Help weaning my toddler from a bottle

I nursed my daughter until 15 months and then we started her on bottles of milk- 1 in the am, 1 at naptime and 1 at bedtime. We dropped the am bottle after a few weeks and she is now 18 months. She needs a bottle for soothing. We could never just put her down in the crib sleepy... she would be hysterical. She always falls asleep with a bottle. She never took a pacifier or sucked her thumb. She's a late teether and now that she has a few teeth, I would like to try to wean her from the bottle of milk to protect her teeth. Any advice at all would be appreciated.

Re: Help weaning my toddler from a bottle

Have you tried putting her down with water instead of milk? She may need the bottle more than what's inside the bottle.

Re: Help weaning my toddler from a bottle

Is there a reason you want her off the bottle? We didn't take DS off his bottle until about 2. I wanted him to continue to take milk and it took that long until we could get him to drink more than a few sips of milk out of his sippy.

Re: Help weaning my toddler from a bottle

It's not the bottle so much as it is I'm nervous about her teeth rotting since she's drinking milk right before bed- that's how she falls asleep- with either my husband or myself holding her and giving her a bottle & then we put her down gently in her crib.

Re: Help weaning my toddler from a bottle

I think I'd do it cold turkey. It might seem really harsh at first but I think in the end it would work for the best.

DS used to love his bottle & would drink it right before I put him in his crib (often falling asleep drinking it, but not always). I was concerned about his teeth & also wanted him to learn how to get himself to sleep without it. The one thing that works in my favor though is that he is a thumb sucker so he can use that for soothing. I introduced him to sippy cups little by little but he never really took to them much & loved his bottle so much more. One day when he was around 15 months old, I just put away all the bottles, never showed him one again, and only ever offer him milk from then on in a sippy cup. He had no choice but to drink out of it & he does. Secondly, I started doing a bedtime routine including the milk, but would then change him into his pajamas, wash his hands & face, read a book, then brush his teeth right before putting him in his crib. At first he would FREAK OUT and stand up, crying. I'd go in, lay him back down, try to calm him, but leave very quickly. But after a just a few nights of crying off & on, he learned how to go to sleep without anything to soothe himself (other than sometimes sucking his thumb). It might have been a little rough for him at the time, but now he's a really good nighttime sleeper & doesn't need the bottle to calm himself down.

Good luck!!!! I know what works for one doesn't work for all, but that was my experience with my bottle-loving kid.

Re: Help weaning my toddler from a bottle

I would start with some sleep training/sleep shaping to break the association of using a bottle to sooth to sleep. At 18 months she should be able to self sooth. You need to change her night time routine and eliminate that last bottle. If you don't want to use the CIO method, there's the sleep lady's sleep shuffle method. You can also introduce a "lovey" in the crib.

Re: Help weaning my toddler from a bottle

Cold turkey

Re: Help weaning my toddler from a bottle

Re: Help weaning my toddler from a bottle

We just went through this except our daughter was almost 3. For a while I was just replacing the milk with water. That worked for a while. Then the bottle stopped soothing her and she would just cry and scream. One night we had enough and threw all of her bottles in the garbage. Told her they were gone. She cried that night for one. I was so nervous because she had never fallen asleep without a bottle.
She has always been a terrible sleeper. CIO never worked for us. Now we moved her into a full size bed that had helped.
The bad news is she lays with me or my husband and watches TV until she falls asleep. Then we carry her into her bed. She always wakes at night. Always has!! We go in and lay with her for 5 minutes and she back to sleep.
Yes we have created a new probl but we are getting more sleep.
Do whatever will work for your family. For us it was about survival.
Good luck!

Re: Help weaning my toddler from a bottle

I have the same problem with my daughter. She'll be 2 in April and she still looks for the bottle right before bed and she uses it to fall asleep. I'm dreading taking it away bc I know it's not going to be fun.