weaning off the bottle at 1 year?

[lovetheheights]

Hi all:

Sorry, I cross posted in the "babe" area...is my 1yo considered a toddler? I suppose she is...

Every time I search for "weaning" I get breastfed weaning threads...I wish I was still breastfeeding but I am not. Our 1 year old seems ready to wean off at least the daytime bottles, and I wonder if anyone has experience with how to do this? For me the concern is the comfort of it, rather than whether she can use a cup and straw/sippy cup (she can and has for a while)

Even the decision is a tough one to make and I am researching it- any thoughts are welcome, as I am open to ideas and philosophies.

adding to the frustration of this is that I work f/t so I can't even really be a part of the process until weekends. So I feel like i need to be really clear with our goals so that our sitter can do what we are hoping for.

thanks all.

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

My 16 month old still has around 5 bottles a day. He can use a sippy, but in order to get as much "milk" as what he needs, i use the bottles. He seems to focus more on finishing them, where the sippys are just for that, "sipping" and then throwing.

My 2.5 year old was on bottles until just after his 2nd birthday, where we were down to just at night before bed, and then just sort of waited for him to NOT ask for it anymore. Once he went a week without asking for it, but then tried asking again, we said his brother uses bottles, he uses cups. And thats been pretty much it. Good luck with your decision.

[K1329]

I weaned both kids off of the bottle at one. They each took several bottles a day and I replaced one bottle with a sippy cup a week. For instance, if they took 4 bottles a day, the first week they'd get 3 bottles and one sippy cup, the next week 2 bottles and 2 sippy cups, and so on and the process took 4 weeks. It went really well. Neither of my kids even seemed to notice! If either one had protested and wanted to keep their bottle, I would have obliged, but, it was a painless transition for us. And, SO NICE, not to wash/sterilize bottles anymore!

Good luck!

[lovetheheights]

thank you- I am asking with complete openness and wondering- are there drawbacks to waiting? Because if she was bf'ing, I wouldn't wean her this early- but I keep hearing (from well meaning family members, but I don't know our philosophy yet) about tooth damage?

Like I wrote, we are in research phase, I am a home-birther/no vaccine kind of person, so I lean toward this site in a pretty strong way.

I would love to hear about people's thought processes- I don't feel judged because I haven't made the decision, so feel free to tell me drawbacks of early weaning.

[lovetheheights]

so- K1239- what was the putting down for a nap process like (if the baby relies on a bottle right before sleep)?

Do I just "try it out" and see how she responds? does that entail making sure she drinks a lot in the meal before nap and then just getting her down without a bottle?

thank you

[K1329]

I, admittedly, did not do much research about nutritional ramifications. I do know there are some "stage 2" formulas that are available if that's a concern. We just switched to whole milk and relied on a balanced diet to meet nutritional needs. Both of my kids have developed fine, without any problems - they're now 3 and 6.

With friends who have waited to wean, I do notice that their toddlers develop a strong attachment to the bottle and it can be more difficult to wean at an older age. But, my toddler still loves his pacifier at 3, so, maybe there's always something!

For naps, my kiddos didn't use a bottle to go down, so I'm not sure how that would work... my ds still has a sippy cup of milk before bed, though.

I'll be interested to read what others have to say!

ETA: If she's used to going down with a bottle - you could try giving her a sippy cup before her nap when she would usually take the bottle. If you try and it's not working out, you can always back off and try again in a few months.

[LROM]

FWIW at dd's 15 month Ped visit, the doc said "Oh, and no more bottles if you haven't already stopped using them." I'm still not sure I understand why (tooth decay, tooth alignment, what?) but because we'd already pretty much transitioned to sippy cups and she's also drinking out of straws and regular cups now, we just shrugged and said ok.

I'm still breastfeeding, our Ped knows that and supports it, but I'm really not sure why the no bottle rule. I just know he said it very clearly and firmly.

Dd is in daycare with babes 10-16 months, and it seems like they ALL still use bottles. Except dd now. I mentioned what my Ped said to the lead teacher and she said "Yeah, we hear that, but as you can see a lot of parents still use bottles."

Don't know if those observations are helpful or not...

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

Originally Posted by K1329

With friends who have waited to wean, I do notice that their toddlers develop a strong attachment to the bottle and it can be more difficult to wean at an older age. But, my toddler still loves his pacifier at 3, so, maybe there's always something!

Cool, you answered my Q for me.

[lovetheheights]

thank you ALL- K1239- I have heard and noticed the same thing, and it's DD's signs of seeming to need less of a bottle every time that had me thinking she is ready.

LROM: Great observations about kids in daycare. I do think the "no bottle" thing is a tooth thing, and I think I will try it and see what happens. I will start on the weekend so that the sitter can get my observations.

It's less of a nutritional thing, I know she will get her milk (or whatever we transition to) and more of a comfort thing. She isn't a paci baby...believe me, I tried! But she isn't a huge eater and I usually feel like at least I know she is getting that bottle....but other moms say there is a time where she will learn to eat more to make up for it....

[lovetheheights]

LROM: the bf'ing can go much longer because the breast doesn't harm the teeth, from what I have heard.

[GoBecGo]

I read that it was better for orthodontic development (bottles can change the shape of the jaw apparently, not sure if it was true) to stop bottles at age one so i did, cold turkey. DD didn't seem to notice, never cried for a bottle or indicated she cared either way, and took a soft-spout sippy instead for about a month, when it got lost, and then hard-spout sippy's from there on. She ate really well by then though, and was only having a couple of bottles a day anyway (i gave her plenty but she never drank any of them).

[lovetheheights]

gobec: Did you allow the sippy while comforting to sleep? Is that a silly question logistics wise? (meaning, is that even possible to do?) I am betting that by going cold turkey your DD wasn't using a bottle for comfort, or had she been?

thanks all.

[gbailey]

Originally Posted by GoBecGo

I read that it was better for orthodontic development (bottles can change the shape of the jaw apparently, not sure if it was true) to stop bottles at age one so i did, cold turkey. DD didn't seem to notice, never cried for a bottle or indicated she cared either way, and took a soft-spout sippy instead for about a month, when it got lost, and then hard-spout sippy's from there on. She ate really well by then though, and was only having a couple of bottles a day anyway (i gave her plenty but she never drank any of them).

Same with my DD except she is sippy brand cup specific. I buy new ones and she refuses to drink from them

[GoBecGo]

DD was and is a thumb-sucker (as am i, still, at the grand old age of 29 and no, no orthodontic issues for me so far!) so she never drank milk for comfort to fall asleep past 8weeks of age (when she found her thumb). If i tried to feed to sleep she would creep a thumb up against my breast and do a switch before she nodded off, i think she found the milk distracting more than anything when it came to sleep.

To be honest i weaned her from the breast due to a medical issue (mine) and she never really seemed bothered by that either. Cuddles and her thumb were/are for comfort, breasts and bottles were for food. So so much depends on the individual baby.

[marispel]

My DS still gets a bedtime bottle and my Ped. recommended that we stop that very soon. Her reasoning was that the longer he has it the harder it will be to stop.

From what I've read, tooth decay is only a problem if you allow them to take a bottle to bed and they fall asleep with it in their mouth. Then they woould have milk pooling in their mouth which could cause tooth decay.

As soon as DS gets past his 2nd yr molars coming in we'll ditch the bedtime bottle.

[just_lily]

We started weaning from bottles at one, but it took until 18 months to get rid of them entirely. My biggest motivation was a 3.5yo in my home daycare who will still only drink milk out of a bottle - I really didn't want to go there.

I made the choice to keep DD on formula after her first birthday because I didn't feel like she was eating a balanced diet of solid food. She is just now starting to eat a bit of meat and vegetables - at 12 months she ate mostly fruit. I didn't feel that just milk was going to be enough for her.

I did start offering her milk in a sippy cup though, and would give it to her at meals. She also got water in her sippy throughout the day. (I didn't do juice at all for a long time.) The only thing I ever put in her bottle was formula - never water, milk, or juice in a bottle.

And then I just started stretching out the time between formula bottles and slowly dropping them. I didn't have a set schedule or anything, it just worked out. We started with maybe 4 or 5 a day, and we had already night-weaned. Then we got down to 2 a day, one in the morning and another at night. Then we just did the evening bottle, and then I started skipping nights until we got rid of it all together. It was never part of her bedtime though - she has a soother and a lovey for sleeping.

I am really pleased with how the whole thing went actually, and would do it again exactly the same way. We still had lots of cuddles and comfort throughout the day, and she never really used her bottles for comfort. We didn't have any tears or trauma about the bottles, and I don't think she even noticed when they left the house for good.

[lovetheheights]

thanks all- has anyone used sippy cups for comfort? (whether hard or soft)? just wondering if comfort drinking is only in bottle form.

[Grace and Granola]

I have two different stories of bottle weaning. FWIW, I would have breastfed, if possible, so I looked at the bottle as an extension of me. It was very rare that my babies had bottles without me there feeding it to them. So, I considered weaning from the bottles as I would have weaning from the breast.

DS1 always loved his milk and loved his bottles. Sometime after age 1, we got down to just having a bottle at morning, nap and bedtime. For my ease, I quickly replaced the morning bottle with a sippy cup because that was not about comfort, that was more out of routine. He was NOT ready to give up the bedtime bottles that we had become accustomed to while reading books. He was about 22 months when I was ready to try to see if he would give them up. But if he wasn't ready, I was not going to push it. He was already a pro sippy cup user, so I went out and bought a new style of sippy cup, that I told him was his super-neato-big boy-bedtime sippy cup (or something like that!) I told him it was very special and he could only use it at his bedtimes. He agreed and we never looked back! Also, it didn't take anything to transition away from that special cup. Just one time when it was dirty and he had no trouble using a regular sippy. I really don't think he would have been ready much earlier than that. He does not have any teeth/orthodontic issues.

DS2 was never as attached to his bottles as ds1. He didn't ask for them or need them like his brother. When I would try to settle him down at bedtime with a bottle, sometimes he would just refuse it and want to read without milk. That's how I knew I could try it at 12 months. I tried it, he totally didn't care.

Also, both boys went to whole milk at 12 months.

Just like everything else, listen to your gut, listen to your child.

[limabean]

DD will be 2 later this month and she still gets a bottle at naptime and bedtime. She uses a straw cup or open cup the rest of the time, but she really likes the comfort of a sleep-time bottle, and I'm fine with her still using it at those times.

We don't lay her down with a bottle (she drinks in our arms), and we brush her teeth after the bedtime bottle, so I'm not worried about tooth decay, and I just can't see how two 5- to 10-minute bottle sessions per day could ruin her jaw alignment, so I'm just really not worried about it at all.

We did restrict bottles to sleep-times about 6 months ago, but other than that we don't really have plans to give them up until she's ready.

[dachshund mom]

My ped said the bottles are a problem because kids tend to drink for comfort and fill up on milk, which is very different in nutrition from formula, leading to overweight yet malnurished kids. Iron in particular is low in toddlers drinking too much milk. Breastfeeding isn't a problem since breastmilk is nutritionally ok to fill up on.