Bye-Bye Bottles, Zebra

Worked wonders!

Purchased for my 19 month old. Read it and then he asked me to read it 2 more times back-to-back. I told him he was a big boy, just like zebra, and showed him his new big kid cups. I also showed him I was throwing out his baby bottles (except I snuck them back in later and hid them for his future sibling.) I let him choose the sippy cup of his choice for milk, but he knows there are no more bottles. Going cold turkey really worked for us. I plan on doing the same for the pacifier. I already bought that one and the big kid bed from the same author for the next milestones. Hoping they work just as well, but I think if parents stick to the plan, everything will pan out.

I’m trying REALLY hard to get my 2.5 year old off his bottle for naps and bed. It’s HARD, and I wish I’d known sooner how tough this habit would be to break. He doesn’t use pacifiers or suck his thumb, so this is his one last “baby habit” that needs to be broken before we can start potty training. I know what you’re thinking…. But he has sleep issues and his team of therapists has always said we’d get to the bottle later! I’ve tried cold turkey but he won’t sleep, I’ve tried every cup out there, etc.He LOVES this book and asks to read it all day. It’s super simple and not very long, but that’s OK: it gets the point across. He has a speech delay but picked up “NO MORE BOTTLE” after reading this for one day! I think this might actually work. The only thing I don’t like is how they show zebra THROWING the bottle. Please…. Throw it in the garbage! Or hand it back to Mommy….. but don’t throw it. 🤦🏻‍♀️Planning on buying a sippy that looks exactly like the one Zebra uses, if I can find one! I’ll update when we get off the bottle for good.Hope this helps!

TL;DR - My toddler loves books and really takes in the messages in children’s books about behavior, so this book worked for us. Seeing the main character use her sippy/big kid cup really encouraged my toddler to give up her bottle.———————-I have been trying to get my toddler to drink milk out of a cup since she was about 8-9 months. She was perfectly capable of and fine with drinking water from any type of cup but when it came to milk, she would take a sip from the cup and immediately spit out the milk every single time.I gave up on bottle weaning for a bit and focused on potty training. I decided to try the Diapers are Not Forever book. She loved that book and it really encouraged her to potty train. After the book (and getting fabric potty training underwear), she was potty trained in a few days.From that success, I tried searching for a children’s book about bottle weaning and this zebra book was pretty much one of the only ones. I was hesitant about the main character being a zebra instead of a child but my daughter loved the book and she decided to give her straw cup of milk a shot. The bottle spell was finally over at 21 months (better late than never)!The only thing I don’t like about the story is that in one part, the zebra physically throws/or slaps away her bottle. I would have preferred if she threw the bottle away in the trash, not just throw/slap it randomly in the air. My daughter loves to imitate so I explained to her that the bottle was being thrown in the trash, even though the picture shows it sailing in the air with no real target.Also, my daughter kept saying the Z in the cover is a 7 since the bottom of the letter is blocked by the Zebra. I had to P-touch a blank label over it to make it look more like a Z.

This book did the trick to get my 2 1/2 year old off the bottle! We were super behind (please don't judge) and dreading the process because the few times we had tried not giving him a nighttime bottle he would cry until he made himself sick. I read this story to him after bath time and he kept wanting to hear it over and over. Nice simple writing and colorful pictures. Then we put him in his crib for bed and read it to him 2 more times. He asked for a baba once, I reminded him about the zebra and how he is a big boy now and no babas, and then he was fine and went to sleep! Since then, he has not asked for a bottle and I was able to pack them all up! Magical!!!