Hellobee Boards

I think you already know what I did, but just in case...

We transitioned from bottles to sippy cups (Zoli straw cup actually) first. Then transitioned from breast milk to hemp milk once he was fully on cups.

For the bottle to cup transition, we just took away one bottle and replaced it with a cup each week. If he didn't drink much, then he didn't drink much. We didn't ever offer the bottle back after removing it. During the transition, he drank a lot less than normal (like 2 oz from a cup instead of his normal 6 from a bottle), but after a couple weeks, he started drinking more and more.

Once he was fully on cups, we started transitioning to hemp milk. His cups started at 6 oz of breast milk, and every week, I lowered the amount of breast milk by an ounce or two and increased the amount of hemp milk until he was fully on hemp milk. I could've done this transition faster or slower - it was really based on how much breast milk I had left in the freezer. So the transition ended up taking ~3 months because in the end, I was giving him a little breast milk every day until I was out.

@Mae: Nope, didn't wait. So normally he'd have three bottles during the day (and one nursing session). I removed one bottle a week (starting with the middle one, then did the morning one, then removed the evening one last). I felt a week was enough time for him to get used to not getting a bottle and getting a cup during that time instead. He still wasn't drinking a ton from the cup by the time we removed the next bottle, but we just kept going. I was cutting out pumping at the time too and removing nursing sessions on the weekend, so we were consistent. Once he was fully on all cups, no bottles and no day-nursing, it still took him a couple weeks to start drinking more. But the daycare teachers told me all the kids go through the same thing when they transition - they don't drink much during the transition and then once they are used to it a couple weeks later, they are drinking a normal amount again.

Your know your LO best, so you could certainly try cutting bottles cold turkey. I think either way, it'll take her a couple weeks to get used to it, but just offer her plenty of solids, and especially watery things (like fruit or pouches) so she stays hydrated, but don't give in. Once you start the transition, commit to it! She'll realize eventually that holding out won't get her her bottles back and then she'll deal with what she's been given.

Good luck!

A also wouldn't deal without the bottle. We switched to WCM first with the method I already told you about (3oz/1oz -2oz/2oz etc) then once she was switched over, waited a couple of months to deal with the bottle issue. Honestly she has never drank as much out of a cup as she used to out of a bottle, but it becomes less important once they're eating solids. Our daycare said to definitely ditch the bottles by 18 months or it would be WAY WAY harder.

We transitioned from pumped breastmilk/formula to WCM at about 11-12 months and by 15 she was completely weaned from the breast. At that time she got 5 bottles a day Wake up, 3 at daycare, bedtime.

At 15-18 months we tried no bottles during the day, but she wouldnt drink the milk from the sippy cup. At 18m appt spoke with her DR and he said its ok just offer other calcium rich foods and lots of water. She still got her morning & night time bottles

At 19 months she switched daycare rooms and they dont do bottles or sippy cups. At breakfast and lunch they get little milk cartons and straws and open cups of water - she sucks those milks down.... She still gets a bottle in the AM and PM.

Next week we're going on vacation to the family beach house and I'm going to "forget" to bring the bottles and hope that she'll be so distracted that by the time we get back we can be completely done with bottles at 21 months.

We did both at one time. Sort of the band-aid approach. Just rip it off. Our LO was in daycare (not sure if yours is). She switched daycares at a year and no one else was on bottles. Peer pressure took care of those daytime bottles within 2 days. And once they were gone, we removed the night time bottle too. And for us, milk never went in the bottle - only formula. Milk was only for cups (and likewise, formula didn't go in cups).

We did the milk transition first, shortly after turning 12mo. We just slowly upped the ratio of wcm to formula as others have mentioned, and he didn't even notice. At this point he was having 2 8oz bottles a day, morning and bedtime. I decided to tackle the morning one first as I didn't want him waking up hungry in the night - so one day I just gave it to him in a straw cup instead (this was about 13 months). He flipped out and refused to touch it, but I didn't give in and we just went on with our day. I think I posted a thread on here panicking about it, but the very next morning he happily drank most of his milk from the straw cup. We held onto the bedtime bottle for quite a while longer til about 17mo - partly because I just loved feeding him a bottle and didn't want to give it up! By this point he had very good receptive language so one day I told him that this was going to be his last bottle and tomorrow we would be having bedtime milk in a cup. I kept reminding him throughout the following day and he didn't even skip a beat when I produced the cup at bedtime. I thought it was going to be terrible but he really surprised me.

He does drink less milk from cups, and the amount he drinks can really vary (whereas with a bottle he would just glug down the whole lot each time) - but I don't worry as his weight is fine and he's happy! I started giving him a baby multivitamin when we moved off formula as I did worry that his solids diet wasn't wide enough to provide all the vitamins he needed, but I don't use it anymore at 18mo.