My Daughter the Wonder Weaner

I have read all the horror stories of weaning babies from formula to milk, and even worse weaning them from bottles to cups. So about a month ago(when Julianna was 12 months corrected age) I began to plan Julianna's weaning from both.

My initial plan was to wean her from both at the same time. Julianna only drank formula in her bottle, all juice and water was in sippy cups. So my thought was to start her on a little bit if milk in the cup, and slowly give her more milk in cups and less formula in bottles, until bottles and formula were a thing of the past. In my head this made total sense and was my plan for success. Julianna had other plans.

About 2 weeks ago, we had enough formula left for a bottle or two, so I went to the store and bought our weekly big container of formula(just happy we weren't still on preemie formula). That night, I made a bottle using the last of the old can. Julianna refused to drink it, I mean temper tantrum, legs kicking, super screaming, refused to drink it. So I filled a new bottle with milk and tried that. She immediately drank the whole bottle. That was the end of formula. She hasn't had it since (what happened to the great big new can of formula you may ask, I'm still looking for a good home for it). Sadly, she refused to drink milk from a cup, only in a bottle, or that temper tantrum would occur all over again(I've tried the cup at least once a day...still same tantrum).

So my plan to slowly wean Julianna off of both formula and bottle at the same time failed. But I wasn't complaining, I'm sure it is a rather rare thing to cut out formula cold turkey, but my baby did it. My new plan consisted of slowly watering down the milk in the bottle, and having just milk in a cup. I read that toddlers would in turn choose the full strength goodness of the milk in a cup over the watered down yuck in the bottle. I was planning on starting this today. Once again, Julianna had other plans.

Yesterday, she went to her Grandma K's for the afternoon, while Joe and I worked on the house. I, being the scatter-brain I am, forgot a bottle. I had her sippy cup with water and told Joe's mom she could try to give her milk in the cup, but if she didn't drink it not to worry just give her more water. When we picked her up, Julianna was on her second cup of milk! This morning, I decided to press my luck and give her milk in a cup instead of her beloved bottle. She drank it all! No tantrum, no leg kicking, no super screaming. So ends our bottle days!

I haven't put the bottles away just yet(I kind of feel they are my last connection to Julianna's baby days), but in a few days they will be all packed up. So, all my plans for weaning Julianna? History. I'll never know if they would have worked, thanks to my daughter, the wonder weaner.