Avelyn still has a bottle. Nay, Avelyn still has a love affair with a bottle. We have made it clear that she only gets a bottle when it’s nap time or bed time, but that doesn’t stop her from asking for it a few dozen times a day.
“Baw-ull?” she asks, pointing to the drawer I keep the bottles in.
“No, Avelyn, not right now. We’ll have a bottle when it’s time for night-night,” I say.
“BAW-ULL?!” she cries, while digging through the drawer to retrieve one for herself.
“No, Avelyn. If you’d like a drink you can have a sippy cup,” I negotiate as I fill one up and hand it to her.
“BAWW-ULL!!!” she bellows as she hurls the sippy cup across the kitchen.
And so goes our every morning. I have held pretty firmly to the night-time only rule and she seems to be getting it.
But I wonder when she’s going to be ready to give up the bottle once and for all. If she wakes up from a bad dream, the only thing that calms her down is a bottle of warm milk. If she’s feeling sick or is teething, the only thing that comforts her is a bottle. She doesn’t suck her thumb or take a soother so I don’t feel quite ready to rip her last shard of comfort away from her.
I know it might be a big battle to eventually break her from it, but for now I still get a kick out of it.
(This photo was taken on Monday morning while I was packing Avelyn’s bag for her day at childcare. She found the filled bottles on the counter and quietly helped herself.)
11 Comments
I was obsessed with the bottle and I turned out just fine (that’s a matter of opinion, I realize). But seriously, I was well past two and still using a bottle. My mom will tell you three.
They finally broke me by telling me they wouldn’t take any away from me, but they wouldn’t buy more. So as soon as I went through the ones I had, that was it. I lost them all surprisingly quickly. And I was torn apart for a bit, but I moved along just fine!
My son also loves his bottle at night and for naps. I know it’s a no-no and my doctor says it is but I just don’t give a hoot. Do what makes your life easy! Your doctor and the “experts” aren’t there to help during those rough nights when she’s teething.
I remember very vividly, my little brother obsessed with his sports bottles. From the age of about 2.5 or 3, my mom started putting his “juice” (which was really TANG, that orange powdered drink full of sugar!) into a sports bottle. He would suck on that thing for HOURS! This lasted until he was maybe 6 or 7? I also remember them trying to wean him from them, and he would scream and cry for hours and hours. “I want more juice!!!!” It was awful. We still make fun of him for it, and he is 22 now! haha!
You’re totally right, the bottle to her is a blankie or thumb or pacifier to any other child. Paige adores her paci, uses it mostly at bedtime to fall asleep. I got the tisk-tisk from the doctor… so I asked him, “Would YOU like to come by around 7pm and put Paige down to bed WITHOUT the paci?? I’d enjoy watching that.”
Neither of my girls were interested in a sippy when I started to transition them around 11 months. I used a bunch of diffrent ones, but they all had the hard plastic top. So NOT like the bottle. I gave up for the foreseeable future, until I used…
The Nuby: http://www.babybungalow.com/nunosp10ozgr.html
The spout is silicone, just like the girls’ Avent bottles. I had to cut the slats a bit to make the top flow more. They really took to it! Once they got the hang of the Nuby, they would also take from any other hard plastic-topped sippy. I really believe that the Nubys worked for them because the top was so much like the Avent bottle.
ANYWAY, I know Avelyn uses a normal sippy during the day, but maybe she’ll find the Nuby more bottle-like? She can be soothed, AND you can say that she’s totally done with bottles. “Technically.” ;) Just a thought.
My son is almost 18 months, still on the bottle – ONLY at bed time and in the middle of the night if necessary (or when sick). I don’t know how else to get him to sleep. i stress about it, but i don’t know what else to do. your not alone! my next kid – they are going to go off the bottle at 10-11 months – cold turkey and i’m not looking back (or that is what i say now anyway).
my advice is to not stress it, but i stress it so i know where your coming from. it is almost our little secret. hopefully one day she will just grow out of it on her own…
haha! Little turkey!
You know, at every stage I worry… about getting rid of the bottle/will he ever walk/sleep through the night/am I ever going to get that pacifier away from him… whatever it was, or is, I just try to remind myself that there’s no way he’ll still be doing this when he’s a teenager – I mean, have you ever seen a teenager in a jumparoo? And I never thought I’d get him to stand without the damn jumparoo. So my point, and I think there is one here… it’ll all happen. Try not to worry to much in the process.
Haha! She is double-fisting it! So cute. I worked on pediatrics a while back, and a couple of the moms had nuby’s (see above comment) and they swore by it. One girl was only 7 months, and she used it instead of a bottle. Hope you find what works for you!
I had trouble weaning my son off the bottle….I got him down to just water in it and he still wanted it all the time. I finally gave him a soother at night cuz I was sick of the heavily soaked diapers from his water intake!! I thought he’d not want the soother after 2 minutes…but in my effort to ditch the bottle, I got him hooked on a soother! when he was almost 2 years old! He definitely needed to sustain his urge to suck. Finally at just before 3, we broke him of the soother too. Better than the thumb, I always think.
at least you don’t have a kid still attached to your boob!!!
Love that picture! She better take advantage of getting two “baw-ulls” at a time!!! Good luck as you try to stick to your rule!
I’m sure she’ll give up her bottle when she’s ready – is there any point forcing the issue? Our new slogan is “pick your battles” because there’s so many to fight… My current line in the sand is that I am not sharing my toothbrush with D – but I let him wear my socks this morning.
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