Answer: You have a choice of whether to stop his bottles gradually, by phasing them out over a week or so or just throwing them all away. Offering Matthew all fluids from a normal cup is fine at the age of three. He will be old enough to not need to suck any more and stopping all bottles will reduce the chances of tooth decay. It will also help his speech and language development, chewing, eating and other aspects of his development.
You are absolutely doing the right thing by stopping his bottles. Although he probably won’t be too keen it is in his best interests for you to stop them.
You could give the bottles to a “grateful” neighbour, the postman, someone who has a baby-you may want to be inventive about who to give them to so that Matthew feels a bit better about giving them up.
Keep him busy and when he asks for or is looking for the bottle then distract him and change the subject.
Expect him to be a bit sad and protest for a couple of days, you may want to pick some quiet time at home when there’s not much else going on.
Stay calm and don’t put this off. So many times I’ve heard parents say that the thought of stopping the bottles was bigger than actually doing it. You may have developed a dependency on the bottles too in terms of pacifying him. So think about what you can do to engage and play with him in other ways when he would normally be sucking on a bottle.
Cheers
Jane