Dropping Bottles - when? how? please spell it out!!

[ckcole]

I have been reading the boards a lot lately regarding dropping bottles, transitioning to sippy cups, etc.  I have read about how to transition to a sippy cup from a bottle, but no real details about which bottles to do first, when, etc.  I also read that some babies are just doing a morning and nighttime bottle by 9mos.  Here is our eating routine (please feel free to suggest differently!):
7:30 - 8 oz bottle
8:30 - cereal & fruit
11:30 - 6-8 oz bottle (he sometimes only takes 4-6)
1:00 - veg, meat & fruit
4:00 - 8 oz bottle
5:30 - cereal, veg, fruit
7:30 - 8 oz bottle
So, which (if any) bottle should I replace with a sippy cup? Or, is it too early to even worry about it?
Thanks!

[Bobbyc]

Great question im in the very same spot...Cant wait to find out..

[TDR'smom]

It's really up to you, but you could drop either the 11:30AM bottle or the 4PM bottle.  If you wanted to you could almost "combine" the two.  You could do

7:30AM-8oz bottle
8:30-cereal and fruit with sippy (probably won't drink much but that's okay)
11:30AM-lunch
Afternoon bottle right before nap
4pm-snack (yogurt/cheese)
5:30pm-Dinner
7:30pm-8oz bottle

What do you think?

HTH!

Judy

[ckcole]

Okay, so I should start decreasing his formula intake then? (ie, I shouldn't wait for him to start refusing a bottle?) And in that case, do I increase the amount of solids that he gets in the day? Also, I see that you put yogurt/cheese.  Is this to replace the calcium he'll be missing from the formula? DS is on soy formula due to an intollerance to the milk-based formula early on.  I was thinking about starting to re-introduce the milk formula, but want to do it slowly. 

[TDR'smom]

My dd is also on Soy but can tolerate regular milk yogurt and cheese.   

It's up to you if you decide to decrease formula little by little.  I was too impatient so I just upped her food intake and dropped the 4pm bottle first, then moved the 11am bottle to right before nap!

HTH!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Hi,

I just dropped a feed today with Spencer (or rather combined 2 into 1). What we did ended up almost exactly like Judy's routine. It worked great, I was worried she'd raise a stink, but apparently as long as it's some sort of food going in she's happy! She has been on sippy cups for a couple of months now...I got Nuby ones with a soft spout nipple (clear like a bottle - she will not drink out of a solid color spout  ) I had offered it here and there to try it out, but it got to the point that I was slitting the nipples of her bottles open b/c the flow wasn't fast enough so I went cold turkey and just gave her a sippy one morning and that was that!

My dd is also on Soy but can tolerate regular milk yogurt and cheese.  

Really? I'll have to give yogurt a try! Do you use plain yogurt?


HTH
Heidi

[Bobbyc]

Fantastic tips ladies...I was thinking it was about time to drop a bottle..Ok so my LO is on the Nuby sippy too and he loves it as well..Did you mean you put the formula in the sippy??

[ckcole]

Thank you so much for the tips! I am also worried that DS will throw a fit, so I think I'll just give it a try with the solids and see what he thinks.  I'm still in the process of introducing different fruits and veggies, so I'll take a few days and introduce yogurt (would also like to know the answer to pp's question to Judy about yogurt). 
I'm going to start with the new routine this weekend when DH is home.  Will update!

[TDR'smom]

Really? I'll have to give yogurt a try! Do you use plain yogurt?

Both my lo's were on Soy Formula but could tolerate regular milk based yogurt and cheese.

I started off with Yo Baby yogurt which has full fat milk in it.  I think some mom's do not like to use that because there is a lot of sugar but we used it.  Some mommies use those big tubs of plain yogurt and add their own fruit!!

Try it and let me know!!!

Judy

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I have some full fat Activia yogurt (vanilla flavoured though) do you think that would be alright?


 

Fantastic tips ladies...I was thinking it was about time to drop a bottle..Ok so my LO is on the Nuby sippy too and he loves it as well..Did you mean you put the formula in the sippy??

Yup, she has all her formula in the sippy, I did it cold turkey with both my kids actually, first thing in the morning...that way they were so hungry they didn't care what the formula was in!

Today she was at daycare for a few hours and they tried to feed her at 11:00 (someone forgot to tell them I switched it up  ) and she wouldn't eat...I think if she could talk she would have said "excuse me it's time for solids now!!" Amazing how she took to the new routine after only 1 day!!!

Heidi

[TDR'smom]

I have some full fat Activia yogurt (vanilla flavoured though) do you think that would be alright?

i think it would be fine, granted DD is our second and I am MUCH more laid back about what I give her than our first born! 

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

i think it would be fine, granted DD is our second and I am MUCH more laid back about what I give her than our first born! 

Me too    I gave her some, she loved it (which is odd because she won't eat anything else cold) She had a couple of tbsps this afternoon and so far no complaints! (and this whole 3 sippy cups a day is so much easier too...fits into our routine so much better!)

[Bobbyc]

Thank you !! We will give it a try..But i agree cold turkey is the way to do it...Thanks again

[Mashi]

My DS is still on four 7oz bottles at 7, 11, 3 and 7.  He doesn't eat a whole lot of solids, maybe 2 to 2.5 ounces at each meal.  Am I preventing him from getting more solids by keeping his milk so high? I just see that others are quite a bit younger than my DS when they drop a bottle....but our routine is working really well at the moment so I am sooooo scared of dropping a bottle and it messing things up!  What do you think? (Sorry if this is thread hijacking, I figure it is the same topic so we might both benefit from the info!)

[bennysmama]

Same question as Mashimaro, so just lurking a little...
TIA
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