Transitioning Away from the Bottle

This week my one year old transitioned away from his baba. :)  I know this can be tricky but the advice his doctor gave worked very well so I wanted to share it.

The first day we stopped giving him his old milk.  We started filling his bottle with whole milk.  We did this for three days.  I worried about how this transition would go as the new milk was now cold, but he was hungry and didn't care (he's not a picky eater).  We noticed no change at all with the switch to whole milk.

On the fourth day, we changed the bottle itself to a sippy cup.  First I tried one of the hard sippy cups and that didn't go over so well.  I then switched to the softer nipple sippy cup and he hasn't fussed since.  I didn't have to go back to the bottle at all.  We have successfully transitioned.

He now eats sitting up in my lap rather than laying down on his boppy.  It's nice because we have some cuddle time.  He eats fairly fast.  I didn't change the quantity at all.  As he gets the hang of holding it by himself and eating other food more, I think he'll slowly wean off how often he has the milk.  For now it's business as usual.  No transitions to the overall schedule.

I did add in some more structured meal times as the milk is likely less filling.  Here is his current schedule:

6:30am - Wakes up, has milk (6 oz. whole milk)
7:30am - Eats - usually a small bowl of oatmeal or cereal
8:15am - Has milk, goes down for a nap
9:45am - Wakes up, goes for a walk
11am - Eats breakfast - eggs and fruit
11:45am - Has milk, goes down for a nap
1pm - Wakes up, plays in his play area
2:30pm - Eats lunch - meat and veggies
3:30pm - IF he has another nap (rare), it starts no later than this
5pm - Dinner - whatever we're eating
5:45pm - Bath time
6pm - Read a book, has milk, bed time

He sleeps very well.  He's out for the night unless he loses his binky here and there.  We transitioned him to sleeping all night at 4 months per the doctor and that went really well too.  :)

With my first son I had a total different approach.  I didn't learn the value of the schedule - for the child - until much later.  I let him eat what he would eat and adjusted my food schedule to him.  He is the pickiest eater I know.  Lesson learned. :)