I know that this subject has been talked about many times because i have read many of them, but i still need some help. my daughter just turned one about 3 weeks ago and i have been trying to get rid of the bottle since then. she won't drink from a sippy cup, but will drink from a straw like a pro. i have a couple of different issues. one is that she would rather drink water or juice from a cup and milk from a bottle. however, when i set her on the floor with a cup of milk she will drink it and than hold the straw in her mouth and crawl around with it. this can make a mess, but i don't want to discourage her because she is actually drinking the milk. i water down the milk in the bottles hoping to discourage her from wanting them, however she does get one before nap and bed time. i have had some tell me to go cold turkey, but it is very hard to listen to her cry because she is thirsty and just wants a bottle. sorry this got so long, but i wanted you to have an idea of what am doing. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

About the first issue, if it were me, I'd give my DD her straw cup of milk outside or gate her in the kitchen and clean up the mess. We're big on experimentation in my house.

You aren't going to harm her by letting her take her time giving up the bottle. If you don't want to go cold turkey, don't. Keep watering the bottle down and also try switching to a low flow newborn nipple so she has to work harder. Keep your perspective, just because you allow your one year old to take her sweet time giving up the comfort of the bottle doesn't mean you're going to end up with a high schooler who still needs a bottle. This too shall pass.

My son just turned 16 months & we CANNOT get rid of the bottles. Recently, I bought a Nuby transition cup. We use nubby sippy cups, but only for water. I've tried & tried to get rid of the bottles & it hasn't worked. The other day, I put water in his bottle & milk in his sippy cup & he drank most of the water & didn't touch the milk. He knows MILK comes from a bottle. And NOTHING else.

These Nuby cups come w/ a bottle lid, a straw lid & the sippy cup lid. They DO NOT leak. My son drank from his sippy cup w/ the nipple lid. So he's starting to associate milk in his sippy cup. I haven't switched the lid yet, but we are making pogress.

My strong willed son didn't care about watered down milk. It was still milk to him. Good luck. You're not alone.

P.S. A friend of mine recently told me that her 2 1/2 old son still refuses to give up his bottle. He says he can't take it in public b/c he's a "big-boy" & big-boys don't use bottles & I know another girl who's 3ish w/ a new baby sister & she still has her bottle. My motto is "Choose your battles".

i just wanted to thank you guys for responding and let you know about the progress that we are making. for almost a week now she has only gotten a bottle before a nap or bed time, and she hasn't even fought with me about it the rest of the day. i had told myself that if we get to the point that she only wants one before she goes to sleep than i will ease up on taking it away completely, hopefully we have made it.

We did it really slowly starting at 12 months. My daugther will drink from a sippy, straw, nuby, whatever but she doesn't drink AS MUCH as she would with a bottle. We took away the morning one first (no prob) then the after lunch one (no prob). Then she had one at 10 and one before bed for a while. At 14 months we took away the one at 10 but at almost 15 months we still have one bottle before bed. We did switch it from right before bed to right before bath which enables me to brush her teeth. It's fine with me that we are doing it slowly. I think it has been better for her too. She went off formula, was eating new foods, trying new things...everything is changing for her; I don't want to rush it.

My girls were off of the bottle at 10 months and off of formula at 12 months. We just did cold turkey and they only fussed about it for maybe one day and then it was sippy cups from then on out. Anyway, one bit of advice I can offer....I don't know if any of you have tried this but one thing I did when we first started with the cups was to take out the stopper in them....obviously they will leak this way so you have to be careful...but it helps them to realize what is in this new "cup thing" and kind of entices them to suck on it. Also, those plain, small plastic cups with the white plastic snap-on lids were great too...(Tupperware has them and you can find ones just like them at the store). They just have the little spout on them and no stopper on the inside...the drink comes out just a little w/out them even having to suck on it so that also helped. They will also leak so you have to be careful w/ those too...but I think those worked best when trying to show them what the cup was all about. Then when they got the hang of it it didn't matter what cup we used. Just a little advice on what helped us...hope it can help you