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.
Hello, it was stated in this post that by 10 – 11 months to start giving the bottle to a baby after meals. Then how will the feeding schedule discussed earlier for 8,9 and 10 months babies be modified to cater the above?
Hey Marwa,
Here is a post on Feeding Schedules, it will provide examples (this one is for 11 months) The younger ones you can click the link inside 🙂
Best,
Desiree
My little girl is coming up to 16 months and she still has a morning bottle when she wakes up and afternoon bottle for her afternoon nap and a bedtime bottle after her bath. She also eats 3meals a day and snacks! She wont nap or go to bed without a bottle of milk how can I fix this?
Hey Olivia,
I’d utilize the strategies in the article for kids 16m and older. Also, changing up the bedtime routine and replacing the bottle with another object that she can hold/comfort with can be helpful!
Best,
Desiree
Hi Alisha!
I love your website! So helpful and informative! My daughter is 11 months old and is starting daycare in 2 weeks. She still drinks a bottle at 4am and then falls asleep until 7:30am. She then wants a bottle at 9:30am. I have tried to wean her off of this 9:30am bottle but she gets so cranky and then sleeps poorly the following nights. When she starts daycare in 2 weeks she is not allowed to drink a bottle at school and not able to take a nap in the morning. I need help with getting her to eat more solids and sleeping better.
Thank you
Hey Marissa this can be so challenging!! I’d recommend picking 1 or 2 of the suggestions listed in the article to start there!! It can be a transition and take a while, especially when dropping the morning bottle!
Best,
Desiree
My son is 11 months old. He gets 24 own of formula each day in a bottle (four 6oz bottles), always after food accept for morning and night. He drinks water from a straw a cup but I tried putting formula in a few weeks ago and he refused. We started at least with giving the bottle in the high chair rather than the couch. But what could have have been the problem? Was he just too young/not ready at 10 months? He typically handles change without a problem but since weaning him from the breast to formula in a bottle at 9.5 months he REALLY loves the bottle.
Hi Vicki,
Transitioning from the bottle can he hard, so I totally understand!! Your doing great with small changes. It can take some time for them to accept the milk in a different cup. I’d recommend continuing with the steps and tricks in the article for your little one, until he accepts. You are still in a good age range to get rid of the bottle and can really take up to 15 months for all of it to work together!
Best,
Desiree
Hi! Your post is so informative!
My daughter is being 17 months & is still taking a bottle, but only at sleep times (first wake up, nap(s), & bedtime). She always drinks from a straw cup a table meals, snacks, & throughout the day. How can I wean her from these bottle takings?
It’s definitely a process, and the transition can be challenging, but take a look at the post above and pick a couple of the strategies I talked about to get started:)
Hello, I have a 12 month old who we are trying to kick off formula. He eats solid foods great, drinks whole milk. However, he still wants his formula at times. The worst is overnight he will wake up, water will not do, he will cry his eyes out until we give him formula! Help!
Have you tried slowly decreasing the amount like I talked about in the post? Or, diluting his formula with whole milk slowly?
My son doesn’t eat solids. He is one that is still on purees, we were in OT for eating because he has problems with textures. (we will be starting back up with OT soon) If you put anything in his mouth with a texture or a solid – no matter how small – he gags and possibly vomits. We are not yet scheduled for a GI referral.
Last week he turned 1.
This week we took away his 9 am (4oz) bottle.
So right now he has the morning bottle (6 oz), 8 am – Breakfast (usually around 2 purees), 12 pm – lunch (usually about 2 purees), 1 pm bottle (4oz), 4 pm bottle (4 oz), 6:15 pm – dinner (about 2 purees) and then last bottle at bedtime around 7:30 (6 oz).
I just got him a straw sippy cup – gave it to him last night at dinner – he just chewed on it.
He has the other sippy cups (Nuby) he just chews on them but he does get a little water out of it.
My worry is that as I am taking away these bottles – he is going to be hungry. I wish I could say that him being hungry will just make his gag reflex go away – but we know that isn’t going to happen.
My plan was to take away the 4 pm bottle next week so then he will only have morning, 1 pm and then nighttime. I have bought the Whole Milk and was thinking of putting that in a sippy cup to see if he would take it.
Do I start mixing 25% and then 50% of the formula with whole milk until the bottles are just whole milk and then with the idea that I continue to take the bottles away? I guess I am worried about his gag reflex… I get puked on a lot so I am trying not to make this experience miserable for him or I. I already have many concerns about him being a picky eater as he grows up or always has throws up…
I feel like this just seems harder than with my daughter since he doesn’t eat solid food…
Yes, I think there are a lot more components to consider since your son isn’t eating food well. I wouldn’t take those away without guidance from your doctor. But you can start using the whole milk. Start with a lesser amount of whole milk so its 25% whole milk first.
Also, did you see the online workshop for babies struggling with table foods this week? You can get a spot here: yourkidstable.com/tablefood-workshop
Hi, I’m loving your blog! One concern I have is that dairy decreases iron absorption. I feel like giving milk during meals may decrease the iron?
I’d bring it up with your doctor, but to the best of my knowledge, that isn’t a concern.
My twins are 11 months and only have a morning and night bottle of cold formula. They eat 3 full meals with 1-2 snacks and sometimes don’t finish their bottles. They drink at least a full straw cup of water a day as well. Would you recommend to start giving them their breakfast within 30 minutes of waking with a straw cup of formula available during the meal? Or just try giving them breakfast only? And just give formula in a cup with their last meal of the day? Sorry if that’s confusing, I’m just trying to figure out how to kick the bottle by 12-13 months
Sounds like you are doing incredible! They’re in great shape, you could definitely try giving the formula with breakfast or right after. Or, give it in a cup with the meal and then give the rest via bottle at the end of the meal if you need to!
Hi Alisha! My son is 11 months old and we are definitely struggling with the sippy cup. I’ve tried a few different kinds, munchkin, 360, mam, and nuby…and he can’t seem to grasp the concept because most of them you have to bite down on somewhat as well. Although, we may be making some progress with the munchkin soft spout one. My other concern is, he will not hold the sippy cup on his own to drink. The same with the bottle. Only occasionally will he hold the bottle. He’s very lazy! Lol and has trouble with the tipping back part. Any suggestions? Should we try a harder spout cup?
Actually I might try the straw in this situation. This is a post on how to teach straw drinking! Also, you could try taking the valve out so he doesn’t have to suck as hard, that of course, will make it spill if he tips it over.
I am also having trouble with my almost 1 year old. She seems to know how to sip through a straw and sip from a 360 cup, but will only drink like an ounce or two after her meals where she used to drink 5 ounces from her bottle. When we decided to try and have her finish by bottle after several minutes struggling with her…she finished her bottle right away. I am a second time mom and my first baby was drinking from her straw cup at age 8 months. Trying to make sure she gets enough liquid for hydration, but also wanting to not confuse her. So far we are still trying one cup a day and bottles the other 4 formula feedings. Do you have any advice for me?
Hey Sarah,
I would continue to practice with her, it may take some time for the transition, but as long as she is getting fluids at other times of day it sounds like she will be fine with what she gets out of the straw/cup during 1 feeding. Sometimes kids are just used to drinking all of their bottle but don’t need all the fluids/calories either and are not hungry (I’d make sure to check in with your doctor too). The other thing is to make sure that she’s not fatiguing in her mouth from utilizing the straw/360 cup.
Best,
Desiree
Well what we began yesterday was putting her formula in her straw or 360 cup and then at her feeding give her the bottle at the end of her food. We were planning on doing this at all except her snack feeding where we usually give her a yogurt and usually a bottle. Instead was going to use that time as just offering her the cup and no bottle afterward and count that as her 1 cup feeding. She definitely knows how to sip a straw and out of her cup, but isn’t consistently drinking the majority of it. Was trying to have her over to cup in the next few months before starting a Mother’s Day our program.
Hi Alisha, thank you for the post. My daughter is going to be 16months in a week’s time. She stopped breastfeeding herself a little after 8months. She’s been a good eater and she’s taking water and fruit juice from her straw cup. She doesn’t ask for milk during the day but she doesn’t want to quit the night bottle, especially when she’s sleeping, I’ve tried to not give her but she just won’t go to sleep without it. How do i make her stop taking milk to bed? I really want her to stop to avoid tooth decay because she has almost a full mouth of teeth already.
Also, she wakes up 2 or 3 times wanting milk in the bottle
I like to start by decreasing the amount and then transitioning to water, if she needs to suck. There may be some tears though!
Hi Alisha,
I just recently came across your blog and am so thankful I did! You have answered so many of my burning questions as a FTM with little support from others.
My son is almost 19 months old and still takes a bottle of milk before bed. I want to wean him off of this nighttime bottle, but we REALLY struggle to get him to drink any milk/water during the daytime (it’s almost always “No, no, no!”), so this 8-9oz bottle of milk is his major liquid intake each day. Do you have any recommendations on how to get him to drink more during the day??
Thanks for creating your blog!
Oh I just love hearing that Angelica! I’d start by always having water available and giving it to him in the car and when he’s a little distracted. Have milk at every single meal and try different cups too. Sometimes it takes a lot of consistency!
My son I so 2.5 still takes a botte at night only. But wakes up 3 to 4 times wanting milk in the bottle. He doesnt eat a lot to dinner so I’m sure sure is hungry. Besides cold turkey what do you recommend
I’d start with the some of the strategies from the post. Think about a transitional object and decreasing the amount of milk you give at each feeding.
My son recently turned 1 and he still drinks bottles with milk day and night. I feed him full meals as well believe it is mostly for comfort but he is so attached I don’t even know where to begin. He falls asleep with a bottle in his mouth I have attempted a sippy cup but he takes one sip and spits it out so I gave up. Any advice where and how I should start. Thanks
I know it’s tough Cat. Think baby steps. I’d start limiting how often he can have it, but always have the sippy cup available!
Hi Alisha
Thank you for your blog, it has been very helpful so far.
I have an 11.5 month old LO who has been drinking water out of a sippy cup and straw cup since about 8 months old. From 11 months old, I have managed to take away the afternoon bottle feed. For a week now we have tried to get him drinking formula out of a new straw cup. First he took to it a little bit but after 4 days he just pushes it away. So we have been giving him the rest of the formula from his bottle straight after breakfast and dinner. When we put him to bed in the evening, he screams and protests so much (I can only assume its about not having a night bottle) until I give in because I feel so bad and hold him until he falls asleep. I wish we had started weaning earlier at 9 months! Any suggestions you may have would be helpful, thanks a lot 🙂
Hi Alisha!
I have a 19 month old who still takes a bottle. Quick background, she suffers from reflux and cow’s milk protein and soy allergies. She’s currently on amino acid based formula, Neocate Jr. This is all coupled with an oral motor delay for which she gets therapy and has made a lot of progress! Our issue is that she’s still not a great eater and Neocate, even with flavoring, is notoriously disgusting which is why I think weaning from the bottle has been such a challenge. We’ve tried straw cups (from which she does drink water with no problem,) sippy cups, and 360 cups –all to no avail. It’s been suggested to just stop the bottle/Neocate and see of her eating increases but that really worries me. Do you have any advice is a situation like this?
First of all, I think it’s important to trust your instincts and everything doesn’t have to be black and white to move forward, you can take steps to move forward. You could ask the doctor that if at her age, another type of milk source would be appropriate. Another option is to get tighter with your milk schedule, making sure she doesn’t always have access to it.