Vice grips to remove bottle from 2 yr old!!

lachin

Hi all,

I have a toddler, just turned 2 who is terribly attached to her bottle. Its my own fault for letting her have it for so long but now she wont give it up. Shes not too bad during the day but at night if she wakes she cries out until I give her her bottle and recently is drinking 3 bottles of water at night!!!!! Hence I have to change her nappy at least once during the night when she should be sleeping through. Any advice please?

axel rose

Not claiming to be an expert as I've a two and a half year old who is on one bottle of milk a night. (Was going to remove this after christmas but he began to toilet train on the 27th so he got a reprieve ).


At one point though he was waking up demanding the bottle as your lad is. I gradually reduced the amount of liquid I gave him until it was not worth his while to ask for it. In addition to this I made it increasingly watery. Once it got to about 2oz of milk coloured water he gave up!

lachin

Thanks for your reply but the problem with the fairy is that she cries out when the bottle is empty...looking for more!!! Unfortunately I think its worse shes getting!!:( I was hoping to start potty training also but theres no way I can till i get rid of the bottles. She never had a soother, but uses the bottle as one!!

axel rose

what are you putting in the bottle?

CK2010

i had this problem, my little girl was drinking during the night and no matter what we tried nothing worked, but the only thing that worked was getting rid of the bottles once and for all!

she turned two in august and we gave the bottles to santa that christmas (this was more a right of passage for us than her! ) -it was more early december because we hoped she'd be settling without them by christmas.

we neednt have worried- two days and nights without bottles and it was like they never existed. big girl cups were used during the day and then at night she was told cups will spill in bed so she can have ovaltine in a cup before she goes up.

its hard to explain these things to them when they're so young but they grasp more than you think and teaching through actions does work, even if it feels like you're talking to a brick wall.

the bottle and the liquid seems to just be a comforter that she looks fr when she stirs, as long as shes getting it she'll look for it when its not there. we found that our girl was stirring as opposed to waking and then looking for a bottle- if she didnt get one she'd wake and scream. but once we got rid of bottles (and soother at same time) when she stirred she'd have nothing to look for so she'd just settle back to sleep herself.

dont know if its something you want to do but it worked for us. best of luck! i dont miss those nights one bit!

axel rose

You make a good point, the dummy was finished with when I couldn't find it on the first night on holidays. I couldn't make one so he did without.

(Still want to wait another couple of week or so before I ditch the bottle for good).

lachin

Ck2010 great advice thanks!! I was thinking myself of maybe feeding a lamb somewhere(!!!) with her bottles and telling her we were giving the bottles to the lamb, as you did with Santa. I think it's the only thing that might work as she's a big animal lover!!! And seeing as it worked for you then I'm extra hopeful!
It's water with a drop of mi wadi in the bottles! I can't wait to get rid of them! Thanks to all for the advice