Tips for Weaning Your Baby

A very common pediatric issue is that of weaning from the bottle. You might be wondering, what's the big deal? Why can't your daughter suck on a bottle until she's twelve? In addition to the social embarrassment and harassment she might face if she showed up for preschool with a bottle, there are a couple of other reasons to get off the bottle as soon as possible.

Some children who are not breast-fed develop a bottle dependency that can lead to cavities and malformed dentition. This is a particular risk for babies who are put to bed with a bottle. The longer you do this with your baby, the harder it will be when you pull the rug out from under him. The best thing is to never start the habit of going to bed with a bottle. Toddlers who spend the whole day intermittently sucking on bottles can also develop tooth decay and improperly formed teeth. One last problem is that children older than one year old are probably drinking cow's milk. Too much cow's milk can displace other nutrient-rich foods from the diet and can also lead to anemia.

The healthy alternative to letting your child have a bottle all day or when going to bed is to offer her the bottle only at the table and then only for a twenty- to thirty minute period. Your child will quickly come to expect that this is the time to drink her milk or formula and will indeed drink it at that time.

You'll know it's time to wean your child from the bottle when she is capable of drinking from a sippy cup. Your child will gradually signal that she is ready to drink from a cup. She should have the coordination to sit up unassisted and be tolerating pureed foods well. Start offering assisted sips at around six months. Initially she will still be getting most of her milk from the bottle or the breast, but by around eight to ten months she should be able to drink from a sippy cup alone. Sometime between ten and eighteen months your child should have mastered these tasks and be ready to get off the bottle.

When the day comes to let the bottle go, there is no looking back. Throw all of the bottles in the trash. You should expect anywhere from a couple of days to a week of crying. The longer you wait, the longer the outcry will last. For parents who have exclusively breast-fed without pumping, don't introduce bottles at all. Go straight from mom's breast to a sippy cup.

More on: Nutrition for Babies and Toddlers

Excerpted from:

From Raising Healthy Eaters: 100 Tips for Parents by Henry Legere, M.D. Copyright © 2004. Used by arrangement with The Perseus Books Group.

To order this book visit perseusbooksgroup.com.