Attached to Bottle...

My 16.5 month old daughter is completely attached to her bottle. (NO JUDGEMENT PLEASE) She has never taken a paci so she does not have anything besides her teddybear that's a 'lovey' or soother.
She is using the bottle as her soothing method. And I totally understand I am to blame BUT I could really use some advice or suggestions on how to slowly break her out of it.

I don't care so much that she still wants a bottle in the afternoon I can deal with that till shes more ready to let it go. BUT its the fact that she needs it to sleep AND needs it to sooth her.
And the bigger issue is I have been unable to transition her to milk because she still takes too much of it to be completely on regular milk. (shes on alimentum and until she cuts back peds doesn't want me changing. She gets diarrhea with too much dairy so she needs even less than the average child) But he wants her completely off alimentum by 18 months.

I have gotten her down to 4 bottles and some days 3. Should I initially try putting some water in to get her off the alimentum?
When I cut out her nap or late afternoon bottle some days she has EPIC meltdowns to the point she wont calm down until she gets it. And I mean EPIC.

My wallet is suffering LOL And more than anything I don't want a 2 year old running around with a bottle. I want her to be off the bottles. I don't mind at all an evening bottle I will work on that. BUT right now I want to cut the naptime and late afternoon bottle so she only gets 2 a day.

Please help. Thanks for reading my novel LOL

Message edited 11/17/2013 10:19:37 AM.

Re: Attached to Bottle...

Have u tried almond milk? The unsweetened kinds have only 30 calories per serving....my son is the same age and drinks a lot of milk, and still on bottles! Since switching to the unsweetened almond milk, his appetite has totally increased.

Re: Attached to Bottle...

Is she drinking anything out of a sippy cup? My dd took a long time to start drinking water out of a sippy. We finally got one with a straw that she could use well after buying so many different types. She is almost 2 but never asks for a drink, so I just put the cup of water near her where ever she is so every once in a while she'll take a sip. Like I said almost 2 and she still has a bottle of milk in the morning and at night, but doesn't fall asleep with it. I wish I had some advice on the sleep part, but my dd uses a pacifier.

Re: Attached to Bottle...

I'm not really sure, but just a suggestion.. My dd didn't need her bottle to fall asleep, but she wouldn't drink anything but her milk in her bottle. I'm wondering if you can switch to a sippy and slowly start giving it to her at nap time, then right before nap, then eventually it could be something she has before nap and bedtime etc. I tried a million sippys and dd would go a whole day without drinking. Finally I tried the nuk. It's a slow flow and basically a glorified bottle. But it transitioned her to be able to drink out of others. I took the bottles away immediately after she drank from the nuk and never looked back. Maybe she won't associate the sippys with nap time etc. I dunno, I always did things gradually, and that seemed to work for us. Good luck!

Attached to Bottle...

Thanks ladies!

She does great with a straw sippy cup, she drinks water all the time. I never really tried giving formula or anything but water in the sippy cup. I could DEF try that.
I haven't tried Almond Milk, did you do that gradually? Like 1 oz almond milk to a few oz of formula? Or did you just give it to him straight no transition? Do you ever give it to him in a sippy cup?

Maybe Ill try the sippy cup for naps and then see if she will go to sleep afterwards.

Ever since she was an infant she fell asleep either on my boob OR on the bottle. ALWAYS. Only other time she falls asleep is long walks in the stroller or in the car. Its very far and between when shes fallen asleep by just laying in her bed (AGAIN NO JUDGEMENT I KNOW I MESSED THAT PART UP OF SLEEP TRAINING) And I know its going to be a VERY big issue when all bottles are finally taken away. I just know right now shes not ready AT ALL for that and Im ok with that. Im trying to go based on her cues.
She does great now with table food. Eats 3 meals a day plus snacks. She does great with water in her sippy cup, drinks from it with every meal and snack. Also looks for it when shes just thirsty.
I just want to get off the Alimentum at this point because its just too expensive and its just time to be done with it.

Re: Attached to Bottle...

My son was attached to his bottle too. Only for bed time though. I got him off the bottle of milk at night right before his 3rd birthday. I had tried many times before, but had no luck. He was not ready. He got his milk at cuddle time or book time and then went to sleep. He transitioned to a sippy of milk with no problems. He is now 4 and still enjoys his cup of milk most mornings and before bed.. Way before bed.. My son has feeding delays/issues so taking the milk bottle away when he wouldn't take milk any other way was not an option. He also had a MPA.

Attached to Bottle...

I have 2yr old twins. I had one of them on Alimentum. I had a HARD TIME switching him off also. He was prob around 15 months. I had to slowly do an 1oz at a time. It probably took me 3 weeks. Have you tried just doing bottle at night time? During day, she only allowed to have sippy cup. You can then transfer completely off bottle at 2yrs. or so...worth a shot.

Re: Attached to Bottle...

Attached to Bottle...

My advice for the bottle... Buy a Nuk learner cup. It's a sippy cup with a soft spout like a nipple. I ordered mine from amazon because BBB only had girlie prints.
DS is 18 months and would scream bloody murder in the morning for his bottle. I bought the learner cup and he took to it no problem. Good luck!!!

Re: Attached to Bottle...

My son had a bottle up until right before his 3rd birthday. Was it ideal? Probably not. But I honesty didn't see the harm. He loved his bottles and I didn't see the need to take that away from him at a young age. He's always been on the small side and bottles were a big source of calorie intake for him. I took the bottle away for naps and he stopped napping. I wasn't going to make our nights miserable too.

Attached to Bottle...

Would she take water in her bottle? A friend had a problem like this and her pediatrician told her to give her dd just water in her bottle if she woke up in the middle of the night and needed the bottle to go back to sleep. And she said that helped break her of the habit, I guess bc water is less interesting than milk or formula.

Attached to Bottle...

Thanks so much everyone! I guess I feel so much better knowing Im not horrible for not taking the bottle away yet. I thought maybe I was making a horrible mistake.
My dd is on the small side and has ALWAYS gone at her own pace and when she 'decides' on something shes amazing at it. Like she took longer to really enjoy eating food. She took longer to enjoy table food. I thought she took longer to fully walk (for a girl that is) but once she did all these things she did it with flying colors.
I guess sometimes I need to stop worrying so much and just go with her cues. I will slowly though try water in the middle of the night IF she should wake up. Though she really only does that when shes teething.
Im just a worry wart! I feel better knowing Im not alone and Im not doing something 'wrong'...

Thanks so much everyone!

Attached to Bottle...

I don't have experience on weaning from the bottle, but just was curious about whether you've considered lactaid milk or another alternative like soymilk? DD has a milk allergy and has been doing great on soymilk and I have a friend who gives her daughter lactaid (mainly bc it's what she's always bought for herself).

Attached to Bottle...

DS 1 was similar - he needed the bottle to relax and was a late bottle dropper - we did it a day or two before his 3rd b-day, by speaking with him about it and him agreeing to it. I tried here and there to do it sooner but, didn't push it because he was a horrible sleeper and it was the one thing that really soothed him. Right before his b-day, I told him that 3 year olds don't drink bottles and he was ok with that. Occasionally after that - he would cry and say he didn't want to be 3 because he wanted a bottle but, we got over that.

DS 2 was becoming very attached to his bottle around 15 months so I tried to eliminate it gradually but, ended up doing it cold turkey - it worked a lot better for us. Originally, he didn't drink a lot of milk out of his sippy cup but, he does now at 20 months.

I would try cold turkey and see how it goes. It's ok if she doesn't drink a lot of milk at first - it takes a few days to adjust. As for sleeping, we would rock DS 2 and then pat his back in the crib (until doing CIO again) and it seemed to pacify him.

Good luck!

Re: Attached to Bottle...

Message edited 11/18/2013 10:58:21 AM.

Attached to Bottle...

I had the same worries as you! My twins would not drink milk out of the sippy cup at all. I tried all of the sippy cups you could imagine. It was a long process, but I did it by changing the venue where I gave the bottle. For example, I was adamant about giving them their milk or formula at mealtime in a chair. When I started to think outside the box, it worked. I now give them milk 1/2 hour before their meals either in the pack n play or cribs. Sorry, I know that this is now a "no-no", and soooooooo old fashioned, but it was the only way I was able to get them to transition to a sippy cup and get their milk nutrition. My Ped told me not to worry until 18 months.
Now that they take the milk in the sippy, I will slowly start transitioning to sitting up at the table again.

Oh btw, they'll only drink from a cup with Elmo on it Oh well......

Good luck Good luck Good luck! Keep at it. It's hard!

Attached to Bottle...

I would def recommend getting them off bottle sooner then later. The longer you wait the harder it will be. I would surely have them off by 2yrs.