Bye-Bye Baby Bottles!
Weening my baby dragon off of a bottle.
There are 3 types of babies in the world. The ones that self-ween off the pacifier (binkie, bop, whinge-corker, whatever you call it), normal or average children who ween off these two brand-new human items, and then … there’s the ones who intend on pushing you to follow through with the threat of: “I brought you into this world, I’ll take you out!” Before letting go of their right to suck on things that imitate the good portion of a woman’s boob, these last types of kids will put up a loud, persistent fight that will probably make you drive yourself to the nearest liquor store.
My children, every one of them, blessed both my fiancé and I with the gift of being self-Weeners of the binkie. So if you came here looking for tips on difficult babies of the pacifier type, I probably unintentionally click-baited you. Sorry. Love you. Feel free to laugh at me as you continue reading though to hear about my newest parenting struggle.
As for the bottle? Chris’s son, our oldest, was apparently easy to get off the bottle. So was my eldest daughter. My middle daughter was fine with no bottle the day she came to live with us at one year and two weeks after I got custody of her from her biological mom. That's a long story that maybe I'll share someday.
But my son? He’s decided to be a bottle dragon. And for the last few months I have been trying to outsmart my one-year-4-month goblin spawn. This boy has teeth, and he's strong enough to lift a suppy cup. Not to mention that horrible feeling of being woken up every few hours because he pees and hates being wet.
So how have I been trying to convince my baby dragon to hoard something else? Subtle manipulation and training.
First, I set boundaries.
"Okay baby dragon. I understand. You do not want to just throw away your bobba like your sisters did. So! I will negotiate with you in the beginning. You may only have a bottle when wake up in the middle of the night, or your teeth are hurting and I can't get you to eat. And no, you may not have it when you go to bed either.
I stopped giving you formula the day you turned 365-days-old, and you are now on a big baby dragon diet. So no milk in your bottle either, only water. You can juice and milk in your suppy cup during the day. Not at night."
He wasn't happy about this rule, but it has been a huge help in getting him to not want his bottle.
When your baby gets a bottle handed to them, they are expecting something yummy, like milk. Or maybe even juice. If you want your baby dragon to stop needing to be bottle fed - no more yummy in the bottle. Only water. If they throw it and don't want the water, then they need to fuss it out. Do not give in. If they are thirsty, they will drink the water.
First time parents or parents who are mortified at the idea of letting your child sit in a room and throw a tantrum: You are going to make your own life MISERABLE. Letting them fuss it out and not giving them what they want is the first step to teaching them that tantrums do not change the circumstance. If you give your baby a bottle with water, and they throw it or cry when they taste the water, they are not thirsty, do not go get them juice. You let them cry it out, so you can start undoing the instinct that crying is how they get what they want or need.
The next problem I ran into was my baby dragon wasn't sure how to drink from anything from a bottle.
Not because he couldn't figure out - but he is a spoiled dragon and doesn't want to figure it out. When he was around 8-months-old, in preparation for this battle (I saw the signs of doom long before I chose to pick up the fight... sigh...) I bought him some Dr. Browns Milestone Bottles. They have silicone handles, but basically...a bottle. Also they change up the nipple shape to a more square design.
It helps introduce the baby at a younger age to a different type of cup. My baby dragon - hated it. But now he has graduated to actual sippy cups! I love these insulated ones, especially when we go out so it keeps his water/juice cool.
Munchkin Miracle also makes a very cute, spill proof cup that helps young toddlers learn to drink from big kid cups. When he's around two years old, I'll transition him to this. Spill-proof anything is the bomb when kids are involved. No cloth furniture, no carpets, don't give them anything colorful to eat or drink if you want to preserve the outfit they are wearing, and spill-proof cups. Being the owner of a tiny human doesn't really ever get any cleaner either, from what I am told.
Once your tiny-human begins sleeping all the way through the night with this little trick - bottles become absolutely obsolete when they are ready for it. One day, you just won't be using bottles any more, and while it may break your parental heart, it's a good bittersweet good thing.
So, just to recap:
- Buy them age-appropriate cups. I highly suggest the cups I suggested in my links. I've used every single one of those, and they have not failed me. Highly recommend.
- Ween them off the bottle slowly until they only take a bottle at night if they wake up. Start with only letting them have a bottle at bed-time, first starting with taking away a bottle at nap-time. Once they get used to that after a few days, you can take away the night time bottle.
- When they do get a bottle at night, do not put anything but plain cool (not cold) water in it. If they don't want it, they won't drink it. Which means they are not thirsty.
- Limit their liquid intake at night time and put them to bed at the same time, every night. If you don't let them have a full cup of water before bed, they won't wake up at 2 AM with a wet diaper, and needing a bottle to go back to sleep. Give them a cup during dinner, and maybe a little drink before bed, but nothing at bed. This will help the older babies sleep through the night.
- Baby should become bottle free with this routine. Even babies need routine and schedule.
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Comments (1)
❤great tips