hi all

our trio is 13 months and REALLY into their bottles. all three eat well, take a sippy cup beautifully and naps are decent. my hopes were to gradually do away with one bottle at a time (they still have 3 a day.) However, this is not going so well as they have recently begun to use them to go to sleep (my fault)! Getting to sleep used to carry on forever, but now they finish their milk, brush their teeth and get about 2 oz h2o, snuggle in and go to sleep.

I refuse to introduce a paci this late in the game. I feel like i've created the problem by offering water, but the combination of everyone finally sleeping through the night and such a peaceful bedtime makes me not be able to stand the thought of taking the bottles away, and rocking the boat if you will.

anyone in/been in the same boat? any chance they will just get over them or do i have to brake them of it? am i crazy? am i a bad mom for letting it get to this point? thanks in advance.

meg (BBG 11/5/09)

My kids would have never gone for dropping the one bottle at a time. I simply replaced all bottles (was three a day at 12 months) with a sippy cup. Once I knew that they could drink out of a sippy then I started fresh one day. I boxed up all the bottles and put them out of sight and then I gave them milk in a sippy cup. I was prepared for the worst. I had my mind set on if you dont want to drink and are grouchy, then oh well, it has to be from the cup and I wasnt going to budge. None of them actually cared. They got their sippy with milk at meals and a water cup in between. I never let them have cups in the rooms or in their beds though. Im not sure how that will blow over for you. You will probably have to be tough, but I would do it now. The longer you wait the worse it will probably be. I wouldnt give a paci though if they dont have any already. I took mine away at 18 months.
Good luck to you and Hang in there!

Kelly
GGB born 30 weeks

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Take all the bottles away cold turkey. They know how to use a sippy cup. If they are that attached to their bottles, the longer you wait the worse it will be. I would not give them anything to drink in their cribs. Replace the bottle of water with a drink of water after brushing teeth, before cribs. That is a bad habit you really want to break now.

Lori

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