Taking away bottle cold turkey?

[Ashley1021]

I am going cold turkey on weaning my one year old son off the bottle. We took them away today. And it has been hell. He hasn't drank more than 4 oz total today. He has increased his food intake today drastically though. I'm dreading bed time, because he is going to have a meltdown without the nighttime bottle. Any tips or advice?

 

[Dollybird]

We haven't gone cold turkey and id say that gradual is much easier: especially since your LO is only 1yo and still just little. We got rid of the day time ones first, but maintained the morning and bedtime bottle. After a week or two we dropped the morning bottle and replaced it with a cup of milk, and only recently we have began to drop the bedtime bottle. He used to like this in his bed before sleep so our first step was giving it to him downstairs half and hour before bed. Once he was used to this we replaced it with a cup. Easy. No tears. No meltdowns. I think because it was gradual and we followed his lead. But that's not to say cold turkey won't work well, I imagine after a few days your LO will have adapted fine, I just didn't feel the aggro was necessary. Hopefully someone will be able to offer more advice, just thought I'd share my experience. good luck! Xxx

 

[Ashley1021]

See I thought that would send him mixed messages, if I allowed him a nighttime bottle and a morning bottle. He has recently moved up into the young toddler room at day care, and they only do sippys. I could've chose to leave him in infants, but he was under stimulated and biting the very young infants. I didn't want him to refuse to drink during the day because he knew he would get a night time bottle or a morning one.

Thank you for sharing your experience. If it's still rough after a couple days maybe I will re introduce just the night time bottle, but that is also sending mixed messages!

 

[Ashley1021]

Definitely gonna have to do this gradual! He screamed for two hours tonight, so I caved and gave him one. I think I will give him his morning bottle and night bottle. And he will be offered milk in a sippy at daycare every three hours or so, and if he drinks it, he drinks it.

 

[george83]

With my oldest I took away all his day time bottles at 18 months so slightly older than your lo and he just accepted it no problems. He kept his bedtime bottle until much later and then replaced it with a new special bed time cup. Ds2 is now older than ds1 was but I can't bring myself to get rid of his bottles I know it's going to cause so many battles. Good luck!

 

[MindUtopia]

Don't feel like you need to do it cold turkey if it's not working. We just kept offering a cup until our daughter would happily take it. At 11 months, she screamed like we were trying to kill her and absolutely refused to drink from it. We tried again at 13 months and she grabbed it and happily drank from it with no problem. It was really easy. After that, we switched the daytime bottles to cups and kept the nighttime one until about 15 months, then switched that one to a cup as well. It didn't cause any confusion or upset. I think if he's getting upset and refusing his milk, he's maybe not ready. I'd wait and try again in a few weeks or try a different cup. She wouldn't drink milk from a freeflow sippy cup til closer to 18 months, but a straw cup worked great and that's what we still use for the bedtime milk.

 

[Dollybird]

My little one does nursery too and similar situation with the cup. Don't stress you Lo will prob take the cup when at nursery- they tend to copy what others around them are doing such as eating foods they wouldn't normally eat etc. xxx

 

[apple_20]

Does your lo use the bottle to fall asleep? If so that probably needs to stop first

With my eldest we took the night time bottle away (he had it a bit earlier and self settled.

Then when he was 13 months old we went cold turkey with the bottles. He already drank water from sippy cups but would refuse milk from it, that is until day 2 of cold turkey when he just accepted it. He used to drink milk through a straw before that so that's an idea.

Good luck

 

[justplay91]

We use the nuk transition sippys for my son. I usually offer him some warmed milk in the morning when he gets up, after every meal, and at night before he goes to bed. We've made a routine out of giving him his bath, getting his pj's on, laying him in his crib with his milk and then brushing his teeth and saying goodnight. I don't know when he'll take to full fledged sippy cups, but for now I'm just happy that he isn't still on the bottle.

 

[Ashley1021]

Today I gave him an 8 oz morning bottle and an 8 oz bedtime bottle. He was offered his formula in a sippy at breakfast lunch and snack. He had a couple sips. He doesn't fall asleep while eating his nighttime bottle. We feed it to him about fifteen minutes before bed, lay him in his crib and say goodnight. He cries for about a minute and then falls asleep.
Over the past couple days he has drastically increased his table food intake. Eating all three of his meals and two snacks. He just recently started sleeping through the night this past weekend.

Now.. For the transition to cows milk?! How do I even go about that?! He will be one on the 21st. My pediatrician recommended never giving cows milk in a bottle..

 

[zorak]

I don't know why you paed said no cows milk in a bottle, it seems random. We did both the removal of bottles and intro of cows milk gradually. For cows milk I started mixing it with the formula over a couple of weeks until he was only on normal milk. He still got it in bottles at this point. Be aware some little tummies need time to adjust to cows milk. My LO did get diarrhoea bug it went away after a couple of weeks and he has no other issues.

 

[zorak]

That was supposed to say but not bug, silly phone. He wasn't sick.

 

[apple_20]

I think they say no cows milk in a bottle because it could mean they use bottles for longer and end up with juice etc in it.

As far as I know there is no reason not to put cows milk in a bottle it's no more sugary then formula is it?

Id personally rather give formula in a cup then milk in a bottle just because why drag bottles out longer?

 

[Ashley1021]

I don't think she said it as a medical concern, just more as it might drag bottles out longer and he will be more likely to have juice and stuff in it if he's only used to a bottle. It's honestly been hell and I'm considering just giving him his bottles back. He isn't getting enough fluid intake, just 8 ozs in the morning and 8 at night and he's become extremely constipated. I feel like a bad mom for trying to take them away anyways. But now I don't wanna confuse him and give the bottle back. This is a terrible situation. He was up all night last night with what I'm assuming is tummy troubles now that he's had two very small hard poops.

 

[LoveCakes]

My LO stopped one daytime bottle herself at 9 m then I swopped the other daytime one for a snack a few weeks ago when she turned one. Want her to have morning and bedtime milk for nutrients so have bought various beakers and cups but she doesn't like them.

She has a sippy cup during the day for water and has used it since 6 months.

 

[Dollybird]

I don't think she said it as a medical concern, just more as it might drag bottles out longer and he will be more likely to have juice and stuff in it if he's only used to a bottle. It's honestly been hell and I'm considering just giving him his bottles back. He isn't getting enough fluid intake, just 8 ozs in the morning and 8 at night and he's become extremely constipated. I feel like a bad mom for trying to take them away anyways. But now I don't wanna confuse him and give the bottle back. This is a terrible situation. He was up all night last night with what I'm assuming is tummy troubles now that he's had two very small hard poops.

Don't stress he's still just little and you will know when he is ready to drop them. I still thinks gradual approach is best, one bottle at a time replaced by a snack if required. Start with the daytime ones those are easiest, and remember his intake will drop a little at first but that's ok too just keep offering plenty water. I think that formula can be quite constipating at this stage also so I would suggest the switch to cows milk too, you can do this one bottle at a time too. We made the cows milk switch before we switched to cups. Why not replace one of the bottle with a cup of cows milk?
Ultimately though don't stress. You'll get through this just take it slowly. Plenty time to get rid of the bottles. Xxx

 

[Ashley1021]

I honestly think I'm just going to give his bottles back. He's been up every two hours the past three nights.. He was just starting to sleep through too!

 

[apple_20]

It does sound like he might not be ready. You don't want to be loosing sleep over this.

 

[mel28nicole]

At 1 year I switched to cows milk. I mixed with formula for a couple days and then straight milk.

I also wanted to go cold turkey. But DD isn't ready. She drinks water through a straw sippy so she refused milk in it. She needs her milk so I continue the bottle. She has a morning, mid day, and night one. She just started taking milk from a soft nipple sippy so her mid day bottle I'm going to try to switch it and see how it goes.

I never knew this would be so difficult! My one friend put water in her DD's night bottle and it made her DD not want the bottle anymore and was off them within 2 weeks of her birthday

 

[Dollybird]

I agree with apple I personally don't see the rush especially if teeth are brushed after bottle before bed. As I said my LO is only now just dropping his before bed bottle and he's two. He's done it all at his own pace. Don't stress over it xxx