My toddler asks for the bottle mainly as a sleep cue now. We have moved daytime milk to a cup, but bedtime is a different story. If you managed this transition gently, what sequence did you follow? I would especially value recent experiences from the last one or two academic years.
Our daycare teacher gave us a short update after drop-off for the first week. Knowing the crying stopped quickly made it much easier to stay calm at the gate. It took us a couple of weeks before the new routine felt normal. In our house, the practical routine mattered more than the ideal plan.
We tried not to turn it into a power struggle. Offer the routine, keep the boundary, and move on. The dramatic phase passed faster once we stopped negotiating endlessly. We had to repeat the same boundary many times before it clicked. In our house, the practical routine mattered more than the ideal plan.