A few questions about juice, bottle weaning and sippy cup use......

[hlatreille]

I'm hoping for some advise on what to do here.....

DS just turned 1 and he still drinks 2 bottles of milk (one in the morning and one at bedtime).....when should I start weaning him from this??

DS has started to want more fluids during the day so I have been offering watered down juice in a little 4oz bottle to have throughout the day.  How much juice is too much?  Today he drank 3 - 4oz bottles.....normally he will drink 2 - 4oz bottles, but when he finishes a bottle, I just re-fill it so he always has something to drink.....is this bad to do?  When I say "juice"  I mean 1/4 juice & 3/4 water.  He did have a bit more of a loose stool today so maybe he had too much?  What is the normal amount to give?

I have read that he really should be using a sippy cup, but he just doesn't know to tip it up to get the liquid out.  He just holds it and chews on the end....I'm afraid if I only allow him to have the sippy cup that he won't be hydrated enough throughout the day, so I offer it to him but then give in and give him a bottle....I try to teach him to tip it but he just gives up and throws the cup on the floor....I tried even giving him a straw cup but he doesn't get how to use it either......any advise?

If anyone has suggestions, I would be very grateful!  Thanks in advance.

[Peek-a-boo]

Well--I'd persist with the sippy cup.   I'd try a number of different styles of cups.  There are a lot out there and some are more bottle-like than others.  The Nuby brand have soft nipple-like spouts that are quite bottle-like.   Maybe he needs to try some more options?

[mommy2mason]

As for weaning the bottles, it's totally a personal choice. Some wean right around a year and others have are fine with letting them hang onto a couple bottles until 2 or later. I weaned at a year because my Dr. suggested it but my LO was never really too attached to his bottles so it wasn't too difficult.

I think I remember reading that toddlers should only have 4-6 oz. of juice a day. I'm not sure if that includes diluted with water or not. DS usually gets about 6oz. of diluted juice with his pm snack. I think the loose stool probably was from the juice. Maybe you could offer him water throughout the day and only juice once a day?

When my LO was first learning to use a sippy cup he got frustrated and just chewed on it like your LO is doing. He couldn't quite figure out that he had to suck pretty hard on it to get anything out. I took the valve out of it so he didn't have to suck hard at all and he learned that he was able to get something out of it. I left the valve out for a couple days and when I put it back in he had no problem with it. Definitely try a few different sippy cups. There were some that my LO hated and couldn't use at all and some he loved. His favorites were the Gerber fun grips soft starter and the Gerber soft spout sip n' smile. He's also loved the straw cups since about a year old.

Just keep trying and he'll get the hang of it soon!