Getting Your Baby Off The Bottle

It is quite a challenge to wean your baby off the bottle and train your child to normal eating habits, thus making it a difficult stage for both the child and the mother. Mothers give up sometimes thinking that it may cause discomfort to both of them. Though weaning-off the bottle may cause a little discomfort, but the habit may affect the eating habits of the child in future.

It may affect the eating habits for many years, if the child is not got off the bottle. The process may be started when the child is about 12 -15 months old. This is the time when the physical development is just sufficient for him or her to hold a cup to drink from it and to eat solid food.

Mother should remain focused on the task even if it causes discomfort to the child. Mother should keep in mind that enough nutrition is not provided by milk alone and it is important therefore to make the child learn good eating habits. There are some methods which can help the mother and child in making the weaning process a success. Consistency is the first advice.

There should be no retracting once a mother decides to wean her child from the bottle. She should schedule herself and her child for the training of drinking from a cup and holding a spoon and eating from the bowl. Reminders such as "no bottles in bed" or "eat only from the table" will also help. Habits are built by consistency and it makes the child soon get used to not drinking from the bottle. Along with these toys and other tools may help the mother in taking the child’s mind off the bottle.

Bowls and spoons which are colorful will get the attraction of the child thus making the child distracted from the missing bottle. Even at nights making the child drink from a cup and not from the bottle will soon get the baby off the habit.

The baby modeling discomfort of not being able to drink from the bottle at bed can be reduced by providing soft toys or blankets. Nevertheless every mother and child should go through this process of weaning off. Any delay or postponement will make the process difficult to realize in later years. It is better that the child is weaned off the bottle sooner for the benefit of both the mother and the child.