So, how do we scrap these bottles then?

[Mashi]

We are battling it here, too, Liz.  DS cries in the mornings when he sees me get out a sippy and tries his hardest to climb onto the counter while pointing to the cupboard where he knows his bottles are. BUT yesterday he woke from a marathon 14.5 hour night, completely dehydrated and would not wait for me to make a bottle and downed 5 ounces of cold milk from his sippy in one gulp. So I KNOW he can and will do it, he just has to want it badly enough. This morning I gave him cold milk in his sippy and he just tossed it around a bit, drank about an ounce and then asked for juice to quench his thirst

I am putting my foot down next week when DH is back at work - he's insistent we keep on bottles to make sure milk is consumed, I'd rather let milk intake go down and get off the bottles....not in the least because his bottles are getting old and icky and I am NOT putting out 40 Euros to buy new bottles for an 18 month old!!!!!!!

In the meantime I offer cheese and yogurt more often in the day which IMO is same-same as far as dairy intake is concerned.

Once we are onto a morning sippy, my plan is that bedtime milk will get binned - will be a sippy that he can have before his bath and do what he wants with it while we do bedtime stories, no more sitting on DH's lap getting babied with a bottle....of course plan and reality are often different, aren't they?

PS - I LOVE those snack pots, there is one store that sells them here and I went to get DS one for his stocking at Christmas and they were 20 Euros!  TWENTY EUROS!!!!!!!! 

[LucySol]

i just got one of those snack pots too!!!! they were £3 in tesco!!!!  bargain!!! 

[Mashi]

Three quid?! Oozing with jealousy as I race to the phone to call MIL.....

[KathrynK]

Bottle weaning here turned out to be really easy peasy..............

Alex got a baaad sickness & diarrohea bug 2 days before Christmas so went cold turkey on all dairy and he had nothing but the BRAT diet for 4 days (except for his christmas dinner, lol)
He just had a sippy of water at bedtime and was so knackered from the bug he went to sleep just fine.
He took 6 days to get back to normal, at which point I reintroduced dairy in the form of cows milk in a tommee tippee non spiil cup with handles (he like to carry it around with him everywhere he goes, but like a handbag  )

So not only have we got rid of the bottles, but we're off the formula too 

Hooray for stomach bugs! 

ps Liz have you tried a Nuby cup? They're a but different, non spill but without a fiddly valve and therefore easy to suck the liquid out. Made the transition to sippy easy for both of mine. Got mine from tesco:
http://www.amazon.com/Luv-Care-Nuby-Handle-Sippy/dp/B000JOOGR0

[*Becky*]

Liz,
We have had some success with a cow cip - amadeus I think it is called. He refused it the first am, second am he drank it all for DH (sigh) and today he refused it and tried to sprinkle it all over the floor BUT when he realised I was not going to get a bottle he drank it and actually cried when it finished. It is very fast flow - not sure if that has been the trick???

[Mashi]

LOVE the Nuby cup here, too!!

[*Liz*]

Yeah we tried a Nuby - he quite liked it when he was younger and still in the chewy phase. I think he rejects the latex teat. He uses the silk teat MAM bottles as he refuses a normal teat and always has.

I brough a new cup to power on with - and it was bust so need to take it back and get it replaced. I can't open the flip top!!

Cow cup I have tried but I took the valve out and now can't seem to get it in tight enough to be non spill  .

He is chewing teats again now so I assume he is starting to teeth again as well. I HATE it when he does that as he messes about even more.

I wish we could get off as easily as you did though Kathryn.

But the main stalling factor here is me not getting on with it. I have a lot of baby to toddler issues that are outstanding as I haven't tackled them properly.

[Mashi]

I have a lot of baby to toddler issues that are outstanding as I haven't tackled them properly.

I'm glad I am not the only one...  

[MummyToBen]

It's frustrating trying out different cups - we've got several 'rejects' sitting in our cupboard that were used momentarily....do you want me to send them to you??  . 

I have a lot of baby to toddler issues that are outstanding as I haven't tackled them properly.

I'm glad I am not the only one...  

We're trying to cut out Ben's bedtime bottle too, and make his bedtime more age appropriate, but I read this comment and though 'I bet there are other things that we are doing which are too babyish but I'm maybe not even aware of them!?  '.  I don't want to hijack your thread Liz - but what are the other things that you and Mashi meant...just so that I can see what I'm possibly doing wrong!!

[~*Nicole*~]

It's frustrating trying out different cups - we've got several 'rejects' sitting in our cupboard that were used momentarily....do you want me to send them to you??  Tongue.

Have you ever tried them again? I found DD rejected many and now will take whatever is offered...as she is more proficient in general with adjusting between the different cups.

[*Liz*]

Hey Clare
Other issues are currently - morning milk in bottle, bedtime milk in bottle, not holding bottle, fighting being held like a baby but still won't hold bottle  , refusing teeth brushing, still doing teeth before bedtime bottle, sorting his diet out - too many snacks and very picky, fighting going into sleeping bad at bedtime ?needs to come out and have big boy bedding.

That is all for now  but I know there are more really.

Solutions to most obviously for another thread!!

Got the snack pot in Tesco as well  .

[KathrynK]

It's frustrating trying out different cups - we've got several 'rejects' sitting in our cupboard that were used momentarily

At one stage when Sophie was little I had about a dozen   In the end it wasn't the particular cup that was the problem, it was just the change from a bottle, kwim? I tried Tracy's cheaty method of poking extra holes in the teat until one morning it split, and I said "oh dear it's broken, shall I put the milk in your pink cup?" She replied "yes" and we never looked back.

I have a lot of baby to toddler issues that are outstanding as I haven't tackled them properly.

Definitely this is an issue with me as well- particularly as Alex is definitely my last babby. And not just with milk, I still have NW issues going on  

Liz, have just read through your posts and seen J likes a hard spout. Have you tried the Avent magic cup? They do one with a soft spout and one with a hard spout. Alex likes the hard spout one for his water. It's not too hard to drink from and is still non spill. If he won't hold his bottle, he might be better with something with handles, Alex definitely is, he wouldn't hold a bottle either, the Avent one has handles you can take off if you want.

I cannot get him to sit still and have milk any more, so my tactic is to give him his milk in his sippy at about 6pm, he drinks half then wanders around with it for a while, then has the rest while I am getting him ready for bed so by 6.45 either it's all gone or I take the leftovers away.

The other thing that's worked for us is to relocate all the kids' plastic bowls, plates, sippys etc. They were clogging up the cupboards so I bought a big plastic box and chucked everything in there and keep it on a low shelf at Alex-height. He loves to rummage and it's his current favourite toy box (Santa needn't have bothered  ) Anyway, my point is, he has taught us to understand his needs just in the last week; he has started grabbing his bib and bringing it to us then taking it to his highchair to tell us he is hungry, and around 5.45 every afternoon now he grabs his milk sippy and waves it at me whilst standing by the fridge shouting until I put milk in it. I hid the bottles last week so all he sees is the sippys so he has quickly associated them with milk. Does any of that make sense? It's like he has more control over when he drinks it so is drinking it well, kwim?
He only has about 3oz in the morning but tbh I don't worry about that as he has a good breakfast with milk on his cereal.

hth x

[~*Nicole*~]

I bought a big plastic box and chucked everything in there and keep it on a low shelf at Alex-height.

UH OH, If I did that I'd have DD grabbing them, having them all strewn about the floor through the hole house and CONSTANTLY yelling "MIIIIIIIILK" "MIIIIIIIILK" all day long.

[*Jo*]

we have the snack pot and Caleb lifts one of the little corners where his hand goes in and spills all the contents out!!! I swear my kid is a genius at driving me mad!!!
Im watching this thread with interest as Im having a hard time getting Caleb to drink anything but water from a sippy cup, he likes the hard spouts, ive got three with hard spouts and he drinks it till he cant breathe, comes up for air and drinks again, but I put his formula in it and no way sirreeee was he having any of it, had to go back to a normal bottle. so once you have the magic answer i might try stealing it

[Mashi]

I bought a big plastic box and chucked everything in there and keep it on a low shelf at Alex-height.

UH OH, If I did that I'd have DD grabbing them, having them all strewn about the floor through the hole house and CONSTANTLY yelling "MIIIIIIIILK" "MIIIIIIIILK" all day long.

Yes, all of DS's "stuff" is on a low shelf in the kitchen (makes it easier for him to unload the dishwasher himself!!!) and we do get requests every day for certain things...sometimes I offer him things but he keeps getting ONE specific bowl or cup and I have to remember what the last thing he had in that bowl / cup was because that is what he wants. And nothing else will do.

But it is a good lesson for us in "No, you can't have that right now. But you can have some of this instead..."

Liz, after yesterday's milk in the sippy which DS didn't drink, I did it again this morning.  He took 4 ounces, cold, and then asked for more. Drank most of another 2 ounces -- which is gobsmackingly more than what he'd have taken if it was in his bottle.  I'm going throw out all of his bottles but one, which we will use at bedtime, and it will be dirty in the morning so unuseable...sort of the force to make me not go back.