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How do you wean a baby off a bottle?
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025

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You can't wean a child off a bottle in one day. It will take time. Just like weaning a child off a pacifier or a dummy, this process needs to be stretched out a little so that the child doesn't get stressed. If the child often used a bottle while on artificial feeding, then immediately taking away this familiar and favorite thing from him would be simply inhumane. Gradualism is needed.
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When to wean a baby off the bottle?
You can wean your baby off the bottle when he or she is comfortable drinking from a cup and eating from a plate with a spoon. That is, around the time when the baby learns to sit on his or her own, without even leaning on his or her arms. As the baby grows, he or she will need more and more products that will be difficult to take from a bottle alone. A plate and a cup will be needed.
And one more thing: if a child sucks a nipple from a bottle too often, it can disrupt his bite. But parents should know that the age at which it would be worthwhile to start weaning a child off a bottle is individual. If the baby absolutely cannot live without a bottle, if for him it is an opportunity to eat normally and psychologically a bottle is an attribute of safety and comfort, maybe it is worth holding off on weaning the child.
Psychologists say that sometimes it is not worth weaning a baby off a bottle, but you need to wait. Not the best time to wean a baby is recent stress, illness, separation from mom, moving, the birth of a brother or sister. With the help of a bottle, a baby calms down, so you can't take this opportunity away from him. When the acute period of stress passes, you can begin to wean the baby off the bottle.
Baby's reaction to weaning from the bottle
The baby's reaction to weaning from the bottle can accurately determine whether he is ready for this expropriation or not. If the baby cried a little and forgot about the bottle, doing something more interesting, then he is psychologically ready for this.
If the child cannot calm down for a long time, cries, throws a tantrum, asks for the bottle back (his temperature may even rise), then you have chosen the wrong moment to wean the child off this attribute. In this case, do not insist, offer him a cup instead of a bottle not now, but later.
Ways to Wean a Baby from a Bottle
Some mothers practice tricky conversation. They explain to the baby that the bottle has disappeared somewhere, some even make up whole stories about where the bottle has gone. Sometimes after a few tantrums this works, and the baby can be weaned off the bottle.
There is another way: replace the bottle with a cup. Show that you yourself drink from a cup and that it is very tasty. Mothers resort to trickery here too: they make the milk in the bottle tasteless by oversalting it. And they pour tasty milk into the cup. Then the child can see for himself that the cup is better.
The next way to wean a baby off a bottle is to give it to someone, but not just like that, but solemnly. You can decorate the bottle, even dress it in clothes and give it to someone, for example, a doll or a teddy bear. If the baby feels more sorry for the teddy bear than the bottle, then he will give it away and will be very happy. He is now big, explain mom and dad, and can give the bottle to a little bear who really wants milk. But if the child feels more sorry for the bottle than all the animals put together, then he will never give it away. This method is not suitable, and weaning should be postponed until better times.
Parents can wean their child off the bottle using their own scenario. You can come up with one and make a whole holiday out of it. Let it make not only the parents happy, but also the child!