How do I ween Henry from the bottle to a sippy cup? Henry will turn 1 on March 22 and I want to make sure that he is ready to start the weening process so that just after he turns 1, he is close to becoming bottle free. Currently, Henry takes a bottle around 6am, 10am, 3pm, and 7pm. He eats 3 meals and takes a sippy cup during the meals but doesn't do much drinking from them. He is still learning the whole sucking from the sippy cup thing I guess. The only sippy cup I have found him that he actually sucks from is a Nubby. I have tried the Playtex and Gerber cups as well. I have to use a cup with those leak guards because he tosses the cup all about. More gets on his bib than in his mouth because he likes to chew on the mouth part vs. drink from it.
I guess I began thinking about this today as I was feeding Henry his bottle before bed. The bedtime routine is as follows: Henry eats dinner, we bathe him (only if it is bath night - every other night), he gets lubed with Aquaphilic, he gets is jammies on, we play until 6:45 because he will generally get fussy at this time and that is when we go into his room, I make his bottle, we turn off the light, he eats, he burps, I put him in his crib with his lovie and 10 minutes later he is asleep. It has been like this for months and now I am not sure what to do about the whole "weening of the bottle" situation that will eventually come to pass. Ideas are welcome. Everything I read told me not to have a bottle in the routine before bed but truly it worked like a charm. I now know why they said not to do that.
5 comments:
I don't know any mother who doesn't give their baby a bottle before bedtime. At least most do that I know, anyway. Just keep giving him the sippy cup. You could try slowly replacing one bottle with a sippy full of formula. So at his 10 a.m. bottle, have your daycare give him a sippy of like 2 oz. first to see how he does with it. Eventually, you'll replace all the daytime bottles (not the first one in the a.m. or the last one at night) first. Then, you'll tackle the morning bottle and finally the night bottle. You'll be surprised how fast they move towards the sippy. It takes time and try and be patient. Every child weans differently. If he takes the 2 oz. fine from the sippy, then try another ounce or two in the sippy and see how he does. Also, try and give him the sippy with you holding it and him drinking. Do you have the Nubi's with the handles or no handles? We have both and Bay prefers the handles b/c they are easier for him to grab. We're going to need to start working on this as well with Mr. B. That night bottle is going to be the hardest for us. It was for Brynn too, but after a few days of sippy at night, she seemed to forget about the bottle altogether. Good Luck!
Leave the bottle before bedtime, that should be the last one you take away. Start with the afternoon ones first and then once those are gone, do the morning and then the night.
There is no set rule on when they should be done, you just don't want him walking around with a bottle clinched in his teeth when he's 2 :)
Using a Nubby is great. We started with those even though they leak horribly, but it's similar to a nipple on a bottle so it's easier to transition. We also bought the two handled small cups with lids (Gerber) and he really liked those. Daycare bought those cheap 99 cent ones from WalMart and he took to those like a champ.
You might be surprised, the switch may be easier than you think. Just keep his night one around :)
I've also heard people say they start putting water in the bottle and milk in the sippy. They eventually catch on and make the switch as they don't want water (that will change, so no worries). We never did that but I can how it would work wonders. Good luck!
We always switched cold turkey. We've always offered a sippy cup before they were 1 and none of the kids really wanted much to do with it, until it became their only source of milk. Miss Olive hated the sippy cup the most. But now she's drinking out of it like a pro and it's only been 2 weeks since her birthday and the day we gave up bottles. The first night she wanted nothing to do with it and pushed it away anytime I brought it near her. So she pretty much fell asleep in my arms with no milk. I felt terrible thinking I was putting her to bed hungry, but she had a big dinner and slept the entire night. Now she sucks down almost the entire cup full before bed. She drinks less throughout the day overall, but she's is still getting about the same amount of milk over the course of the day (she drinks more in the morning and at night now and skips the middle part of the day-her choice as it's always offered.) Just make a plan for yourself (and Henry) and stick to it. He'll catch on and follow your lead.
I wish we'd gone full turkey. The sippy has been my greatest battle of motherhood so far. Finally, finally I am gaining some ground the bottle is almost obsolete. All their advice is excellent, just do what works for you guys. Good luck!
Hi Sam! We just went through this and it was pretty painless. I asked everyone the same question. We stopped the daytime bottles first, then the AM, then PM. We did it all pretty quickly (within a week). Now, she just gets a sippy w/ milk in the AM/PM (and meals of course). Lydia is not all that intersted in it in the morning and at night, but she still sleeps through the night so she must be a-ok.
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