Bottles May 18, 2010
After she has her bath, and kisses her Daddy and Micah goodnight, Sky runs off to bed. Sometimes she talks and sings a while in her crib before she actually falls asleep, but she never resists going to bed. And there is one reason for this. It’s not my hugs and kisses or the peaceful prayers I say. It’s her bottle. When she goes to bed she gets a bottle of milk, and this bottle has somehow become a treasure in her life that she seems to love more and more every night.
At Sky’s one year check-up, 
her pediatrician said we should work towards giving up bottles, and I left that day thinking we would get around to that little project soon. But I let a couple months go by. Then my dad got sick and we left for Michigan, where Sky’s bottle became the last thing on my mind. We arrived home in time for the holidays and soon afterward, Micah was born. We could have worked on it then, but it seemed like cruel timing to take away one of Sky’s biggest comforts right after she’d given up her place as the only child in our family.
We realize we’ve already broken an “every good parent knows” rule by letting Sky take her bottle into the bed with her at night. It’s just that having an automatic, happy bedtime was so wonderful when we first started it that we haven’t been able to stop. Yikes, is our whole family addicted to bottles? Sky is now twenty-two months and since we’ve made it through Micah’s newborn days we figure it’s probably time to help Sky become a “big girl” and give up her bottles. We’re just not sure how to do it gently. Thoughts? Ideas? We definitely need help with this one…
Maybe you could get her a toddler bed and throw a party where she becomes an official big girl. No bottles but in exchange, she gets a big girl bed. You could even get her a new stuffed animal that can keep her company when she goes to bed to replace the comfort of her bottle.
You guys are amazing parents!!
Hmmm…. I think it’s a time for everything, and maybe Sky is not ready to let her bottles go away. I remember when my brother had to end using his pacifier. We had probably talked about it along time so he ended uup bringing eveyone to our grandma (since our grandpa had passed away probably shortly before this happend) and hide eveyone there.. and when we went home he had non since he know our mom was going to take them away and cut a cross in them. It’s alittle mean for a boy in 2-2 1/2 years old but what to do? But the whole story ended that day when he had non left over when we got home and he HAD to sleep without one, and also the next day his big sister (Me) went thru my grandma’s house to find eveyone so my mom could cut a cross in the one he didn’t have to use anymore :P…
Also my host girl in WI had to end with her pacifier before I left, and her goal was to give them to santa and since I was going home to Sweden by then it was best if I brought them to Sweden so I could send them a shorter way to the North Pole than they had from WI =).. She ended and put her pacifiers in my suitecase (but I gave them back to her mom after she got to bed).
Hope it goes well for you when Sky has to end with bottles. GOOD LUCK!!
Maybe try giving her the smallest bottle available to see how that would work.
Hope everyone is feeling healthy this week, we miss seeing all of you!
You could try giving her a sippy cup of milk to take to bed for a while and then substitute a cup of milk (and maybe an extra story?) before she climbs in. My kids responded better to a gradual “withdrawal” rather than an abrupt one.
Just corrected the misspelling of my name.
Switch the milk to a sippy cup, or have you tried that?? That’s what we did with Riley and it was easy. But as you know every child has a mind of her own
kids will just give these things up if it doesn’t become a fight. Camden lost his last binky and we told him the store won’t sell binkies to 3 yr olds and shockingly he didn’t look back. This from a boy who had to have at least 3 to go to bed 
good luck and don’t worry 
I agree with the gradual approach too. Maybe start by cutting the amount of milk in half, then keep reducing it a bit more. Or have the bottle/sippy/cup during story time and prayers, but then it goes away instead of into the crib. What would happen if the bottle of milk became a bottle of water?
I’d say “not yet” on the bottle… Sky is still a baby in many ways. Maybe on her second birthday with some build-up and preparation.
when Klaus and Hans both loved bottles at 16 months apart, I decided to wait for Klaus to give up his bottle a little longer than protocol and decided to take it away from Hans a little sooner than protocol and did them together. We did it while on vacation in Sanibel, a break from the home routine. I used tall champagne glasses (with diluted apple juice in them, which is what they had in their bottles). The glasses resembled bottles. We sat on the floor together and chatted as they drank their juice. Then I removed the glasses and said good night. Worked like a charm. Klaus was 2 1/2. Hans was 18 months.
This worked really well when I helped the little boy I nannied for give up his bottles. I had him help me decorate a large box, explaining to him that when he was ready to send his bottles away to the bottle fairy/bottle factory we would wrap them up and send them off. I told him the way the bottle factory worked was when a little boy sent in his bottles he could pick something to be sent back from the “catalog” (3 different toy trucks I knew were stocked at Target). It took him a few days until he was ready, but he loved packing the box and “sending” it off, and was thrilled the next day to receive a festively decorate box from the bottle factory.
A second idea..this I saw my mom do 3 times over for my younger sisters giving up their pacifers, it’s more of a cold turkey approach
She had them round up their pacifers and bring them out to the garbage truck. It was agonizing, but she could honestly say-the pacifers are gone, there is nothing I can do about it. As hard as it was, the girls all understood their pacifers were gone because they had seen them drive away.
Three..break the connection between the bottle and bedtime before withdrawing the bottle so you won’t have a bedtime nightmare. Maybe move the bottle a bit earlier in the evening, before bath or during stories, with you and out of her crib. That way it will be easier to wean the bottle without totally disrupting her ability to fall asleep.
Sorry for the long response, Good luck!
I won so many prizes for stopping sucking my thumb – everything from icecreams to cabbage patch dolls. I also went through my share of punishment(I can’t tell you how much of that Stop-It stuff I sucked off my thumb. It tastes gross in the beginning, but comes of quickly). My poor mom. Admittedly, it’s a little harder since you can’t take it away, although I’m sure she condsidered such a surgery…maybe when they fixed my broken arm when I was six? “While you’re in there, just chop that baby off.”
I finally stopped in the sixth grade! when she told me I couldn’t shave my legs until I stopped sucking my thumb. Stopped instantly. Girl, it just takes the right motivation.
How could take a bottle away from that face? So cute! You definately have your hands full with the Smidgeon. You’re doing great!!! Keep up the good work.
All of the advice above is very, very good and from so many different generations. Another approach…if you have her brushing her teeth at night, explain how the milk will damage her beautiful teeth, she needs to go to bed with a clean mouth. So, perhaps a little milk in a sippy cup before brushing (making this the last thing, after story and prayers – also done as a suggestion to her) Sky is a smart child, and I believe explaining to her WHY you do something just might do the trick. worth a try anyway. On the other hand…i think she’ll give it up when she’s ready…and who made the ‘rules’ for this anyway? Each child is different. who could not love that pouty little rosebud mouth?
Love you…and sooooooooo miss seeing those babies!
GG