how do i get my son to give up his bottle???  

A wise man told me one day, "decide for your children and not let children decide for you". Well just be a little firm and take away his bottle for 1/2 a day.

I believe he'll be fine going hungry for 1/2 a day hehe i've done that to my sibblings in the past, works wonders

Well I guess you have to slowly let him be aware of his age now. You show him that bottles are not appropriate anymore with big boys like him. And then tease him that he still takes bottle and he should now start using those cups. Well sometimes it does the trick like that.

In my case I have my son used it until about late 3 years old. We slowly convinced him from drinking in a glass at the age 3.5

With all my children which I have 4 and the 5th is due in 10 days I introduced the sippy cup around 6 mths of age and would put like juice, water, koolaide, etc...in it. The bottle I would save for meal times, nap time and bed time only. During the next several months I would gradually pull the bottle from meal times and only provide the sippy cup. Close to turning age 1 I would eliminate the nap time bottle and only give a bottle at bed time. By age 1 the bottle disappeared without a problem.

Your best bet since your son is age 1 now is to eliminate it except at bedtime and only provide a sippy cup all other times. When he is thirsty he will drink from it. With the bottle at night gradually decrease the milk and start giving water in it only. Of course you will have some nights of him crying because he is so use to it, but a little crying won't hurt him. Offer him a drink from the sippy cup if he doesn't calm down after so many minutes.

tell him you need to give it to the easter bunny, or santa to feed the baby rabits or rain deers. we did that with our kids.. made something up..

Cold turkey is the easiest way to go, in my opinion. Just tell him he is a big boy and needs to use a cup. Get rid of the bottles. Do not save them 'just in case' because once you start, giving it back to him will make it a lot harder next time. Give him milk in a cup and if he refuses it, that's ok. He will not starve. By this time he should be getting most of his nutrition from foods anyway- the same foods you eat. He may go a day or two not getting much milk, but once he realizes that he will not get the bottle, he will give in. Children are much more adaptable than we give them credit for, so he will most likely learn to use the cup quickly- as long as he understands that the bottle is no longer an option.

If you think he mostly wants the bottle for comfort, be sure he has something else such as a blanket or soft toy that he can use to soothe himself.

A gradual transition from formula to milk can be a good thing, but putting just milk in the cup can make it easier, since he is used to getting formula in a bottle it can be hard to drink it from a cup. But since milk is a new thing, he doesn't associate it with the bottle, so he may be more likely to drink it from the cup.

Honestly in my opinion after raising 5 children, it is just to take the bottle away and give him a sippy cup. After about three day he will forget all about it. Will this be an easy task? Nope it won't but you will have succeeded with it. If you let him have it sometimes and not others it will just confuse him. Remeber he is just a little over a year old. Maybe even get yourself a sippy cup and share and have a cup of juice with him, after all they learn from watching.

Good luck!

You might consider this given to me by a very wise Asian parent.

Smear a little "bitter melon" (you can buy these at a Asian market.)

The taste is bitter and the child will not like it...everytime he trys

to go for the bottle it he will be remind "this does not taste good"


He will get the message. Perhaps the reason he is clinging to the bottle is more

of security issue. You might want to give him his favorite stuff animal to replace the bottle to help

make the transition easier.

He might just not be ready to give it up yet. I have two kids and I can tell you that they didn't do ANYTHING in the same way or timeframe. Give him time if he needs a little more.

my daughter is like that too. we would compromise but in the end she will still prefer to drink in a bottle. she'll just sip and then throw it or just ignore it. my mom suggest that we put a bit of spice in it but i thought it's way too harsh for my daughter. so what i did was cut the silicon nipple thing on her bottle and told her there's no more feeding bottles available for big girls. i told her the raccoons bite her bottle coz they know she's big girl. she believed it

The best thing I can suggest is to put some milk or juice in the cup, hide the bottle and when he goes looking for the bottle point him to the cup...eventually he'll go to it just to get a drink. You also might try putting something special in his sippy cup to help him get used to it and want it more...maybe chocolate milk, a little bit of a shake or something along those lines. Good luck with it.

-FROM THE ASHES-