Our eldest son was still very dependent on the bottle even after he was 2 years old. It was an emotional attachment as well as his brain telling him he wanted a bottle when he was hungry instead of wanting food.

Babies need to be weaned off the bottle by 12 months old. It is best to start from 7months with introducing a cup. If they are older, it will be more of a fight. However, you can still do it.

Things to think about when starting to wean off the bottle.

When you think that it is time for your little one to move on from bottles you need to decide if you are going to do it cold turkey or gradually remove the number of bottles a day. You also need to have a think about these things below.

• How old is the child and what reasons are they having the bottle? Nutritional or comfort?

  • If your child is under a year old. They are probably still needing the nutritional value from a bottle as they are still not eating solids full time. After a year old its suggested to move to cow’s milk and then bottles become more of a comfort than a nutritional need.

• Are they capable of holding a cup / Sippy cup independently?

  • How coordinated are they at using a proper cup or Sippy cup properly? If they still don’t have the skills to independently use one of these, a bottle might still be best until they can independently. Needless to say, it never hurts to start getting them to practice using a cup so that they have the skills when bottles stop.

• Is it a calm time in the household to wean?

  • A calm time in the household means you haven’t just had another child, or your child is sick, you aren’t going away or moved to a new house. Just make sure that life is pretty calm and as less stressful when doing this. A lot of children use the bottle as a comfort item and they will especially need this comfort when they are feeling stressed or big things are changing.

The best times to be weaning your child off a bottle is anywhere between 6-18months old depending on your child’s specific developmental needs. It’s always best to try and start early from anywhere between 6-9 months and up. This will be easier on you as you will find the later you try the more stubborn your toddler will be and dig his feet in.

9 Tricks to Help

• Introducing a new fun cup
• A fun distraction from the bottle (we went on a LOT of walks)
• Let your child play and experiment with a cup in a fun setting e. bath time
• Wean both kids similar age at the same time
• Set a Date that you are 100% bottle free and stick to it!!
• Pick your battles don’t try getting rid of the bottle and dummy in one hit
• Go ‘Cold Turkey’
• Be persistent and stick to your guns
• Be patient, imagine someone came and said ‘you can’t have coffee anymore as of now..’

Introducing a new fun cup

In shops today, we have so many different options and varieties of cups and bottles. It’s what we do with these cups and how we introduce them that’s important. As you know your baby/toddler feeds off your energy. You need to make this new concept fun and inviting.

You can either take your child along with you to pick out a particular cup from the shops or get your child to help decorate an old cup. Either way, they will follow in your footsteps so make it fun.

If you are not successful with one particular cup get a different style and try that one. We had a variety of different cups, Sippy cups, a cup with a straw, a normal cup etc. We found if he had an option to pick which one he could use we were more successful in the negotiations then if the two options were his bottle or a cup.

Slowly swapping out each bottle for an alternative fun cup during lunch or afternoon snacks. Try to start with bottles that are during the day as they will be easier to swap for alternatives rather than the before bed bottle.

A fun distraction from the bottle (we went on a LOT of walks)

When trying to wean our 2-year-old off the bottle, I would try and distract him when he started asking/demanding a bottle. We spent a lot more time outside or going for walks. Or I would offer food that was a bit more exciting and not always allowed. He was at the age that he understood what he wanted and was very good at fixating on that one particular thing. However, he was still able to be bribed by my excitement to do a different activity or some chocolate…

Let your child play and experiment with a cup in a fun setting i.e. bath time

If you take the pressure off your child to try this new fancy cup and let them get comfortable with it through play. You may find that they are more willing to forgo the beloved bottle and swap to the new fancy cup. Children learn through play. So, it makes sense to allow them to explore and experiment with a new activity in a fun way. Be the role model and pretend play with them showing them the correct way to sip. When you do see your child showing interest in actually taking a sip from the cup add some positive reinforcement.

If you have two children close in age wean both at the same time (As long as they are still getting the recommended daily dairy intake)

When I decided it was time to wean my toddler off the bottle and started doing the research and realizing I was well behind on this. I realized that although my youngest was only 8 months his turn was only around the corner. It was definitely a lot easier weaning them both off the bottle at the same time as the toddler would ask for a bottle whenever he saw his brother had one. Once we had gotten rid of all the bottle “out of sight out of mind” I found my toddler didn’t ask for the bottle as much because he wasn’t being exposed and reminded about bottles.

I will say that with our youngest he was a fantastic eater and we still made sure that he was getting his daily dairy intake through formula. We just did it mainly at night or when the toddler wasn’t around. He always wanted to copy his big brother anyway so getting rid of the bottle completely was fine.

Set a Date that you are 100% bottle free and stick to it!!

This sounds like a horrible task to do. But, I don’t know about you I always work best with a deadline hanging over my head. If you give yourself a realistic deadline and a small plan of slowly getting rid a daytime bottle one at a time you will find that having this date might work in your favour.

• You know there is an end date to all this madness
• You might be a little easier on yourself on harder days as you still have a little more time before the due date

Pick your battles don’t try getting rid of the bottle and dummy in one hit

As a teacher, I have always followed this advice I was given by my principal “Pick your battles”. I have applied this as a parent and it has really helped. I sometimes need to stop and remind myself what the goal is for that week. So, remember your goal is to get rid of the bottle!! Don’t decide its maybe also time to not let them have the dummy… or decide now is the time to start cutting down on tv or anything else they might be doing too much of. Your goal is to get rid of the bottle!! Everything else can wait until after you have succeeded with this goal.

Go cold turkey

Sometimes it is best to just go cold turkey and stop the option of a bottle in one go. This more applies to children that are over 18 months old. Get rid of all your bottles so that they don’t see them. Your toddler will protest but once they realize the only option for a drink is to use a cup they will hopefully forget the bottle. Make sure you are providing many different alternatives when doing this.

Be persistent and stick to your guns  

I know how hard it is to see how upset or sad your baby/toddler is when you deny them the one thing you know will make them content or go to sleep peacefully. However, you know that it is in their best interest to stop the bottle. So, stick to your guns as easy as it is to just cave and give them the bottle try and remember why you are doing this and things will get easier!!

Be patient, imagine someone came and said ‘you can’t have coffee anymore as of today..’

I don’t think I know a single person that would not put up a massive fight if they were told all of a sudden, they were no longer allowed to have coffee. I know I would certainly not be happy and would definitely go down swinging. So why do we expect our babies or toddlers to be happy about us taking away their most loved thing during the day? We need to remember that although we are getting over these horrible tantrums for a bottle and being a repetitive ‘No you can’t have a bottle’ parrot’. These poor little guys just want what they have known all their lives. So, remember to take a breath and try and be as patient as you can with them.

Remember, they are not going to want a bottle when they are in High School, at some stage they will get move on from this.

This information is all of my own opinions. You should seek professional advice that suits your own child’s developmental needs.

Thanks for reading