Well, I put my baby girl to bed tonight, for the 2nd night in a row without a bottle. She's gone 2 whole days with no bottle at all. I really didn't mean to wean her completely, so quickly.
We've been working on it by slowly decreasing the amount of bottles she gets during the day, we've been down to only her bedtime bottle for about a week. I planned to leave it at that for a few more weeks.
Well, I left her with Liz to go do some shopping last night and later after we'd all gone to bed, Liz made a comment about how upset Bella was that I'd left. She said she was fussy until after she'd read to her and put her in bed, which was only about 30 minutes after I left. I asked her if her bottle calmed her down any. She said she didn't give her one. I asked why; she said that she's been getting in trouble for giving her a bottle so she thought she was already weaned. She said she didn't make a peep once she put her in bed and didn't ask for it, which she normally does. She then slept all night as usual; Liz did give her a cup of milk before her story.
Bella has no trouble letting us know she wants a bottle; she's been saying 'baba' for quite a while now and knows where they are kept. She would go to the counter and say 'baba' when she wanted one. Liz says she didn't ask for it last night and she didn't ask for it tonight either.
Maybe she was ready. She's not even 14 months yet.
She eats well, and drinks milk and water from a cup very well. I'm now second guessing myself, but I don't want to backtrack and end up with another 2-year old with a bottle.
Thoughts?
4 comments:
Don't second guess yourself. Sounds like Bella was ready to let go. What a big independent girl! Yay Bella!
Both of my kids stopped using bottle when they turned one. When my son turned one, he lost interested in using the bottle so that was our advantage. When our little girl turned one, we took the bottle away and she never asked for it. I would put the bottles in storage box and out of sight and she will be fine. Don't give in and she will be fine. Good luck!
Oh no no no! The sooner the better. They really have no need for a bottle if they can drink from a cup. It is usually the parent who "needs" the bottle. If she is not asking for it then let it go otherwise it will get harder the older she gets. We started taking Cam's bottles before he was 9 months and he was completely off bottles way before he was a year. That is just my opinion and my two cents. I have seen way too many kids who had bottles when they were too old.
I'd say she was ready. Docs usually recommend having them off at 12 months so you are right on target for that if you want to be. I never cared when or if they gave it up but once they did, I didn't offer again and that was that. Hope that helps.
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