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From: jeanette@randvax.UUCP (Jeanette Haritan)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: Re: How do I get my kid off the bottle?!
Message-ID: <2904@randvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 27-Jan-86 10:36:47 EST
Article-I.D.: randvax.2904
Posted: Mon Jan 27 10:36:47 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Jan-86 06:34:23 EST
References: <845@hou2d.UUCP> <771@hou2g.UUCP> <1013@terak.UUCP>
Reply-To: jeanette@rand-unix.UUCP (Jeanette Haritan)
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 33

>WHY? WHY? Why does everyone seem to think a child must give up
>a bottle, a pacifier, a blanket, etc. by some certain age?
>What does it matter to the parents? I can understand ensuring that
>the child learns to use other skills, such as drinking out of
>a cup, is good, and I can understand refusing to give a bottle of
>anything other than water at bedtime for dental health
>reasons. But why insist that the child cannot have a bottle
>at all? The child will give up the bottle when s/he is ready.
>
>(This is not directed specifically at the writer of the
>quoted article, but at all the parents who have written in to
>recommend ways to make the child give up a bottle. I truly
>don't understand why, please enlighten me.)

A child does not do certain things *by instinct*.  A child has to be
prodded, weaned, taught, trained.  A child does not say to himself
"Say, I just turned three, perhaps I should give the bottle the ol'heave
ho!"  This is similar to potty training.  A child does not wake up one
morning and say "Perhaps I shall try the toilet for a change".  He has
to be trained.

A child HAS to give up the bottle at a certain time.  You don't want him
to start his first day in kindergarten with his bottle simply because HE
still wants it at that age.  That is where *you* as a parent comes in.  It
is up to you to decide if you feel he should give up his bottle.  HE MAY
NOT BE READY while he is still relatively young; check his reaction.  Most
children won't give up such comfort without a fight; give him another
means of comfort.  For example, there is a point where a child does not
need his bottle for nourishment, therefore, it is used for comfort.  It is
YOUR RESPONSIBILITY (not your neighbor's, your mother's, any other
mother's) to decide whether or not he is getting too old for this.  If you
think he is, see if he is just as happy taking a stuffed animal to bed,
rather than a bottle.