How to get off the bottle?

Hey girls!
Well Hazel & Esme are 18 months now and still having a bottle in the morning and one at night. I'm really keen to stop this so I thought I'd start with losing the morning bottle first but replacing it with milo in a sippy cup. But they were having none of that and screamed the house down

Just wondering when and how you got rid of the bottles and if you have any tricks to share?

Thanks xx

i just took it away..took a few goes..and ended up getting the dinky 2$ cups from the supermarket...he;s never had milo..he just got milk(warm initially) in the cup or water..

i imagine they are like Ethan in that they only do it when they want to..strong willed children lol:)

I just stopped giving Caden the morning bottle one day and he didn't seem to care, and gave him his water bottle with his breakfast and he was happy with that.

Going Cold Turkey and distraction worked for us, I use distraction a lot with Caden and it works a treat.

New World usually has them.

With Sophie, she had her bottle then breakfast as she is always up a bit before Amy but I noticed that she was not eating much breakfast as she was full. I switched her breakfast and bottle order and then after about 3 days we were always so busy in the morning that I would realise at about 10am that I had forgotten . That was when she was about 16mo and she never seemed to notice!

To be very rude and go OT and thread jack a bit - She still has a bottle at bedtime and I keep thinking that I should switch to a sippy cup but she is so good about going to bed that I don't was to mess it up . With Amy dropping the bedtime bottle happened after we had to have a 10 days dairy free following a bout of gastro. After that cleared we switched her to a "special big girl cup" Not the nicest way to change a habit though

JC I worried about messing up the routine too, but I realised Jack has bigger cues for bedtime, like his bear and his PJ's. He was never a comfort drinker though (like he didn't get all sleepy from having a bottle before bed) so I don't know if that makes a difference.

As for daytime bottles, I would just go cold turkey but make sure you put the bottles out of sight. If they ask for a bottle, say 'yes, lets have some bubbles' (just pretend you misheard them) and go outside and blow bubbles or something else they love doing. Works for us

With the morning one, I started doing breakie first at 11 months and within a couple of weeks he didn't seem to need it as it had stretched out to morning tea time before he was hungry again.

Then at 15 months I changed the before/after nap one (usually had it after his nap but some days before, and still has a cup of milk with lunch before his nap) to a sippy cup. I had to take the non-spill valve out so the milk flowed faster though. He didn't seem to mind the change as he was used to water in all sorts of cups. and a little milo or complan mixed in every now and then helped too.

So by 17/18 months when I wanted to drop the bedtime one (he LOVED that bedtime bottle!) at least he was used to having milk in a sippy cup. The first few days I gave him a cup of milk before his bath then still let him have a bottle after like normal - thinking he would reduce the amount he drank in the bottle (used to have about 300mls!) - but no - it just resulted in leaking naps! haha. After a few days I just gave him the sippy cup after the bath instead of before and no bottle - looked at me like I was crazy the first night but drank it anyway. So he had it after the bath for a few nights .... then I moved it to before/during the bath (so his teeth could be cleaned after it) and that was it. He still has a cup of milk before his bath (or after if he has an early bath).

What an essay - sorry! It was an involved process though!