How’d you wean your lo off of a bottle?

Question

My babe is a year now and we’ve only just started to wean her off a bottle. We’ve started with her lunchtime bottle (because that’s the easiest one to get rid of) and have replaced it with whole milk in a sippy cup and a protein, veggies, fruit, and grains. I know we will have a hard time weaning her off the nighttime bottle. Plus sometimes she wakes up at like 5 am wanting a bottle, so I know that one will be hard too. My question is, how did you start to wean your lo off the nighttime bottle/early morning bottle? Did you just do it cold turkey, slowly, or what are the other options? What did you replace those bottles with? She uses the bottle to comfort herself as well. Lol this is my first child so I don’t know what I’m doing. I want to find a way to do it with as little tears as possible, so cold turkey might not be an option. Help!

Answer

Your baby might surprise you. I thought for sure my second was gonna give me hell getting him off his bedtime bottle, but it ended up being very easy. He got a lot of comfort from his bottles but I think he got more comfort from the routine than the actual formula/bottle. One day I decided the bottles were done and we did our normal routine and instead of offering a bottle I offered him milk in his straw cup, still sitting on my lap like he did with his bottles, and he was 100% fine with it. I was putting milk in his bottles for a few days before.
His morning bottle was slightly more difficult. I didn’t want to give him a whole other cup of milk (I limit milk to less than 16oz per our pediatrician) so I decided to offer him a pouch of baby food when he got up. Same routine, he still sits in my lap like he did with the bottle, but eats a pouch instead. First day he was fine with it, second day he was very mad about it and I gave in and let him have milk in a bottle (only 3-4oz so it wasn’t super satisfying to him). There were a couple more mornings where he wanted milk instead of the pouch but the past month he’s been totally fine with the pouch.

Answer

If she is used to the sippy cup replace the morning one first and then when she is comfortable replace the nighttime. If you are giving it to her to go to sleep you may want to cut that out entirely because when she goes to potty train trying to keep her dry on the overnight will be tough. I understand wanting to avoid tears however sometimes it is inevitable and if she knows crying will get her what she wants she will use that to her advantage.

Answer

Offer a sippy cup of water instead. Baby might still be thirsty in the night.

Answer

I’m in the same boat as you. My little one made a year in April. Once he made a year, I dropped to one bottle in the mornings and one at night. But he’d wake up between midnight-2 wanting a bottle. I talked to his doctor and she said it’s a habit. She told me to think about if I were to get up around that time every night to eat a meal, it becomes a habit. So after that, I tried to just soothe him without giving him a bottle during the night. But, he’d scream until he got one. The past couple of weeks, he’s been chewing on the nipples of his bottles when I’d give it to him before bed and wouldn’t really drink his milk. I’ve always heard that was a sign they may be ready. So we are now on day 5 of no bottles at all! He’s still waking up at night. He doesn’t scream and cry. It’s more like a fake whine when he’s waking up now. So I let him soothe himself back to sleep. I know it’ll take a little bit more time for him to get adjusted, but we’re getting somewhere because he used to not soothe himself at all.

Answer

We were bottle free between 9 and 10 months. You’re greatly overthinking this ans making it more complicated than it has to be.

How’d you wean your lo off of a bottle?

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