I was watching Rachale Ray a few days ago and I have to say that.. woow.. I didnt think people let theri children stay on the bottle that long! Im not saying she was a bad mother, but what I do think is that she needs to set the rules and keep to them. Know what it best for your kid and do it wether they like it or not. Its obvious that a 3 1/2 year old shouldnt be on a bottle for many reasons. Tantrums and hard times are exspected when "weaing" a child off of anything. When my daughter turned 13 months I took her bottles and bagged them up and stored them away so she couldnt see them. A week before i did this I let her pick up a sippy cup that she really liked ( ok i know she was to young to actually pick one out but it was a sippy that I knew she would use rather than a bottle..some like to get the sippys with the soft rubber spout on it kind of like a nipple to a bottle, others like the hard ones and so on. just pick one that best fits your kid) and thats what i used everyday. I had a few bobbles once in a while but thats where a comfort object came into play. My daughter loves a blanket that my mother made for her and that has become a comfort object. She made the transition from a bottle really fast and easliy becasue she had other ways to calm herself down and reilized she dosent want a bottle. But if this dosent work for you try some of these ideas.
1) try swapping the bottles for a "specail sippy" let the child pick it out and then ither donate the bottles to a family store or if you know another baby that needs bottles have the child give the bottles to the new baby.
2) same idea of swapping...but instead if you dont think a sippy cup is going to work swap it for a comfrot object. Maybe a new favorite stuffed animal, blanket, pillow, has to be somting that wont hurt if carried allot, higged, slept on, and so on.
3) or.. just go cold turky....one day just hide the bottles or get rid of them, and hand out a sippy instead. Try the ones with the rubber spout like a bottle and then as they adjust to that move to a hard top sippy or what ever you choose to use.
4) if your child is older say older than 2 everytime they ask for a bottle give them the bottle without the nipple (and contraptions if it comes with).
one thing to remember no matter wich way you choose to do it is that it is NORMAL for the tantrums, sleeples night, crying, and anything that might get "thrown" at you. Its normal but stick to it and I swear things will fall into place.
