awhile, and offer it in a cup once in a while. Eventually (you'd think) he'll make the switch - how many school-aged kids do you see with bottles? Maybe waiting for an age where bribery and other tricks will help, will make a difference?

[poshBecks]

OOh I just remembered :idea: I bought a Bob the builder straw cup to put in his Santa sack. Maybe I could bring that out especially for his milk? :rolleyes:

If that fails I think i will take your advice Noo & let him have his bottle. Its just a bit embarrasing when we have guests!! :o :laughing:

[drewid]

Ah, I wouldn't worry about it Bec. There are certainly other things in life more embarrassing than what your kids drink out of :) If anyone gets on their high horse about it....pfft to them!

Straw cups - good! That was how I got Andrew drinking out of ANY cup to start with. There are lots of those varieties out there with screw on lids :thumbsup:

[Mamaduke]

Hello...my name is Mamaduke and my sons...
ages 4 and 2 ....
both have bottles
Got a problem with that?:p


I have written about this so many times...
at the end of the day the boys sit on their little couch and Jesse has 1/2 a bottle and Lukey a full bottle of milk before they brush their teeth and go to bed.
So what?
I couldn't give a hoot if they wanted to drink their milk out of a gravy jug...if they're drinking their milk, who cares what container it comes out of?
Why take away something that enables them to relax, have a drink and unwind...they're adults for such a long time - there's no rush!!!
Speaking of adults...try taking away a stubbie from a man and telling him to drink his beer in a teacup...or taking a wine glass away from a woman and telling her to drink it out of a stubbie (or vice versa)...now that's when you'd see a tantrum!!!
Why 'toughen' up? Who's it hurting?


:smiliedance: Bottles for everyone!!!!:smiliedance:

[poshBecks]

:yelclap: Thanks Mamaduke!!!! You made me laugh!! I do agree. When Connor is in a foul mood... his bottle works a treat!! :p

[Karizma]

Yes I have a 3 yr old that still has a bottle before bed and then he brushes his teeth. I dont honestly see whats so wrong with it. I know people say he shouldnt be on it blah blah blah... But he is happy and it is a comfort thing for him. He is happy so I am happy :D

[trina73]

my son is nearly 3 and he just went off his bottle 2 weeks ago.he still loves his milk and drinks from a sippy cup. your son will give up the bottle in time but as i say to the mums in my playgroup (who are going through the same thing) they're still babies.

[Chub Chub]

I swapped one of my DD's bottles (the morning one) with a pop top drink bottle. I have tons of drink containers and she went for the cheapo pop top. She is happy with that but HAS to have her one bfore bed out of a bottle. She is happy and I am happy but granted she is only 15 months but maybe get your DS to help pick a new drink container and offer only one of his milk drinks out of the new container. Soon enough I am hoping she will just prefer her new drink container but there isn't a real hurry.

[Wondermum]

Hands up here! The 3 yr old pictured above has a bottle in the morning (sometimes) and one before bed time. I guess we'll deal with it eventually when the time is right :confused: as well as the dummies :o Maybe I'll try using a line like 'Your mummies big boy now, maybe we should give your bottle and dummies to your baby brother' :eek:

[Mariposa]

im in the same boat here. dd2 will be 3 in october, still has a bottle after brekkie, and definitely one before bed (she screams for it otherwise:o ) and sometimes during the day. but noting also, if she is unwell all she wants is milkie in her botty!

during the day she will drink through cups or drink bottles, but never milk in them only water!

[MumofMadd]

My DS is also 2 1/2 at the start of the yr i had my cousins wedding to go to so a friend had DS for a sleep over and silly me forgot to pack a bottle so she just gave him a drink of milk out of a "special cup" and needless to say he didn't have another bottle after that. I found takin him to the shops and letting him pick a special cup for his milk helped a bit.

[Goosie22]

Hi,
I dont think you need to toughen up, though you might keep in mind that long term bottle use (after 12 months old) is a cause of serious dental problems, no just decay. The mechanics of sucking on a bottle is completely different from breastfeeding and therefore the muscle in the face and jaw may not develop as well.



A strong association was found between exclusive bottle-feeding and anteroposterior malocclusion. Davis DW,Bell PA. "Infant feeding and occlusal outcomes: longitudinal study." J Can Dent Assoc 1991.

Among Breastfed infants, the longer duration of nursing the lower incidence of malocclusion. Labbok,MH. "Does Breastfeeding Prevent malocculsion?" American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 1997.



Sorry cant find links to these studies on line:)

[Jem]

DS1 is 2 and a half, and he still has bottle... he loves his bot.. im not looking very forward to the day i have to say no more bot.. think i might leave that to dp.. lol

why not, he's going to be doing the potty training too!!
2 birds with one stone...haha

[poshBecks]

Thanks for all your help ladies!! This morning I gave him his milk in his new Bob the builder straw cup. He was rather excited about his new cup!! :D Now we will see if his night bottle goes as smoothly. That'll be the test. Otherwise at least his morning one is switched! :o

[pookiesossige]

So, Sooo glad I found this thread! Ronan has a bottle before his daytime nap and one before bed. He is 2 years/2 months old. Unfortunely there's no teeth-brushing after the bottle. Also normal milk makes him vomit so he's having toddler formula, so am a little concerned about tooth decay... Should I be more worried? I just love the closeness we have when we cuddle up together with his bottle for some quite time before sleep... He pats me and we look at each other... awww...

He's such a flat-out boy that it's the only time he slows down and relaxes. I cop a lot of flack from some relatives about this- but try to ignore it as much as possible. He has those fantastic cheap sistema straw cups from Coles for water during the day- the only type of cup that he doesn't seem to break in 5 mins!

Fantastic thread! I feel better after your post Mamaduke! It's not like he'll be taking a bottle with him to school!!:laughing:

[Mamaduke]

For the well meaning relatives and strangers alike...
In the words of Mick Kerrigan (Michael Caton) in 'The Castle"...


"Tell 'em to get stuffed!"

[middlecm]

One suggestion that Ive been told is to change the teat to a newborn teat. Quite often the toddler will just get sick of trying to suck the milk out with so much effort and wean themselves. Maybe the soft option to try.

My 23month old still has a bottle when he goes to bed and we dont have any problem with it, at least he is drinking milk.
My 7 month old has weaned himself off bottles and formula totally and it is a nightmare because now he has 6 solid meals a day and sippy cups.

It would be so much easier if he drank from the bottle and we had a milk option.

Christine

[blessedmummy]

yeah.. my youngest daughter who is almost two still loves her bottle.. i try to just keep it for night times now, which works well for her, and try to give her special sipper cup during the day with milk, and i think she likes that, so i do hope to wean her off her bottle at some point though.

Me
Dh25:kiss:
Emily3:smiliedance:
Clare22months:smiliedance:
another bub someday... yay!!:smiliedance:

[funnyfarm]

I used to worry about this all the time with my daughter (2years 2 months old) and about 4 weeks ago she got tonsillitis and stopped drinking her bottles for a couple of days (she used to have 4 a day) .

After her throat got better, she was really hungry and just didn't ask for them so i never offered. She now has one first thing in the morning when she wakes up and sometimes one at night time after dinner. Sometimes during the day she will mention bottle but i just offer her a cup of drink and some food and she seems happy with this ( i think maybe she asks for one when she is hungry or thirsty). When i tried to cut them out previously she would scream hysterically until she had one. Now there is no protest at all so she must have just decided herself that she was ready to stop them.

Now looking back at all the worry i used to do about her bottles (soooo many people said that she is tooo old for a bottle (including CHN) ) it was only her that decided she was ready to change and cut down.

Janet

[poshBecks]

:smiliedance: :yelclap: :smiliedance: :yelclap:

I bought Connor a real fancy straw cup today that he chose. It has a snow dome on the lid with a bouncing Tigger in it.

YAY he didn't have a bottle!!!

WOO HOO!!