The babies usually have the habit to get attached to the feeding methods that are used for them right from the time of birth. If the baby is breastfed, they tend to get attached to it. If the babies are bottle fed, they are attached to their bottles and in both the cases, they are attached to the mother’s or the feeder’s lap. They feel cozy and comfortable in the lap. The babies also love to suck on the mother’s breast, drink milk from the bottle or just suck the bottle’s nipple for soothing also. So, practically it is very difficult to wean a baby off the bottle. Here I will discuss a few points that will help you wean your baby off bottles. It will give you a clear idea on how to help your baby say bye bye to bottles.
Here are a few points on how to help your baby say bye bye to bottles
- Time is the best solution
- Talk to your baby
- Start the process slowly and gradually
- Use good quality sippy cups or containers
Time is the best solution
In order to wean your baby off the bottle wait till the baby is on solids for quite some time. The baby must understand the concept of drinking juice or soup from the plastic container or sippy mug. Do not just force the weaning part on the baby, just because someone else weaned off their baby at an age of six or eight months. Remember that each child is different. And your child may need some more time.
Talk to your baby
Always have the habit of having a conversation with your child on whatever you are doing. This will slowly help the kid in understanding a lot of things and will also be helpful to you. In this case, talk to your baby on how much fun it is to drink water or juice from a glass. Talk to the baby that it is a thing that adults do it. Babies and kids love to behave like adults. Also, if your baby wants to drink his or her own juice from glass or a container allows them to have it a shot. This will help the baby in understanding the entire concept and will make the weaning process easier for you.
Start the process slowly and gradually
If you feel that after you have had a good conversation with your baby, he or she will immediately wean off from bottle feeding, then you are totally wrong. You, have to start the process slowly and gradually. The process should start with one feed at a time.
Personally, I would suggest the afternoon 4 ‘o’clock snack time. During this time the baby will not be sleepy and it is also OK if the baby eats a little less. I would suggest that along with the bottle you also carry a small glass or a sippy mug with you. Initially get your baby interested in drinking milk from the sippy mug or glass, feed about one-third of milk or formula that way and then give the bottle to the baby. This will keep the baby satisfied. Slowly give formula or milk to the baby for that particular time in sippy mug or glass only.
Then choose other feeding time of the day, when your baby is wide awake and do it exactly as mentioned above.
The nap time and the night sleeping time bottles should be weaned off at the later process. The nap time and the night time bottles can also be weaned off by adding milk to the food that is served to the baby. Like milk and roti or milk and khichdi etc.
Use good quality sippy cups and containers
Whenever you start giving sippy mugs or containers to your toddler there are two things that you should keep in mind. They are as follows:
The quality of the sippy mug or the container
First of all, you should see that the plastic used is of great quality and is BPA free. You should also check that the sippy mug or the container has proper round edges and it should not be sharp from anywhere. Also, make sure that the material used in the sippy cup can be sterilized properly.
The sippy cup should be attractive
Also, make sure that the sippy cup that you are buying should have fun images on it or should have your kids favorite cartoon character on it. This will help in increasing the kids curiosity and will also help in getting the kid drink from that particular sippy cup.
So, these are the few tips that I think will help to teach your kid how to help your baby say bye bye to bottles.
