While I have worked on bottle weaning as an OT with the families I service, I haven’t had to as a Momma. My kids avoided the bottle at all costs (they were breast fed for a year), which is a whole separate issue. Needless to say, getting rid of bottles in my house was no biggie. However, I know all to well that I’m in the minority. Kicking the bottle habit can be a source of stress for toddlers and their parents. I’m going to approach this two different ways. First, for those of you that are being proactive and are reading this before your baby is one year. Next, for those of you that are at your wits end because you didn’t realize it would be such a nightmare struggle with your 18 month, 2.5 year, or worse – year old. If you are in the latter situation, read it all because those core strategies will still prove useful.
When Is It Time To Wean?
The answer is very clear: By one year of age. However, it is reasonable to be working on it until 15 months of age. The most important reason for weaning by age one is tooth decay, if you want to read more about that see the American Dental Association’s explanation. In addition, toddlers should be moving on to more advanced skills like drinking from an open cup and straw, which help to strengthen the muscles for speech development.
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Weaning For Tots Under 16 Months
First things first, you need to introduce some other vehicle to get liquid out of besides a bottle, the earlier you do this the better, from 6 months up. Ideally, to start transitioning from a bottle, begin to offer your child a sippy cup of water when they eat their baby food. The point isn’t really to have them drink a lot, it’s for practice. I’m going to give you fair warning that your babe will spit it out, throw it on the floor, and do their best to try to make it leak on their tray. Unfortunately, this comes with the territory, but don’t fret about the mess, before you know it, they will be drinking like a pro. You won’t be using a sippy cup long, but cups like these are my favorite from a therapeutic standpoint because babies can easily hold on, they are short (long ones are hard for babies to manage), and they have a hard short spout.
Also, if your child seems to have trouble getting anything out of the sippy cup, only add a little water and take the valve out (the little plastic thing on the inside of the nozzle that makes the cup “no spill”). After they get the hang of it, you can put the valve back in.
Once they reach 9 months, begin to introduce a straw. Babies are capable of this skill around this time, but if they don’t pick it up right away, alternate sippy and straw cups at meals. Want to know how to make straw drinking happen or what kind of straw cup to use, click here, I have a very detailed post that covers the whole topic. When they have mastered drinking from a straw, leave the sippy cup behind for good.
9 months is also a good time to start a bedtime routine, if you haven’t already. It is important that the routine is more than just bottle feeding. Include a stories or songs. This will be important when you want to take that bottle away.
By this 9 month mark, they will also be beginning to try some table foods. Meals should start to account for more of their calories and you will see their schedule start to shift a bit as they eat more. Follow your child’s lead and move towards having them drink from a bottle after their meals except for the morning and night time bottles. By 10.5-11 months, this should definitely be the case. Take your time and do this one bottle at a time.
In the 10th-11th month, begin to pull back from one bottle during the day and add a snack so that they are getting 4 meals total throughout the day. Your child should be just about done with baby food, too. If you need more help on that, check out my posts on Transitioning Your Baby to Table Foods, Part 1 and Part 2.
At 11.5-12.5 months, all bottles but night and morning should be gone. Since they aren’t allowed to have milk yet, place cold formula in their cups. If you feel they aren’t drinking enough from the straw cup, then immediately following the meal, give formula/breast milk in a bottle.
As soon as they hit 12 months, begin to mix milk into their formula. Start with 25% milk to 75% formula/breast milk for 3-4 days, then move to 50/50 mix for another 3-4 days, lastly go to 75% milk and 25% formula/breast milk for 3-4 days. Then, you can go to straight milk. This whole process will take 1.5-2 weeks. During this time, also begin to offer breakfast within 30 minutes of them waking and no bottle. Give them their milk mixture with breakfast. If they drink enough, then skip the bottle after or finish them off with the bottle until they are drinking enough at meal time.
For more information on mealtime routine for this age group, check out our flexible toddler meal schedule.
There will be a lot of give and take during this time, and honestly, it is where I see a lot of parents get caught up. Parents worry they didn’t eat or drink enough and grab for the bottle to ease their mind. This is understandable, but I would ask you to pause before you do that, if your child is a healthy weight. They may make up those ounces in another meal or maybe they already had 12 ounces and a serving of cheese earlier that day. This may sound a little harsh but, babies and parents need to learn not to rely on the bottle so heavily. Toddlers don’t always eat great, it is part of toddler-dom. Of course, there is a caveat to this. If your child has special needs or is of low weight, you should absolutely talk to your doctor and possibly a dietitian/nutritionist first.
Babies caloric needs go down around 12 months, and they no longer need 20+ ounces of milk everyday, although it is okay if they drink that much for a time as long as they are eating well too. By one year, they only need 16 ounces of milk and less if they are getting dairy/calcium from other sources such as cheese and yogurt. The year between one and two is a transition and by two, most doctors don’t want kids drinking more than 16 ounces a day. Click here for a specific nutritional guide.
The last bottle you will get rid of is the nighttime bottle. If you are worried they will wake up hungry, you can give a bedtime snack. This is where your bedtime routine comes in handy because you’ll want to emphasize the story, song, and/or favorite blanket, not the bottle. You can also try to change some part of the routine up. Maybe Dad does bedtime instead of mom and tries skipping the bottle. They may surprise you and let it go that easily. If they don’t start to, put less and less milk into bottle every 5-7 days and keep an emphasis on the other parts of your routine.
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Extra Tips:
- Try Different Cups – sometimes the novelty of a new cup with a favorite character on it or one they picked out in the store can be enough to win them over. However, the goal isn’t to replace the bottle feedings with a cup feeding. Meaning, if your kid takes a sippy cup before bed, then that’s defeating the purpose.
- Milk is for Mealtime – Only allow milk to be drank at meals, otherwise, it will fill them up and make for a poor appetite at the next meal. You can give water in between. Early on, it is a good idea to use different cups for milk and water so your child isn’t confused.
- Use Different Liquids – If your child is really lacking motivation in drinking from a cup, try putting juice, flavored water, milkshakes (these are harder to get through a straw), or strawberry milk in their cup (try blending fresh strawberries into milk). It may be the hook they need. This should be only temporary strategy. Then, slowly move to them being able to drink plain milk or plain water.
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- Never put any other liquid but formula or milk into a bottle. This sends the message that the bottle is here to stay.
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Weaning for Tots Over 16 Months Old
Follow the above steps and tailor them as they make sense to your child’s age. Also, pay close attention to the above “extra tips”. They can really go a long way with older children. Here are a few strategies for the older tots:
1. Systematically remove all bottles until you are down to one. As I mentioned before, begin with the middle of the day bottle first. Use distraction when they ask for their bottle during the day, give them a “special drink” and/or give them a favorite blanket/stuffed animal for comfort. If they don’t have one, begin to encourage it, so they have something else besides the bottle for comfort. Try to keep them on a feeding schedule so you know that they have eaten enough, the schedule is really important!
2. Go cold turkey. Of course, I would still encourage you to remove all but one bottle before doing this, so it isn’t too much of a shock. Also, start to talk about it a few days ahead of time, don’t make it a surprise. This isn’t for everyone, but it is a valid option.
3. Have a bottle fairy visit your house. Believe it or not, this has worked for quite a few of the families I work with. Your child probably needs to be 2+ to grasp this concept, but you can collect all the bottles together and put them in a box or basket with your child. Have your child say goodbye to the bottle because they are a big boy/girl and they don’t need them anymore. Remind them often in the days leading up to this event and especially the day of. When, they go to sleep that night, they disappear. If they ask for the bottle, calmly and briefly remind them the fairy took them.
If you have more questions or a strategy that worked please share! And, if you’re looking for trying to get rid of the binky too, check out Everything You Need to Know About Pacifier Weaning.
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Alisha Grogan is a licensed occupational therapist and founder of Your Kid’s Table. She has over 14 years experience with expertise in sensory processing and feeding development in babies, toddlers, and children. Alisha also has 3 boys of her own at home. Learn more about her here.
Quick question about something you mentioned in the article… you said to try switching the bottle to AFTER meals instead of before. Does this mean IMMEDIATELY after they eat their solids? And do they still get the full 8oz of formula? My son is 11.5 months old and drinks four 8oz bottles per day on addition to his 3 meals. He can drink out of an open cup and is working on straw drinking. We’ve just been putting water in the cups during mealtimes.
Just trying to figure out if he should still be drinking the full 8oz after the meals (will just focus on the middle 2 bottles for now) or if we do a smaller amount since he’ll probably be full from the meal.
Thank you!!
Yes, that’s so they won’t be fill on milk and then not eat. And, yes, right after so that it doesn’t affect their appetite for their next meal. You’re in a tricky spot right now, but in the next month or so you’ll be gradually decreasing the amount of milk to 16-18 oz total for the day. See this sample schedule for 11 month olds.
For now you can give up to 8 oz and see what he drinks, he may not drink as much, follow his lead. This is defnitely a transition and every day may look a little different for a while. Water in the cups during meals is great, but you can try and have a water cup available to him all day and start giving him milk in his cup to encourage him drinking from that. Does that help?
Yes, thank you so much for the quick response! I replaced his 3rd bottle with a snack yesterday and it went really well. So next we will work on getting rid of the 2nd bottle and just give him 4oz of formula in a cup with his lunch. Up until that switch, I can put 4oz in a cup along with his snack so he can start to get used to it! Should the formula be warm, room temp, or cold in his cup? I tried room temp formula in an open cup last week and he was not having it lol. I only tried once though so maybe he just needs some more time with it.
Thanks again!
Hi there,
My son is 11 months and for the last month won’t take more than 1-2oz in his bottle unless he’s drowsy/sleeping. This is the only way I can get him to 20oz (at best). This is true whether he’s just woke up from 12 hours sleep or after he’s eaten. I’m not sure if I should go with it and let him take less or if he has an aversion and is going to start failing to thrive. Please help 😔
Hey Anisa,
Thanks for reaching out! I’d talk with your pediatrician to see if they have concerns for weight etc. Also, since they are 11 months old are they eating other foods, etc? Here is an article on a food Feeding Schedule at 11 months that may help you!
Best,
Desiree
Thanks for responding Desiree! So unfortunately he has mild oralpharyngeal dysphagia and has not shown any real chewing of foods. He also gags a to. On more solid food and we were advised to seek early intervention feeding therapy and to stick with mushy/purée foods for the time being. He is not currently underweight (he is in the 48% for his age). But this plus his bottle aversion makes getting him his required daily intake my full time, soul destroying, job 24:7.
Hey Anisa,
That makes sense. For gagging and oral motor work you can start HERE while waiting for your evaluation. And in case no one went over this information for Early Intervention you can read about it HERE.
Best,
Desiree
My son is 2 1/2 and a great eater. During the day he only has milk with his meals. He only wants one bottle a day and its in the morning. However, its at 5am and he then goes back to sleep for an hour or two. He is stubborn as can be and will scream his head off until he gets that bottle and then politely say “thank you mama” and drink it and go back to bed. I know this is bad for his teeth but there is no reasoning with a 2 year old at 5am and we don’t exactly want him getting up at 5am. Any suggestions?
Hi Bethany, I hear you! He will grow out of this at some point, which you can allow if that feels better to you. Just brush his teeth in the morning. If you’re ready to wean, try a bedtime snack and start reducing the amount of milk that he gets in there- slowly in small amounts. A lot of the same strategies in the post will help you, too, just apply them to this morning time!
Hi Alisha,
My daughter (now 13 months old) has never been a good eater right from birth. She rarely seemed to be bothered by hunger and didn’t eat enough. Subsequently her weight was on the 1st percentile for the longest time. We have struggled with bottle feeding for almost a whole year and visits to feeding therapy (OT and dietitian) didn’t seem to help. Since she turned one last month, we decided to try Pediasure, which she will willing drink about 10 oz/day. I’m worried that if we transition to a cup she won’t drink nearly that much and her weight gain will be compromised. Actually I don’t want her drinking Pediasure at all, but I’m not sure how to make up those 300 calories with food and other drinks. Any recommendations?
In this situation Sally, I think you should trust your instincts and keeping her on the bottle a little longer is totally fine. If it were me I would just give her other opportunities to drink out of the cup, maybe with water or juice or regular milk. Have it around all the time and try giving it to her in the car when she’s a little distracted and stuck sitting still. I’m so sorry the feeding therapy didn’t seem to help, sometimes its not a good fit. If you’re still struggling, you might want to try again with a different therapist or team. You can actually call different places and ask them questions about their approach first to see if they’d be a good fit. You can also request an experienced therapist. Are you in the states? Did you have early intervention, if not that could be an option, too. You can find more info about early intervention here. Let me know if you have more questions!
We are in Canada and I’ve never heard of early intervention. It was our pediatrician who referred us to the feeding team at the local children’s hospital. I’ve always felt that something must be causing her disinterest in the bottle, but everyone’s answer is “she’s just small.” Quite frustrating…
Oh that is so annoying… and yes you’re right no early intervention:(
FTM here…LO just turned 1. Formula fed but started purees at 4 months. Did well…would eat anything abd everything. Transitioned into finger foods with puffs, melts. Now she self feeds table foods but is picky. She only likes protien and carbs. No veggies/fruits. I have continued pureed veggies/fruits to ensure she is eating them. Thoughts?
In addition, we started trying water via bottle at 4 months. No go. We added juice. No go. We bought all kinds of cups…no go. We recently went to whole milk (transition time was only 3 days). She loves it…out of a bottle. Will not touch a cup with anything in it.
When we transitioned to milk doctor recommended cutting the bottle and offering it with meals in a cup. She doesn’t miss the bottles but she is not drinking anything unless we fight. Then it is very little. She is constipated. We even tried offering water in a bottle….no go. What do you recommend we do to ensure she is drinking enough fluids? How, when and what kind?
Hi, it is a slippery slope holding onto the baby food- see my posts in the search bar or article index in the menu bar to find “how to transition to table foods”. I’m not saying to totally quit doing them, but make sure you are consistently offering her a variety of foods and I’d focus on crunchy ones.
The cups are tough in this situation, I wouldn’t take anything away, but I would ALWAYS have a cup available and I’d try to focus on a sippy cup that is similar to a bottle for now, but I might have two of them out at all times, both different types. I’d also focus on this everyday, pretend to feed baby dolls with it, demonstrate, clap for anything she does with the bottle (brining it towards her mouth, etc.) Also offer when she’s preoccupied, in the grocery cart, the car seat, in her stroller on a walk, etc. She might be thirsty then and take it! Good luck!
So I have almost 13 month old twins and we still have 4 bottles of milk a day but we aren’t doing them at mealtime. When they turned one, I just swapped out their formula for milk and didn’t switch up the schedule. They love drinking water out of their straw cup at mealtime, and they love table food, but I am wondering how to move them away from having their bottles before naps. Thankfully, we have a bottle around bedtime but it’s not really a part of the routine. We do dinner, bottle, bath, and then bed. Any suggestions on how to start making milk part of their mealtime and not their calm down time before sleeping? They do love their little fuzzy blankets for sleep so we have that going for us too. They definitely use them as a source of comfort. Also, they are early risers, waking around 5 am with a 7:15 bedtime. We don’t take them out of the nursery until 6 and they want milk immediately once that happens. I’m guessing it’s ok to do that since they’ve been up for awhile? Sorry for the long post….so much to figure out!
It’s okay Jenny! You’re doing great, and this is the perfect time to be working on this! I would suggest just starting to get rid of one bottle and start giving them milk at meals. And have water in cups available all day. Then, when your ready, you can just stop offering milk before bed. I know it sounds crazy, but you just don’t give it to them one day and you see how it goes. Be flexible, sometimes its two steps forward, one step back. Let me know if you need more help!
I have a 9mo old baby, which he has mastered the straw and drinks water from a zippy cup, he drinks about 32 oz of milk a day and eats table food, he seems to want a drink more milk during the night time he wakes up about 3 times at every night for a bottle at times he doesn’t finish it but others he does. Not sure what I can do to stop him from waking up so much, my 10 yr old didn’t do that so I’m wondering what I’m doing wrong. Any advise?
Hmmm, hard to say without knowing more. I would try to get him drinking more of those liquids during the day and cut back slowly on what he is taking at night. It might be a little hard letting him cry at night, but I would try as much as your comfortable and can tolerate. I’d also mention to his doctor, too. I’m sure it isn’t anything you’re doing wrong!
Thanks.
I have a 10.5 month old. She has no problem drinking from a straw or open cup but will only drink water. I have tried to give her milk in a cup but she refuses to drink it. She is having 3 bottles a day and eats well. Do I just give her water with her meals or must she have milk? Her milk intake is about 12.5oz a day.
She is doing great and I would wait and try again in another month. It’s great to have them weaned around 12-14 months, when she’s done with bottles it would be great to have a milk source in a cup. When you start again, just keep trying, putting a little in the cup at a time!
My 14 month old is taking one bottle a day, and it’s before we start his bedtime routine and gets his teeth brushed after. Is there a specific reason why he couldn’t have a sippy cup of milk before he gets his teeth brushed?
Nope, not at all, if you would like to do that then there should be no issues, as long as he is eating well throughout the day and isn’t relying on milk before bed. He’s still so little so this will probably be a nice transition for him.
I have a nearlly 2 year old and he can deink out of sippy cups and drink theough straws no problem. But He has a bottle to put him to sleep, Im just not sure on how Im going to get him out of that habbit ? Anyone got any suggestions ? He eats fine he just needs his bottle to put him to sleep then we put him in bed.
Hi Marieta, look through the strategies here in this post and see what your comfortable with, I’ve used them many times with 2 year olds.
Thank you for that, but unfortunately its not the molk he wants he uses the sucking on th bottle to go to sleep, And its becoming worrying because his just not having a nap through the day until late late arvo when he is just completely exausted
I really enjoy your advice
I just want to say thank you so much!! I’ve been researching and researching on what to do with my almost 1 year olds eating habits and weening off a bottle and I can never get a straight forward response. It’s annoying. Please keep up the great work. Your awesome. Thank you!
Hi. I really enjoy your advice and your meal planning. It is so helpful! I have a 15 month old son that is getting one 8 oz silly cup of milk in the morning and one right before bed, eating 3 meals and one or two snack per day. He has been really picky with what foods he will eat (pretty much refuses all greens unless I can hide them). We offer him well balanced meals but if he doesn’t like what he is getting he will leave a lot of his food (or throw it on the floor) and will cry and tell me he’s hungry an hour later. I offer him a small snack or the same food he left earlier but most of the time he won’t eat the leftovers. I am wanting to ween him from the pre nap time and bedtime sippy of milk but he won’t settle down and throws a total fit. (We have a good bedtime routine and he goes into bed awake and self soothes). He also won’t drink milk unless it is warm. Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for all of your great advice and suggestions!
Sarah
Hi Sarah,
Oh toddlers can be the most finicky eaters! It sounds like most of what he is doing is normal, but it is important to handle it the right way or you could end up with an extreme picky eater. I have so much info on here, I know it can be overwhelming, but I want you to click on the menu bar and head over to eating basics. Start by following all those steps. It is okay that you are still doing milk before sleep for now, once things get better you can remove it. I want you to make sure he always has a preferred food, and one extra tip I can give you is to change it up. Toddlers get upset and can’t move past it. Sometimes offering a dip, fork, cutting it differently can get them re-directed before the whole meal is lost. Once you read the page I suggested please let me know if you have any questions!
I am a pediatric OT looking for advice for a toddler (30 month old) I see who is extremely picky eater. We are working on oral desensitization and tactile exposure to increase oral and body awareness. I am trying hard to implement a routine of sitting in the same chair, wiping face with washcloth before eating, nuk brush around mouth, but she only takes 1 -2 small bites of food with her front teeth and then usually has a tantrum and mealtime is over. She will eat cheetos, m&ms, sometimes fish sticks but mainly drinks formula from a bottle as her main of nutrition. Any suggestions in where to start with feeding? I feel I can’t wean her off the bottle yet because that is all she takes. I appreciate your help!
Hi Jessie, so nice to talk to another OT, and yes I would agree you are a bit caught right now with the bottle. Make sure you have her schedule modified so that she isn’t having her bottle right before a meal. She needs a 2.5-3 hour gap. I would work on (try demonstrating first) having her try to bite with her back teeth and take a drink of water/juice/etc. to help swallow. Are you familiar with the SOS approach to feeding? If so use the steps to eating. If not, focus on play with the food, not eating. She needs to get more comfortable with the food. Take it slow and break down what you are having her do with the food into small manageable steps. So start with just getting her to touch the food, then smelling it, kissing it, holding it in her teeth, etc. Make sure you demonstrating, don’t do this to her. Does that make sense?
Hi Alisha,
Thank you for your advice. Yes, I took the SOS course, which I loved! Now mom has eliminated the mid-day bottle. She did mention that sometimes her daughter will not eat or want to eat for at least 6 hours. Her daughter looks to be at healthy weight so I told her to not offer the bottle and continue to offer her food. I told her to only offer the bottle after she eats so she learns to not fill up from only the bottle. Also mom mentioned that she usually falls asleep with the bottle so if she is really cranky it is hard to not give her the bottle in the middle of the day. I suggested a nap/bedtime routine and finding other things that help calm her. I should mention that she has a 6-month old baby and her daughter most likely has ASD so her hands are full and she is trying her best…
That’s great! I totally agree with your advice to her. It sounds like you are being a great support, and that it will take some time for her to figure out how to manage the change in schedule.
Hi, I’ve been binge-reading your blog for the last 24 hours and wish I had found it sooner! Thanks for all the helpful info!! I’m curious about your comment regarding giving milk after a meal. I’ve tried that with my (almost) 13-month old and she won’t take it, presumably because she’s full? The only way I’ve been able to ensure she’s getting an appropriate amount of milk is to provide it before the meal. Any suggestions?
That is fine Susan, as long as she still eats her meal. I would move towards trying to get her to eat her meal and drink milk during that time. Give her 2oz at a time if she is chugging it.
My daughter is 18 months. She drinks water great from sippy cup and straw. If I put milk in the cup she makes a face like she just had a lemon. She won’t even try it anymore. We are down to two bottles, one with breakfast one before bed. I’ve tried numerous amounts of cups and making a big deal out of it. My doc said to just cut milk out all together and if by now she won’t drink it from a cup she never will. This seems harsh no milk at all ? All the sudden ? Any ideas ? Love your blog !
That does sound a little harsh! I have worked with other kiddos in similar situations, and it can really take some doing. I would start trying some milkshakes in a straw cup. When you have some success, which you likely will, start to make them more and more milk and less icecream. You can also try and just blend strawberries or banana into the milk and call it a smoothie. The latter will likely take some more time. Let me know how it goes!