The Bottle Fairy, part 1

So today is a pretty big day in our household....today we have decided to wean Sylvie from her bottles, cold turkey! Sylvie started using bottles when she was around 8 or 9 months old, and she has been so attached to them. She has one for each nap and bedtime, and for about 6 months now her pediatrician has been telling me to get her off of them. In fact the new trend seems to be to have kids off of bottles much much earlier than even 2 years of age, but I just haven't had the heart to do it. She's so attached to them, she actually sleeps with her drained bottle curled up in her arms. We know each morning when she first wakes up because the first thing we hear is the bottle hitting the bed slats. So anyway, it was with much trepidation and anxiety on my part that we decided to do this, but I knew the timing was right. We were down to only TWO decent bottle nipples, and I knew I couldn't go buy new ones in good conscience. So taking a cue from SuperNanny (that show is so great!) we decided to use the Bottle Fairy method.

Step 1: Talk about the Bottle Fairy. We spent about a week telling Sylvie all about her. That she comes and collects bottles from girls and boys and brings them to all the new babies that need them. That because Sylvie is a big girl now she's ready to share her bottles with all the little babies. We told her that the Bottle Fairy would come while Sylvie was sleeping, and that in place of the bottles she would leave Sylvie toys. Sylvie wasn't really too receptive to the whole idea until I mentioned the toys, at which point she'd perk up and say "LOTS of toys, Mommy!" And I'd reaffirm it and tell her yes, lots of toys!

Step 2: Collect all bottles and bottle parts before bedtime. We got a special pink and white box and pretended like we were having a scavenger hunt looking for bottles. Sylvie loved it and was running from room to room, looking under the beds and couch and in every cabinet. She had a lot of fun looking for them.


Step 3: Make a pretty card for the Bottle Fairy.


Step 4: Bring the bottles and card outside and leave them right by the door, so the Bottle Fairy knows where to find them. Sylvie took this part very seriously and slowly carried them to the door.



Here she is jumping for joy that she's gotten everything ready and that now the Bottle Fairy can come. She must have asked us at least a dozen times if the Bottle Fairy was really going to leave her toys!

We sat outside for a few minutes and told her how proud we were of her and what a big girl she was. We had some hugs and kisses and of course talked more about the toys. Then Sylvie told us that she wanted to pick a flower. She went into the garden and picked a tall weed and put it in one of the bottles. This was totally unprompted and just about killed me from the sweetness. Here she is putting the flower in the blue bottle:


Bedtime went smoothly, although there were a few tears when she realized she wasn't getting her usual nighttime bottle. That giving her bottles to the Fairy really meant that there were none for her. She was sad about it but we gave her a sippy cup of water and she instantly curled up with it and fell asleep. John and I are SO proud of her, we're beaming!