The Striving for Autonomy and Regressive Object Relationships

I was never able to explain why almost all breast-fed babies can be weaned easily to the cup between six and nine months of age, whereas so many bottle-fed babies at the same age become increasingly devoted to the bottle and suspicious of the cup.

Most breast-feeding mothers will report spontaneously, when the baby is about six months old, that his interest in the breast is decreasing markedly. Instead of nursing eagerly for a quarter to a half hour, he now releases the nipple after a very few minutes, smiles and coos at his mother, has to be reminded to resume nursing several times during each feeding. (If the mother wishes the breast feeding to continue for a number of months longer, she can persuade the baby to keep at it.)

Some bottle-fed babies at this age will show the same decreasing interest in the bottle, and will take increasing amounts of milk from the cup. Others, particularly those who are allowed to hold and drink their own bottles in bed, become more and more enamored of the bottle at seven, eight, and nine months of age, watching it all the while they are taking their solid food, reaching for it eagerly when it is offered, fondling it and murmuring to it as they drain it to the last drop. These babies, even though they were formerly willing to take sips of milk from the cup at five or six months, are now apt to turn against it with suspicion. They clamp their mouths shut when the cup is offered and knock it away. A few of them permit the mother to pour the milk into their open mouths but, grinning, let it all run onto their bibs. Yet, interestingly enough,