Yes, we’re sleep consultants, but what a lot of people don’t realize is that working with us is usually about more than just explaining a certain sleep training method and then supporting you through it. We’re talking about sleeping environment, routines, and schedules, and we’re talking about eating.
For babies, that means we want to know if your baby is breastfeeding, bottle feeding, or combo feeding, how often they eat, if they’ve had any lip or tongue ties, or if they have trouble eating. With toddlers and older kiddos, we still want to know how they’re eating – how is their solids intake, what do they usually eat, how much milk do they drink, do they still use a bottle, etc. Because it’s all connected!
And while we’re certainly not feeding specialists and have recommended clients get more help in that area, we know babies as both parents and professionals, so we’re often able to give advice or feedback about something that is challenging, or a transition families are about to go through.
One of those suggestions or conversations we have is around bottles once babies are 12 months and older, or for a toddler still drinking from a bottle.
In this post, we’ll share:
- When it’s time to wean your baby or toddler from the bottle
- How to wean your baby or toddler from the bottle
- Common hesitations parents have about bottle weaning
- Extra tips for transitioning away from the bottle
When is it time to wean your baby from the bottle?
The recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics is to have your baby completely weaned from the bottle by 15 months old, as prolonged bottle use can start causing some problems with oral development (think both eating and speech), and as kids get older, bottles get harder and harder to take away!
Although we recommend the weaning process starts before that because it’s just that, a process.
When we work with families whose little ones are 12 months or older and still using a bottle, we start talking about bottle weaning – namely what the end goal is and the different options parents have to get there!
So the end goal here is that your baby or toddler would not need a bottle at all anymore – that they would get most of their nutrients from their meals and snacks, and the milk they drink with their meals is a great add-on. And if they drink milk, it’s from a straw cup or open cup with their meals.
We start this conversation at 12 months because that’s when we can start introducing whole milk. So if you’ve been giving your baby formula, especially, it’s time to party! No more expensive formula! If you’re pumping and giving your baby your milk with a bottle, we’ll talk more tips soon…
However, regardless of what’s actually in the bottle, to get to the end goal of no more bottles can feel overwhelming! What if they stop drinking milk altogether? Will they be hungry? Will they start waking in the night again? What if they don’t eat a lot of food? What do we do???
This is why there are lots of options when it comes to weaning your baby from their bottle.
And I will say a lot of success with this process starts well before your little one is 12 months or older! Around the 6 month mark is when you can start introducing little sips of water to your baby, and while you can certainly do so with a bottle, you can also do so with a little medicine cup or normal open cup, or even a straw cup! And as your baby gets older, you might give them a smoothie in an open cup or straw cup, maybe some broth.
But this all means that well before 12 months old, your baby is already getting practice consuming liquids from something other than the bottle or breast, and this is really great practice.
Here are our favorite training cups for babies:
- The best training straw cup
- The best straw cup for older babies and toddlers
- The best open cup for babies
- The best water bottle for babies and toddlers
So when it does come time to start weaning from the bottle, your baby is not also learning how to drink from something new altogether, they’re simply adjusting to where they’re getting their milk. And that really helps!
There’s another “weaning” that we recommend around 12 months old, so let’s pause here for a moment, too. It does not have to be the day your baby turns one, there’s absolutely wiggle room for every child, but it’s around 12 months old when we want to see an important switch happen. We want solids to be your baby’s main source of nutrients and for milk to be a great added bonus.
So again, milk is still great, but solids should be the main source of calories and fullness throughout the day.
With this swap, we actually recommend pulling milk out of the bedtime routine! Just like you and I can have dinner, hang out for a bit, and then go to bed without needing another meal or bedtime snack, that’s the same end goal for babies after that 12-month mark.
Sometimes that’s a gradual shift out of the bedtime routine, like pulling the bottle 15 minutes earlier every few days, and sometimes families simply pull the bedtime bottle, that’s up to you. But knowing that removing the bottle from the bedtime routine is a goal around 12 months old, sometimes before even starting the official bottle weaning process, can make that weaning process less scary. One bottle is already out of the picture!
Having a bottle linger in the bedtime routine can actually start negatively impacting bedtime and overnight sleep, which we certainly don’t want.
How to Wean Your Baby or Toddler from the Bottle
Now that we’ve talked about the when and even some “whats” leading up to this bottle-weaning process, let’s talk about the how. You essentially have three options here, and you can decide based on what’s best for your child and your family!
1. Cold Turkey Bottle-Weaning Approach
The first option is to take the bottle away cold turkey.
And we’ve worked with families who find this to be best for them! Maybe they have a toddler and they know and gradual process will be even harder or more confusing for their little one – to get the bottle sometimes but not all the time. And/or they are simply confident with their solids intake, so they just cut the bottles altogether, and it works!
But that feels really hard and overwhelming for some families, so again, there are more options.
2. A Gradual, Go-with-the-Flow Bottle-Weaning Approach
This next approach to bottle weaning is essentially the opposite of cold turkey, which is a gradual, go-with-the-flow bottle weaning process, and again, it works! And this is most often what we chat through with the families we work with, because it helps give that big picture and end goal, with tangible steps in between.
Here’s how I explain it…
We no longer want bottles to feel like a meal in and of itself – we want milk to be part of a meal. So when your baby or toddler wakes up in the morning, rather than giving them a bottle right away, give them breakfast! And you can give your little one a cup of milk with breakfast, and whatever they drink or don’t drink, so be it.
But the milk should be part of the meal, not the meal.
And just a quick side note for daycare families whose little one eats actual breakfast at daycare, or the parents who aren’t morning people. Rather than giving your baby breakfast right away, you could give them a banana or a handful of cheerios, and maybe a small cup of milk with that little pre-breakfast snack. And then they’ll have a more official breakfast later.
But did you catch that? We’re focusing on the solids, and giving milk on the side. And letting your child decide how much they consume.
Now, if they have a great breakfast and you feel good about their intake, great! Skip the bottle and get on with the day. But if they really didn’t eat much or didn’t touch their milk and for whatever reason you’re nervous that they won’t be full, now you can give them a bottle. But it should be in their high chair or right after you get them out of the high chair, so it still feels connected to their meal.
Then they might have a mid-morning snack, no milk necessary, and then it’s lunchtime! We recommend the same thing here – give them lunch with a cup of milk, and see what happens! I actually don’t recommend a top-off bottle after lunch, as we try to transition from lunch into nap time and don’t want that bottle as part of the nap routine.
But again, if you’re really nervous they didn’t get enough, give them that top-off bottle, and do so in the high chair or right after taking them out, so it feels part of the meal.
Then your little one might have an afternoon snack, no milk necessary, and then dinner time. Give your little one their dinner with a cup of milk, and they drink what they drink, however little. And if you’re worried, that bottle comes right after. And because they’re over 12 months old, they don’t need anything else before bed!
So this gradual, go-with-the-flow wean down helps families keep that bottle as an option while still helping their little one adjust to having a cup of milk with their meals, and it could change day to day or meal to meal when they need the bottle or not.
This also gives parents the confidence that their little one will be okay without a bottle!
3. Drop One Bottle at a Time
The third bottle-weaning option sits somewhere between cold turkey and that “go with the flow” bottle wean down.
Some families choose to drop one bottle at a time, and again, it works for them! So they pick one bottle and drop that one cold turkey over 3-7 days, and then move on to the next.
Like I’ve mentioned, we want to start pulling that bottle away from bedtime around 12 months old, so that would be one of the first bottles I recommend dropping. If your little one still has a bottle after lunch/before their nap, that would maybe be a tie or a close second in what I recommend dropping, purely because we don’t want that bottle too close to sleep.
Because remember, I’m sharing all of this with my sleep consultant hat on, and when we work with families, our goal is independent sleep.
If your baby has any “snack-like” bottles between meals, I would be looking to take that bottle away next. Simply replace that milk snack with a food snack and some water!
And then the morning bottle would probably be the last bottle I’d recommend droppning. Like I explained with the gradual wean-down, you’d simply get up for the day and give your little one breakfast right away instead of that bottle!
With this drop-one-bottle-at-a-time bottle weaning method, know that there’s no right or wrong in which bottles you choose to drop first. I simply want to help you understand how I think about it from a sleep mindset!
Common Hesitations about Weaning from the Bottle
If you’re reading this and the bottle-weaning process is coming soon or is upon you, you might be getting nervous or have one or more of the following hesitations.
1. What if we wean them from the bottle and they stop drinking milk altogether?
I hear you, and again, this is why there are multiple approaches to weaning your baby from the bottle, and as the parent, you get to decide what’s best!
First of all, for some babies, learning to drink milk from something other than the bottle is hard. They might drink water just fine from their straw cup, but they just won’t drink milk from that straw cup. Could it be because they don’t like the taste of milk? Sure! But it could also be that milk and bottles are one in the same for them and they just don’t want the two disconnected.
Giving your little one time to adjust, regularly serving them milk in a cup, and not letting bottles serve as a meal makes all the difference – it’s time and consistency, like so many other things we chat about at Via Graces!
I will also add that it’s okay if your little one truly doesn’t like milk. Chat with your pediatrician if you think this is the case so they can further direct you, but while milk is so great for our little ones, we can get them that nutrients elsewhere.
2. How do we handle night wakings now? They still get a night feed…
Well, if your little one is 12 months or older and they are healthy and growing well, they don’t need a night feed anymore! I’m not saying you’re not allowed to give one, I’m saying they don’t need it.
So one option here is to sleep train! This is a great time to teach your little one to fall asleep independently, without that bottle, or pacifier, or rocking, so you can kiss them goodnight, walk away, and know they’ll connect those sleep cycles throughout the night. And if you need help getting there, we’re here for you! Learn more about how we can support you in the sleep training process.
And if you’re not ready to sleep train but still want to get rid of that bottle, simply respond to those night wakings in every other way possible, besides the bottle, to help your little one back to sleep!
3. I know it’s time to drop the bottle, but my toddler is going to be so mad. How do I handle their frustration and feelings about taking the bottle away?
This is parenting! We know we need to do something, but we also know our kids aren’t going to like it, so sometimes we delay…I’ve certainly been there!
Your toddler may be really upset when you first take the bottle away, but they will eventually get over it, and again, time and consistency will be key here!
Give the bottles away or hide them or pitch them so they are out of sight – make it so they’re simply not an option for you or your toddler. And if/when they ask for it, remind them that bottles are done, but here’s your cup of water! Or here’s your special new water bottle we bought in exchange. Or here’s a cup of milk, even!
I find that with toddlers, especially, it’s usually not even about the milk, but about the bottle. They don’t care what’s in the bottle, they just want the comfort of sucking on the bottle.
So we respond with patience, grace, and also reality, and we are consistent and love them through it. And after a week or two, the bottle will be history! You just have to commit to dropping it and get started.
Now to share some final bottle-weaning tips before we wrap up…
Final Tips for Weaning Your Baby or Toddler from the Bottle
I’ll share more about this in the next post about weaning from breastfeeding, but when we were trying to get our oldest to drink whole milk, we started mixing her breastmilk with whole milk, heated it up like we would her other bottles, and continued adding more and more whole milk, and heated it less and less, until she was used to cold whole milk.
I don’t know if she actually needed that or if we made her need that, but it’s what we did. With our other two, we simply gave them cold whole milk, they drank it, and that was that.
But that being said, some families do choose to mix formula with whole milk for a bit, whether in the bottle or a cup, as they help their little one prepare to be done with bottles and formula.
Others start giving whole milk in the bottle to adjust to the new milk, and then wean from the bottle.
While others only ever give whole milk in an open cup, for the sake of weaning the bottle more quickly, and all of those options are okay!
If you’re a breastfeeding mama who has been exclusively pumping, same ideas apply here. I also want to add that if your goal is to continue giving your baby your breastmilk well beyond 15 months but also don’t want to keep the bottle around forever, that’s okay! You can still give your baby/toddler that amazing mama’s milk, just consider using an open cup or a straw cup so we’re not interfering with that oral function and development.
Conclusion
Are you so excited to wean your little one from the bottle now??
The goal of this post is to first teach you about when it’s recommended to fully wean babies/toddlers from bottles, as I find many families have no idea that’s even a thing.
Or for those families who know they should drop the bottle, it’s really overwhelming thinking about how to actually go about that. So the other goal here is to break down some practical “hows” for weaning from the bottle!
Also remember that you’ve got options and you’ve got time. Yes, there’s oral development and habits and that’s all important, AND those guidelines are not there to make you crazy or feel less than.
And if you’re reading this and your toddler is older than 15 months and they still love that bottle? Guess what? That’s okay! I hope you’re walking away with confidence and a plan to start transitioning away from the bottle.
Next week, we’re going to be chatting about a very similar topic, this time for the parents of breastfed babies. I’ll be sharing tips and tricks when it comes to weaning your baby or toddler, whenever that time comes, because it’s totally different and there’s no timeframe or recommendation for when you should wean. But I have families ask me all the time what it looked like for us, so I’ll also be sharing our personal weaning journeys with our girls to give you some real-life examples!
With Grace,
Lauren
