I really need help weaning my baby from her bottle. She will one on the 2nd and i have tried a few days ago to her milk from a sippy but she wants absolutly no part of it and will spit it out. Then once she realizes what is in the sippy she will close her mouth and shake her head and spit at me. So she did not get a bottle till noon that day bc my nerves had had it and i couldnt take the crying bc she was hungry so i gave in and gave her a bottle. I have not tried again since then. I am afraid she will cry and scream i dont think i can handle it. Does anyone have an advice?

My kids never would drink milk for me either, but this is what my sister-in-law did... she started giving them water in the sippy, then gradually added a little milk at a time until they were drinking milk from the sippy and not rejecting it anymore. Alternately, you can just toss the bottle and put up with it for a couple of days.  If you never, never give in she will realize the bottle is gone and not coming back.  She probably will cry but since you're going to be hearing a fair bit of screaming over the course of her life it's best to be the boss of it at the start so you don't find yourself dealing with a person who constantly reacts to obstacles with a tantrum.

If she's crying because she's hungry, can you not give her food rather than a bottle of milk?  Then your nerves don't have to take the crying and she won't be hungry.  If she's not hungry she won't be as resistant to new things and as long as she's getting a good selection of food it won't hurt her at all to go without her milk while she's learning.  And if she's crying because she's attached to the comfort of the bottle, you can take that time when she would have been having the bottle and snuggle, read to her, or give her some other kind of comfort.

This is what I did w/my son & it worked w/in a few wks.  What I would do is that each wk I would add an ounce less in his bottle.  When he was done I would either give him his pacifier or rock him to sleep.  It got to the point that he would fall asleep even before he finished his bottle.  Hopefully this will also work when it is time for my daughter especially since she's a different baby then my son.  If you decide to try this I hope it works for you as well.  Good Luck!!! 

GG

Cindy i already give her water from her sippy and she drinks it so maybe i will try watered down milk. I try to feed her when she not getting a bottle but she doesnt want to eat maybe she does just like the comfort of the bottle i know i need to be a big girl and suck it up and deal with it. The crying will stop once she gets used to it. But who knows how long that could be but me giving in is not helping with the situation bc she will if she crys eoungh she will get her way and i do not want that.

GG where did the sippy cup come in this situation? I dont fully understand what it is you are saying.

Hi There!

My son completely bypassed sippy cups and went straight to a cup with a lid and a straw.  He loved those.  Maybe another alternative?

I know this goes completely against popular opinion but I would just let her have her bottle. My daughter is almost 19 months and still will only drink milk from a bottle. She gets her water and juice from a sippy cup. The doctor said it was fine until she is about 2. I figure people breast feed their babies until 2 why can't my girl have the same kind of comfort.

Suzanne   That makes since i might just wait but i was thinking the longer i wait the more attachted she will get to her bottle and the harder it will be on both of us to get rid of it.

Susan my daughter cant quite drink from a straw yet.

They do have sippy cups that come with tops that are like bottle nipples. you could start out with one of those and gradually switch the top to the regular sippy cup lid. That's what I did with my daughter. She didn't like that too much but she gradually got weened from her bottle that way.

I have one of those sippy cups you are talking bout but she does not like them she is really picky about what kind of botttles and sippys she will take.

Yeah, It could be more difficult in the long run or not. It seems everything I was so worried about in the past sleeping in a crib (she only slept in a swing for the longest time), sleeping through the night, drinking enough milk etc....ended up working out perfectly fine so I have loosened up this "schedule" that seems to exist so strongly out there. Every baby is different and I have complete confidence that eventually she will not be so attached to drinking from a bottle. I every so often give her some milk in a sippy cup and every once in a while she will drink fom it (rarely). I suspect some day she will just all of a sudden start drinking her milk out of cup that's how it's been with everything else.

yeah i understand what you are sayin my baby is almost one and still does not sleep through the night. I am not worry bout it but it does get old always waking up but thats life with babies.

I wouldn't be in such a hurry to wean her. My feeling is that milestones and ages are guidelines, not firm guideposts. Each child moves at such a different pace, and perhaps 18 or 24 months may not seem like an ideal age but I imagine the comfort and happiness of your child is your priority. Just enjoy her and don't stress too much. I think we all overburden ourselves with doing everything right and being good mothers. We stress so much about doing the "right" thing that it's hard. Before you know it, she will be a teenager and you will have very different worries :)

Hello Alexandria,

I just joined this group about 10 minutes ago and I am reading your concern about weaning from the bottle.  It dawned on me just before the holidays that my son will be a year in just a few weeks and I have made no attempt to wean him from his bottle.  I have been trying all kinds of sippy cups for months.  Just recently he is sipping water and only water from them and a regular cup.  he giggles but has not quite gotten the idea that this is to replace his bottle with formula.  I have started cutting the formula back and adding milk to his bottle.  I will keep doing this until only milk is left.

I do not feel in my heart from his queues that he is ready to completely wean from the bottle . My anxitey comes in only when I think of what others are going to say about him still drinking from the bottle.  I have been told that the last bottle at night is the hardest to break.  I do not want to tell you what to do but as another mother stated, these are guidelines and every baby is different.

My worries are not pacifiers, blankets and bottles.  Its, walking and talking, being a happy baby and being loved. 

Don't stress yourself over it.  She will eventually stop drinking from the bottle.  I don't know about you but I have never seen a 5 year old drinking from a bottle, have you?  ;)

I have considered that my son may not be weaned by 1 year and I think that it is going to work itself out over time.  I have heard that many babies are not weaned until they are 18 months.

Like Kendra said, enjoy her and don't worry too much.  Every baby is different. :)

I meant to say that maybe she needs something in place to comfort her.  The bottle may be a soothing mechanism as well as food for her.

Did you try and slowly cut back the number of bottles each day?  Maybe if you can get her down to just one bottle a day.  If she really likes her noon bottle, then let her have it. it sounds like you are trying, maybe you can keep up with giving her the bottle later and later each day.  When she starts fussing over it.  Personally when the time comes I will not be able to have my son cry hysterically and will likely give in - and keep trying every day. 

GOOD LUCK :) 

what kind of sippy r u usin bc i buy the ones from walmart that has the rubber nipple i think its called a nuk anyways its a sippy but still has the rubber nipple try that and let me know how it goes as for the milk problem try buyin i think its called pediasure its like milk but doesnt taste like milk my daughter who is now 5 wouldnt drink milk her dr told us to try her on that and it worked

Kim thank you very much but i broke from her bottles already she been for 3 weeks now i used the sippys you talking bout with nipple lid for a few days then switched to the straw lids and she took to it no problem and i mix a lil bit of the stage 2 vanilla formula in her milk and she drinks it wit out a problem bc it gives it a lil vanilla taste. Thank you very much for the advice though.