Stopping the Bottle

They say you should try to have your baby off the bottle by their first birthday. I was fully prepared to do that but had no idea where to start. I was unable to find any real advice online for this which I found surprising. When we went to the doctor for Elliott’s one year checkup, he didn’t seem too concerned about him being on the bottle which I was also surprised by.

Dropping his afternoon bottles sort of happened by mistake. I went back to work and his dad was in charge. He decided to skip one or two of his bottles, and Elliott didn’t seem to mind. So when it was my time to be in charge for the weekend, I also tried skipping bottles. Instead, at the time he would drink, I gave him a snack instead.

For the first week I also sent two bottles with Elliott to the Day Home, but he was only drinking an ounce or two. For the second week I started only sending one bottle, although at home he wasn’t having any daytime bottles. But he was generally refusing the bottle. So by week three he was off the bottle during the day.

The next bottle to go was his morning bottle. Normally I would give him a bottle as soon as he woke up. Again, his dad decided he didn’t need a bottle and instead just gave him breakfast. So I tried the same. I made him wait until 7 am to have his breakfast and he didn’t seem to care. He didn’t act any hungrier than usual.

The last bottle was the one before bed, which they say is the hardest one to stop. I only just stopped that one three days ago. Normally I would sing to him while he drank his bottle. This week, I sang to him without the bottle. For the first minute or so he looked confused and complained a little bit. But I just kept singing and you could see on his face that he realized no bottle was coming. He complained the three nights that I have done this so far, but the realization seems to come faster each night.

I think it’s safe to say we are done with bottles, but I also think I am just blessed with an easy baby.