Saying bye-bye to the ba ba

Thirteen-month-old Jake sure loves his bottle.

Which makes sense; he and the ba ba go way back. Like 13 months.

It took us probably over a month to get him to actually drink out of a sippy cup during meals instead of just playing with or gnawing on it. It was exciting for us when he finally relented and learned to take big swigs from it between bites.

For the most part, we're down to just a first-thing-in-the-morning bottle and a comfort-him-into-sleep bottle right before bed. He doesn't use bottles at day care, though when he's home with us I've been known to give him one sometimes when he's really upset and having trouble calming down (much to my husband's disapproval).

I think the mere routine of getting those morning and nighttime bottles will be tough for him to live without. We haven't tried to take those away yet, but that's the next hurdle on the horizon. I'm just not sure about the best way to do it. Eliminate one, then the other? Go cold turkey? One suggestion I've heard is to fill the bottles with water instead of milk, and then he'll reject them. Another thought is to use sippy cups instead at those times, and once he realizes that's his only option he'll just accept it (similar to how we did daytime drinks).

How did you wean your child from drinking out of a bottle? At what age did you do it?

Megan Brooks is a Sr. Public Relations Specialist at Texas Health Resources, Mom to a 13-month-old and Stepmom to a 12-year-old.