Most pediatricians (me included) recommend weaning babies from formula at 12 months. I learned many years ago that this is also the ideal time to wean them from bottles. The reason for this is that if a 1-year-old gets whole milk in a bottle, he will often refuse to drink milk from a cup when you discontinue bottle feedings at 18 to 24 months of age. In other words, from his perspective, milk comes from a BOTTLE, not a CUP!
The weaning process I recommend is as follows:
- Continue giving the baby formula in bottles as you’re currently doing.
- Start offering milk in a sippy cup or straw cup once or twice a day in between meals. This is basically like exposing your baby to a new “food.” It helps if you do this when a parent or an older sibling is drinking milk from a cup or a glass.
- After a week or so, assuming he’s drinking some milk from a cup, start to gradually reduce the amount of formula in his bottles. I usually suggest dropping the amount of formula in each bottle by one ounce every 2 to 3 days. If the baby wants more when the bottle is empty, offer him milk in a cup or something else to eat. When the amount of milk in his bottles has dropped to an ounce or two, replace the bottle of formula with milk in a cup.
- Babies are usually more attached to the bottles they drink before bed and first thing in the morning. In this case, you can eliminate the daytime bottles a week or so before the morning and evening bottles.
- After a few weeks, most babies will have successfully weaned from formula and bottles.
- If your baby refuses to drink milk from a cup, stop the process for a few weeks and try again.
- Some babies don’t make the transition successfully. In this case, it’s fine to give them whole milk in a bottle. Just realize that it may be difficult to wean the bottle when the child is older.
