Re: Kicking the bottle habbit at 16 months!

Posted by Elizabeth on July 12, 2003 at 02:29:16:

In Reply to: Kicking the bottle habbit at 16 months! posted by Mariah Willard on July 11, 2003 at 23:46:54:

: My daughter is 16 months old. Now I started a bad habbit by putting her to bed with her bottle. I am finding it very difficult to take that comfort away from her. It is almost like a security blanket. What should I do and how should I start weaning her from it? I don't want her chances of getting bottle rot to increase. I am trying to ttake the bottle away from her cold turkey..Is that the right thing to do? What are some tips anyone can give me for experience...Thx, Mariah

Bottle tooth decay occurs very rarely especially if you brush your baby's teeth regularly. I got my babies in the habit of taking a bottle and then later just a sippy cup to bed with milk or watered down juice. I weaned them slowly when they were 1-1/2 and 3. Now they just take a sippy cup of water to bed. My daughters did not want to drink water at night so what worked for me was the advice Steve gave about putting some food coloring in some water which tricked my girls. Blue is my 3-year-old favorite color and that is the color I used. Every day I just kept putting less food coloring until they learned to like water.

Your baby should be able to use a cup now. To wean her off the bottle at night, I think you should first try to wean her off the bottle during the day. Alternate with a cup and a bottle during the day until she gets used to the cup. Once she gets used to the cup all day, then you could try giving her a sippy cup to bed at night instead of that bottle you normally give. Then try diluting the cup every night until you end up giving her plain water. I think quitting cold turkey will be a shock to her and her tummy if it is already used to having it at night.

Once you do wean her completely, she may still want to take a cup of water to bed which I don't see anything wrong with which even some adults do. I always like to have a cup of water by the side of my bed.

Hope this helps.

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