15 months old and still demands bottle in morning and before bed

[andibig]

just reading the posts. DD still has her milk first thing in the morning and before bed in bottles. she will just not drink milk from a cup although she drink anything else from her straw cup. i personally do not have a problem with this as Tracy said that by the age of two most toddlers will drop them.
i understand about bottle caries but she is not one of these babies you still see continuously with a bottle in her mouth and her teeth are brushed twice a day.
it also doesn't affect her appetite and she is not using the btl as a comfort item.

[kirsty_167]

Thanks again everyone

Well i did it today....no morning bottle!!! Yippeeee!!! It actually didnt go as bad as i had anticipated.He woke in a great mood and so it was much easier.I spent last night telling him that in the morning he would be having breakfast first like a big boy,no bottle.I figured he wouldnt get what i was talking about but at to prepare him anyway.So as I dressed him i made a fuss saying what a big boy he was etc.Then i took him through and put him straight in his highchair,gave him his sippy cup and a bowl of cheerios to nibble on.

This went well for about 15 mins then he got fussy and pointed to where his dummy is normally kept.(i had hoped to get rid of that too but thats another story on another day!!) He didnt want anything more to eat after only a handful of cheerios but that was okay.He got down and played for while,then i fed him some yoghurt to replace the bottle.This kept him content enough until he got to daycare where he had his proper breakfast of weetbix.

So for 1st day with no bottle he did really well.Tomorrow may be a bit harder as he will realise what is going on and may well perform....but its a done deal now....no turning back!!!! Like i said he will still get his bedtime bottle and im fine with that for now.

So yippeee for getting the courage from you guys to finally bite the bullet and remove that first bottle....he didnt need and im sure in a few days he wont even miss it!!!

Thank you so much and i will post again about how day 2 goes...fingers crossed!!

Kirsty

[mari]

i am still really confused.  Alex still has a bottle morning and night, she drinks it in one full hit and it doesn't affect her eating.  She won't drink her milk from a cup and I want her to have her milk so is there any other reason why I should stop her bottle??

[Diegos Mama]

Just curious as to why you feel the need to drop the bottles? 

You could slowly decease how much he has over the course of a month or so and work to add that calcium intake elsewhere.  Neither of my boys drink as much milk from a cup as they did from bottles, that's a lot of milk! They do however, eat many calcium rich foods and a very healthy diet, so I'm not concerned about intake from a cup.

Looking at the broader picture you might determine a.) it's not critical now to lose the bottles, but decrease them over time to achiever your goal.  b.)  work to make up the lost milk in other ways if you're not confident the milk will be consumed from a cup.

Probably if he's having a hard time letting go of the bottles he's not ready to do so yet and is trying to tell you with his reactions.  A gradual approach, I've found in my experiences, to work much better with my boys and I also like that I'm respecting their needs when going about it gradually. 

Just a different approach to consider -- may or may not be right for your family.

[mari]

I don't feel the need to drop the bottle, I want her to have the amount of milk that she is getting and I know that she won't drink as much from a cup.  I was just wondering because of this thread.  I think that she can have a bottle for as long as she wants, so long as she doesn't want to go outside with it and she doesnt use it to go to sleep on at bedtime which she doesn't so I am ok with it.  I was just wondering if there was another reason why I should stop it. ie teeth etc, but her milk only lasts 10 minutes then her bottle is empty!

[Diegos Mama]

Brush teeth afterwards and no problems. 

[mari]

ok thanks

[TDR'smom]

mari

alex is still young.  Bottles are fine.  Many dr's want babies off bottles by the time they are 1 because of tooth decay.  However, DS is 17 months and still gets his night time bottle.  We are not worried about it. 

Judy

[TDR'smom]

Kirsty,

Great job on weaning the AM bottle.  That is how we got rid of ours.  We would just have DS's breakfast ready and put him right in his high chair when he woke up. 

Glad it went well! 

Judy

[Diegos Mama]

mari, my first post was to the original poster ... didn't mean to question you like that, apologies!   

[kirsty_167]

mari, my first post was to the original poster ... didn't mean to question you like that, apologies!   

Just curious as to why you feel the need to drop the bottles? 

Hi Laura
To answer your question...i didnt feel the need to drop the bottles but the health organisation here (plunket) made a huge deal of the fact he was still having bottles.
I personaly wasnt fussed. I looked at the big picture and decided that his daily intake was quite alot and the 2 bottles was maybe just a bit much for him.(he is already a big boy)I have no intention of taking his bedtime bottle away but with his morning intake he simply didnt need the first bottle anylonger.Bedtime bottle is our chance and time for a cuddle and i wont give that up either!

I am happy for him to have bottles but i also needed to reassess now his daily food intake had increased so much.(prior he was a very poor eater)

It is defitnely a personal choice and if anyone was offended by my posting ,I am sorry i was not meaning there was anything wrong with him having bottles....more that so many people commented on it and i too wanted to know if it was wrong or something to worry about.(i find it hard to ignore so many peoples comments)

Kirsty

[mari]

It is defitnely a personal choice and if anyone was offended by my posting ,I am sorry i was not meaning there was anything wrong with him having bottles....more that so many people commented on it and i too wanted to know if it was wrong or something to worry about.(i find it hard to ignore so many peoples comments)

I certainly wasn't offended by your post, I have the same feelings as you when I hear that mums are trying to get their children to stop the bottle, I wonder if I am doing the right thing by giving her a bottle.  I have just decided now that I will allow her to keep her bottle as it doesn't affect her eating and she is average weight for her age.  I can't see her getting fat, her mum only weighs 7stone 4oz and her dad, well, a bit of a darby getting around the middle, but quite lean otherwise!!!
 I am glad that this post was started and I now feel that i needn't worry about it.  Thanks.

Laura, no worries, didn't feel like you were questioning me rudely, it's ok!!