Weaning a toddler from a bottle

[rynosmum]

My DS is 19 months old and has up until recently still had 4 bottles of formula per day (total of 1 litre).

He won't take cows milk from a sippy cup and will barely take formula from one. He will drink a cold formula milkshake from a soft spout cup now for morning and afternoon tea but he is still on his bottle for his pre-bed drink.

At what age should a toddler be weaned from a bottle ? I want to wean him completely now but he is getting a bit distresse by it all and asking for his dummy quite a lot. I'm considering giving up and letting him decide when to give it up.

What do you think ?

[poshBecks]

My ds (20mnths) still drinks his milk from a bottle. But he only has 2 bottles per day. 1 when he wakes up in the morning & one b4 dinner at night.
He drinks from a sippy cup ok, i just havnt changed him over yet.
I would just gradually drop the bottles down. Like maybe morning tea then after a while lunch, then arvo tea etc. Dont make him go cold turkey... he wont like that:rolleyes:

Good luck...

[Melissa1983]

i have the same position. But mine are 3 and 2 and still has a bottle through the night.. they only have them to go to sleep at lunch and at night, but they wake through the night for them as well.. So if you have any ideas for me please let me know!

[xkwzit]

I've only been through it with DD1 (who is generally pretty easy going). She would not drink milk from a cup for me at home until she was well over 2yo (I think :o ). She would while at daycare, however. I had read that toddlers will give up their bottles, but DD1 was resistant. I stopped giving her a lunch bottle, because it was a pain at day care. I stopped giving her her breakfast bottle at around 2-ish and made sure that she had yoghurt to make up calcium. She started drinking milk from a cup for me at around 2.5, but still preferred her night time bottle. We just offered her every night "bottle or cup?". She asked for her bottle for AGES - but eventually (at around 3.5 I think) she just wanted the cup. Now will it work for DD2?:D

Cheers

[Baby Girl]

DD1 gave up her day bottles gradually from about 18 months old. I just stopped offering her a bottle and offered her milk in a cup. Some days she would refuse and want her bottle but most days she would at least try the cup for one feed. She dropped her lunchtime sleep bottle at about 2 1/2 years and we just gave her bottle to Santa Claus at Christmas so she now has a cup of milk before bedtime. Santa took her bottle and left her a cool new cup. She just turned 3 before Christmas.

I followed her signs and basically she was just fussing with her bottles through the day so we swapped for a cup (gradually and I gave her the choice each milk feed). At night she was just playing with her bottle and not actually drinking it so to Santa it went and now she has a cup of milk at bedtime. I was surprised how willing she was for Santa to take it.

While she was younger I would give her a cup with a non-spill lid and now that she is older she drinks everything out of a very flash Barbie cup (we have 4 - just in case) and of course her bedtime milk is in her Christmas cup that she got from Santa ;)

[Mamaduke]

Why wean from a bottle?
Does it really matter how they get their milk?
I could care less! Lucas is 18 months and still has his milk in a bottle and Jesse is...wait for it....4 and still has a bottle after dinner.

At what age should a toddler be weaned from a bottle ? I want to wean him completely now but he is getting a bit distresse by it all and asking for his dummy quite a lot. I'm considering giving up and letting him decide when to give it up.

What do you think ?
I think a child should be weaned from a bottle when they're ready...whoever came up with this 'rule' that children shouldn't have bottles past a certain age had waaaay too much time on their hands!
If he's getting distressed then I would just leave it...to me, it's just not an issue.
I think of it this way, if my boys want to finish their hectic little days with a bottle then who am I to stand in their way? There are alot of adults who sit down after dinner with a glass of wine, beer, coffee or tea!
They're grown ups for such a long time...

[JanetF]

Ok it's rocking my world and I have to sit down. But I think Carly's right. If they like it, they need it. CHildren suck for comfort so I'm voting to let the bottles stay :) My son will be bf until he chooses to give it up and I think babies should choose when they're moving off bottles to cups permanently. :)

[rynosmum]

Thanks Girls - you've made the decision so much easier.

I was getting swayed by the people asking why he still had a bottle instead of a cup. I know he'll drink 4 full bottles per day but if it's in a cup, he's flat out drinking one and it's affecting him in so many ways. The past week has been a struggle and one that he really shouldn't have to deal with.

I love your advice (and so will he), I'm about to pour his milk back into his bottle - his cup has been sitting untouched for the past 20 minutes. Hopefully he'll give it up before he reaches 17 :D

[Goosie22]

I'm with janetF they need to suck, attention has to be payed to how they are having the bottle though. If they are drinking it and putting it down empty and leaving it ie not a security blanket type situation then they still need it. Milk goes off if not in the fridge and it grows lovely bacteria in a very short time.

[Mamaduke]

Originally posted by Janetf
Ok it's rocking my world and I have to sit down. But I think Carly's right.
LOL!!!!!!!:D


I'm about to pour his milk back into his bottle - his cup has been sitting untouched for the past 20 minutes. Hopefully he'll give it up before he reaches 17

YAY!!! Good for you...and your little boy!!!

[lucyp]

I had many of the above questions also - so thank you for posting this thread.......ONe more question though - do you warm the cows milk in the bottle - or jjust give it cold????

[samuelboy]

Wow, I'm so glad I read this post. My son has just turned one and I'm feeling the pressure from more than a few people to get him off his bottles. He's on three a day and loves them, I've tried milk in a cup but he's just not interested. Well now I"ll happily continue on my way and keep going.

Thanks!!

[Mamaduke]

For the mums...
Just watch that your bubbas aren't replacing food with the milk. This happened to me with Jesse - he would drink so many bottles a day that he didn't have any room for his meals, and therefore wasn't getting the vitamins from fruit, vegetables and meat.
Let's start a revolution...NO WEANING MUMMIES!!!:D

[lucyp]

Carly , did you warm any of the bottles of cows milk??

[Mamaduke]

Lucyp
Jesse prefers his milk warm (he actually does it himself now!) but Lucas has his cold. I personally think cold is better because if you're out and about a cold bottle is easier to be kept cold and you can always buy cold milk whereas keeping a bottle warm is hard to do and I think that bacteria thrives moreso in warm milk.
I would lean more towards giving cold milk, the only reason I let Jesse have his warm is because he only has one after dinner and we're always home.
You could try lessening the warmth of the bottle (if your bubs does prefer a warm one) over time until bubs is drinking it cold.

[xkwzit]

Hi Carly
I'd heard that same thing re bottles and food ... something along the lines of "children who drink from bottles tend to take too much of their calories that way rather than via food", which is why at 15 months old I started to replace bottles with cups. We did it really slowly from 3 bottles down to one bottle a day and that one she decided when to give up.

To avoid the too much bottle / too little food problem, we would always insist on food first at mealtimes and then not much milk (say only half a bottle) if you hadn't eaten a good dinner (although we only got strict about it after DD1 was around 2.5, we are still relaxed with DD2 who is only 21 months old). If your son is only just 1, there's plenty of time yet :) .

Cheers

[Mummy-2-2]

Tahlia is 15 months old, and still has a bottle or two before she goes to bed after lunch time and bed time.

I tried to wean her at 11.5 months by gradually reducing th amount of formula in her bottle but making sure she was eating well, and it worked fantastically, but then she hit a growth spurt and eats REALLY well and has the bottles too. She is not a fat baby so she must need the nutrients so who am I to argue?

The only thing I was worried about was her teeth rotting from the milk staying on there, (as the dentists say) so after her night bottle we brush her teeth and then she goes to bed.

Just a quick question if JanetF is still here or if someone else knows, with a bf baby, because the nipple is at the back of their mouth, is it as important an issue to brush their teeth before bed after feeding? Am going to try to bf this bubba and dont know much about it.

[Mamaduke]

Originally posted by Mummy-2-2
The only thing I was worried about was her teeth rotting from the milk staying on there, (as the dentists say) so after her night bottle we brush her teeth and then she goes to bed.
The CHN told me not to encourage taking the bottle to bed because of their teeth and that's why we always have bottles in the lounge on their little chairs before brushing teeth time!
**I've changed my ava to show my two little "potty calves"!!!:p

[rynosmum]

**I've changed my ava to show my two little "potty calves"!!!:p

Ha ! I love it !

Ry is 19 months and 15 kgs :eek:. I will stick to a cup for breakfast and he also has toast etc. For morning tea, he has fruit/cheese etc and then a bottle before his nap, then a big lunch, then afternoon tea and then dinner and another bottle before bed.

Note: only 3 bottles instead of 4. For the past 2 days, he has dropped back to 1 sleep per day - albeit a sleep from 11:30 to 3:30 (4 hours ?:confused: ) so food is always still #1.

Oh, and I may have mislead in an earlier post - when his milk is in a bottle, he drains it completely straight up. In fact, before dinner (and only about 45 mins after dinner), he now wants too bottles - about 350 mls all up.

Where does he put it all ?!?:D