How old was you child when they stopped the bottle?

As the title says, how old was your child when you stopped giving them a bottle?

My DS is almost 3 (will be 3 in August) and he still has 2 bottles a day. One for his afternoon nap and the other at bedtime.

Should I start weaning him off the bottle or wait until he decides he doesn't want it anymore?

I'm curious too.

Chocoholic, does your LO still drink their milk from a bottle or a sippy cup?

I changed DD to a sippy cup around her 1st birthday.. She loves her milk first thing in the morning and just before bed.

Do mean off the sippy cup or just stopping the milk thing..?

Nina never used a bottle, she went onto a sippy cup from breast at 7 months. We took that off her at 20 months. The only reason I took it off her as I didn't think she needed it as she was able to drink from a cup. I just threw it in the bin one day.

Izzy never used a bottle either, she went straight from breast to sippy cup, used both uptil she was weaned of the breast at 9months...

Izzy stopped using sippy cup just after two...

But she still has a cup of milk morning and night

We just stopped Olivias bottles last month...so at 2 years and 2 months. It was my choice really because she was drinking so much and needing to have the bottle to sleep. I wanted to change the routine around so we could start thinking about tt. She still asks for her bottle and all I say is that shes a big girl now and has to have a cup. Initially it was a nightmare, but we are all good now.

Well, despite swearing the bottles would be long gone by now, DS (26 months) still has one in the evening :rolleyes:. TBH, I am so relieved that it's only one, and he loves it so much, I don't have the heart to take it away from him.

However, as a dental nurse, it really freaks me out, and I worry about his teeth. I don't let him have it in bed, or go to sleep on it though. I'd like to think we can get rid of it by 2 and a half, but I said that I'd like it to be gone by 18 months and then 2 and that didn't happen, so I'm not holding my breath.

ETA Melissa, how long was it a 'nightmare' for???

sophie had one after lunch from about the ages of 16 months to 26 months, one day i put the cleaning brush through the end of the teat and that was the end of a bottle! she was fine!

Flynn broke his (glass) bottle when he was about 28 months. Ollie still has his (at 19 months).

I, on the other hand, had one til I was about 4. Turns out I used to get out of bed when my dad got up early for work and he got into the habit of giving me a bottle while he made his morning coffee. I don't think it ever occurred to him to wean me earlier LOL!

My DS no longer has a bottle at all. His source of fluids is mostly water in a poptop bottle which he tends to retrieve himself and letting us know when he wants it :)
We stopped around 13 months. He eats enough yoghurt and cheese to not need the milk and both of those are a better source of calcium. Milk takes too much other good stuff to break down IIRC.

Thank you ladies.

I did mean just the bottle, not the milk. He has every other drink in a normal cup (i.e. milk if he asks for it specifically or water mainly but juice in the morning for breakfast) or water bottle. He loves his milk but seems to need the bottle as part of his routine.

Cookiemonster - I agree about the source of calcium being better with other products but DS1 refuses to eat cheese, even though he used to love it. He adores yoghurt and I have had to limit the amount he has in one sitting as I think half a kilo of yoghurt is way to much for his digestion to cope with at once. He just keeps eating and asking for more.

As soon as he has finished his bottle, he will give me the bottle or hop out of bed to put it in the sink if I am not in the room and roll over so he is not sleeping with it and I certainly do not let him suckle it for comfort (sorry, but I used to suck my thumb until I was about 5 and ended up having a fantastic set of bugs bunny teeth so I am very conscious (i.e. paranoid) of not letting my boys have something in their mouth for no reason - thank god for braces!!)

Thanks again!!

Janie...the nightmare was only for about 4 days. I said to her that mummy is throwing away your bottles coz your a big girl now. She cried for it but I just persisted. See what we were doing was giving her milk in bed to go to sleep and I didnt want her to do it anymore, so it was actually hard to change it around. So I sat her down with a cup after bath, then we went in for a story. Its working fine now. The only thing is this week coz shes been sick, shes asked for the bottle...so definately a comfort thing. I think why it worked quickly was because I was ready to make the change!

jack was same only used bottle for milk everything else was in acup or sipper

he all of a sudden about 3mths stopped asking we haven't used a bottle since, he has occasional milk drink in a cup now but he just wants water :) I am one for when they are ready they'll let ya know

Ash will be 3 in Sep and we still use bottle at bedtime, I haven't even tried getting rid of it so don't know how she'll be but atm it doesn't bother me her having it. Like you same thing she drinks her milk gives me bottle and then goes to bed, so from that I don't think there is any harm.

when my little one was a little over two (so just recently now that i think of it) i got the teats out of the dishwasher and cut them up with scissors, then put them back in..... then when she was watching i made a big deal about 'ohhh look the dishwasher has ruined your bottle tops' etc etc, so she saw that they were ruined.... i then used her bottle with one of those green avent spout thingies, which previously she had refused to drink her milk out of.... but once she knew the other bottle teats were ruined and gone, she then reluctantly drank from the green spout, and now there is no issue....

it was very easy actually, i thought it would be a huge drama.... you just have to give them a valid reason why they aren't having their normal bottle anymore, so that they understand, anyways thats what i think.... did the same with her cot too, said we were giving it to a baby she knew, and she helped dismantle it.... in fact i'll probably use this tactic with everything, it makes a lot more sense than just taking something away that they love and hoping they are okay with it.

both my boys were 12 months and a week old. I always did it the week they turned 1. From 1 onwards it was a cup. They only had formula until they were 12 months then they had milk once a day after dinner and water the rest of the time, nothing else (no juice, cordial, fizzy, flavoured anything).

I know it was the right thing to do because now they love water and don't drink anything else, unlike the majority of the kids at their school who get juice and cordial over water.

I think 3 is too old for a bottle personally and would be weaning him ASAP.

DS went onto a cup at 16 months!! :)

DS went down to 1 bottle a day at 10 months, then stopped them altoghether at 13 months. He still has his dummies at 3 years old however...there is always something