Breaking the Bottle

My baby was just about 2 1/2 when we decided it was finally time to take the bottles away. We started thinking about it when she turned two and then always thought of reasons to put it off. For example she was sick, it was Christmas, or we were putting her in her toddler bed. When we finally took the plunge we were really nervous because she was so attached to them and felt it would really be hard. She had no other security item.

Well, we used bottles with liners so our approach was I told my daughter when this batch of liners was gone "they" were going to take the bottles away for babies who needed them. So as we went through them I counted them down and kept telling her how many we had and about how many days they should last. Finally it was the last one, I said this is the last bottle liner, tomorrow the bottle will be gone and we will get you a special cup that you can use all the time.

When my daughter woke up she went an hr. or more after breakfast and then said, "I want my special cup." Normally by this time she was moaning for her second bottle. She did ask for a bottle at nap time and I showed her the place they were and it was empty. I talked to her at nap time and she went to sleep just fine. That evening my daughter told her daddy, "They took the bottles away and now I have a cup." She had a couple of times at night she needed a sippy cup of milk to go to sleep but that wore off really fast. That sippy was just not the same thing.

She knew where they were kept so I really think talking to her and telling her they were going to be gone soon and then telling her they were going to be gone the next day and showing her that they were gone helped her prepare and then deal with the loss.

If you are about to go through "breaking the bottle" with your little one it won't be as hard as you think for either of you.