Kicking the Bottle and Other Habits...

Since my baby is 16 months old, I have been trying to wean him off the bottle. It's been about 4 months now, and I've made zero progress. I have tried different kinds of sippy cups - disposable ones, leak proof hard top ones, leak proof soft spout cups, cups that go with his Avent bottle system and cups with hard spouts in the middle. I can honestly say, nothing is working. He takes one sip and then spits the milk out. It's not like he won't use the cups at all, they are great for juice and water.

My doctor has advised me to just stop giving him the bottle and don't worry about his milk intake. However, what about the soothing factor? He's used to getting soothed first thing in the morning. We have a routine. He's used to being soothed at night, too. He likes that snuggling in my arms with the bottle before bedtime. I'm not sure he'd go to sleep without it. Not only that, he's teething now, so he's generally upset. Some days he won't eat and just wants his ba-ba. Poor boy.

On the other hand, I have been giving this some thought. Maybe it's not the baby that has the problem. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm the one who is used to the routines. As time consuming as they can be, I like the snuggling, too. For now, we have removed the lunchtime bottle. It's time for some changes. Maybe I'll see what happens if I remove the morning bottle and offer him some milk in a cup. We can still snuggle with a cup.

On another note, we also have to kick the rocking him to sleep habit and the not going back to his crib in the middle of the night situation we have. At some point, I need to be able to go back to my own bed and not sleep with him for the second half of the night.
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