Taking The Milk Away, Oh No!
By: Rochel Ferman
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Every mother has then never-ending fear of taking away the bottles of milk. It is a point in every mothers life where we just say, “next week” then the next week say… “next week”. Yes it is a hard move to do for each and every one of us. Why is it so hard for us as mothers to make this jump? The #1 reason is we all correlate milk with giving our child a better nights sleep and no one wants to mess up good sleep for mommy or baby! Guess what, your child will sleep just fine with out a bottle of milk. In actuality I think it is harder for us as mothers because that is one step closer from your baby being a baby to being a toddler and growing up and that is just hard for each and every one of us. So how should you take it away?
There are two options to take away the bottle: slowly transitioning it with one feeding at a time going into a cup or just cold turkey! Personally with both my kids I did cold turkey around a year for each of them. The reason I chose to stay close to a year, Jordana was 14 months and Ariella just recently at about a year, is because the earlier you take it away the easier it is for the child to adjust. The longer they have it the more the attachment will grow, which makes it harder on everyone. So if you want to do cold turkey just wake up one day and say “no more bottles!” If you would like to transition, drop one feeding at a time to a straw cup each week. There is no right way so whichever way you choose; they both have the same outcome. Just remember and know like anything else change takes time so give your child at least a week to get use to the new change in the repertoire.
The hardest one for every mom to drop is that nighttime bottle. So just try inching it up by 10 minutes each week until you have it around an hour before bed. This way there will be a gap between the milk and nighttime sleep to make it even easier to take away the bottle.
So good luck mommies and remember just stay strong and consistent!
Happy Mommying!
