Should I start weening my 9 month old off her morning and afternoon bottles?
No, it’s far too early to start weaning. At 9 months formula (or breastmilk) is STILL the basis of her diet, and 24 ounces is about the minimum she should be taking. May is a long time away. You don’t have to start now for something you won’t need for another 3-4 months.) Keep working on the sippy cup (offer water and/or diluted juice in it). Come May, she can drink water, juice and/or cows milk from a cup at daycare, and at home you can either continue to offer a couple of bottles, or wean her to the cup at home as well. EDIT: Hannah — yes, of course you can put formula in a cup. But a baby who is struggling to drink from a cup is unlikley to be able to take enough formula from a cup. (And some babies won’t take milk from a cup .. they associate it with the comfort of the bottle.) Finally, there is no medical reason that a baby MUST be off the bottle completely by his first birthday, or even over the next few months. As long as she isn’t walking around with it all day, or sucking on
My baby is 9 months and 3 weeks, so I know how you feel. I think that if you are going to start, maybe you should just replace one bottle at a time. For me, I have replaced the “after nap bobby” with a sippy cup, and she is keeping the “goodnight bobby” for now, but in a couple of weeks I will take that from her and replace it with the sippy cup; by the time I do that, she will be used to having the formula in the sippy cup rather than the just the bottle. I also found the absolute best sippy cup ever! I think this is why we were having a hard time. I tried them all, but the other day I bought the NUK learners sippy cup, and it is the best one I have ever bought. It made all the difference in how she feels about them. But I know how you feel, our babies are trying to walk and have big girl cups and ooooohhh, it’s all just too fast, but I am proud to see her grow and learn. Oh, replace the 1st bottle with the one she won’t miss the most, you know the one that isn’t desperately important
