feeding advice and getting 11old to take milk from a cup!

[Alexa's mummy]

hi there, not sure how worried about getting my 11.5m old DD to take milk from a cup i should be?? the health visitor was quite harsh with me and said i should push it as there should be NO bolltles after 12 months!! i know i wont eliminate bedtime bottle by 12m (maybe by 18m?!) but she also has a bottle in morning, and seems to still need this. when i try giver her milk in a cup she WILL NOT drink it! as soon as she realises ists milk she turns away. she uses standard sippy cup for water no probles. i've tried around 6 different "soft spout" silicopn type cups for milk but she's having none of it!

she is 75th centile ofr height and weight, and our routine is:

Wake: 7
7.30am: solids b'fast: cereal w cows milk, toast, fruit
9am: Bottle- 5/6oz
11.30am: Lunch- eats a v good lunch. v varied diet and gd amt of protein etc.
12.30-2.30: Sleep
2.30: only just replaced this bottle with a snack and water as she wont take milk in a cup. if she's ill or not had much lunch i also offer her 4oz FF
5pm: Tea- eats well at this meal too
6pm bath
6.30: 7oz bottle
6.45: sleep

we clean teeth at bathtime. she doesn't need bottle to fall asleep but she is very tired by BT and i dont think doing teeth after would go down well!

should i relax about it for a while or keep trying with cups? what should we be aiming for? should i try cup of milk for am bottle too? i always offer cows milk in sippy cup in afternoons, but most if it gets wasted. should i try in mornings too just too get her used to it? do others have experiences of siliar at this age and then they just "get it"? she dropped other bottles with transition to solids ok, but i worry she still needs am milk as she's only really getting total 12oz a day. what is rec amt of formula at this age?

TIA!

Anna x

[Lolly]

I would listen to your HV, nod politely and do what you think is best for your DD personally! HVs don't have all the answers and judging from the variety of advice offered to people a lot seems based on their own opinions!

From 1 year they rec amount of milk is about 16oz, but formula is very filling so switching to cows milk is what they tell us to do. My DD still has her bedtime bottle (reflux formula) which her pead approves so I wouldn't be in a rush to drop that yet. I would try and get those teeth cleaned after the bottle though, that's why they want bottles dropped to protect the teeth.

We kept DD's morning bottle for a couple of months after she turned 1, swapped it around for breakfast first then changed it for a sippy with a snack mid morning.

I would keep offering milk in a sippy, it does take a while for them to take a decent amount from a sippy, we offer with food too. Maybe try a straw cup - that may work!

As you said, relax about it, let her have that morning bottle if you are happy with it and let her lead you with the sippy cups!

HTH!

Laura

[kayra]

hi Anna,
I would probably relax a bit. I'm pretty sure that my DS was still using the bottle for his milk around this age. In fact at 12months I'd transitioned from formula to cows milk and I remember using the bottle so that it wouldn't be too big a change, and he transitioned with no problems. At that point I finished off what ever formula I had and within a few days he was totally on cows milk. They seem to be ok with water etc out of cups but milk is a totally different story. I eventually got DS drinking milk out of a sippy cup, probably around 15-18mths and then it's just the last 2 months or so that he will drink his milk from a normal cup as opposed to a sippy spout. keep trying the sippy spout at every offer of milk, but don't push it. you could also try offering it with a straw just so she gets used to the idea of having it in a different way. the sippy cup DS finally accepted for milk turned out to be the cheap little ikea cup-the one that's in a set like a frog. But I only started getting firmer about it when I was confident about the rest of his calcium intake and felt he was old enough to get the idea of 'no you need to drink from this cup'.
hope that helps.
K

[Alexa's mummy]

hi ladies thats so much for such good advice, and so speedy too!

i will relax a bit, and just keep persevering with the sippy cup for milk, as u say it can take a while but i guess most kids manage the transition at some point so i'm sure Alexa's no different! I may try changing AM bottle to cows milk (slowly swap oz for oz) then try moving that to sippy once she's used to cows milk change. then i will tackle bedtime bottle. I agree i should probably look at doing teeth after bottle though. its difficult as when she bruses her teeth i'm not sure how well they actually get brushed! but she certainly needs to be in the habit of doing them before bedtime. so maybe i need to change the routine to bath, bottle, teeth, story, bed...?

the straw thing is a great idea too, will def try that... i spose its still a bit of a suck which they like dont they!

thanks again : )

Anna x

[Alexa's mummy]

ps Laura- totally with u on the HV's! the ones i have experienced might as well just be reading me set advice without any amount of flexibility or understanding of how each child is different- i have found it quite frustrating!

[Lolly]

 

With the teeth, my dentisr advised letting them clean for themselves in the mornings but making sure that we got a clean in as well at bedtime to make sure they were done thoroughly - it was a battle at first but they get used to it!

Laura

[Texomamama]

I did the transition with DD1 exactly how you are thinking of doing it.  I swapped an ounce of formula for an ounce of cows milk over a period of about 3 weeks.  Then, I let her drink the cow's milk from her bottle for another month or so.  We were completely off the bottle by 13 months.  The reason they all push you to be off the bottle is for dental reasons.  However, remember the bottle is just a vessel, same as a sippy or regular glass.  As long as your LO is not nursing a bottle for hours on end, going to bed with it etc, there is no harm done.  In fact, to avoid this, I never let DD hold her bottles herself.  I sat down next to her and kept it in my hand and she would drink her 6-7 ounces in less than 15 minutes. 

[Alexa's mummy]

hey texomama, thanks and i think thats a good point.... she never holds the bottle herself, i always loved giving her a bottle so much that its always a cuddly time. so she has it in my arms and its done in 10-15mins max, then thats it, so its not like she's chewing away on teat with milk in it for hours. is there something about drinking from the bottle that makes the milk go more on their teeth anyway even if its over as quick as drinking out cup iyswim?!

think i will focus on switching to cows milk, then work on transition to cup for am milk in couple weeks. she still wont have milk in cup in afternoon, i offer cup and cold milk when up from nap around 2.30 but she wont have it... but if i offer bottle she drains it! do i assume thats just cos she likes the bottle and if she was truly hungry she'd have the cup? she's always been fussy with milk temp of bottles from day one if it wasn't perfect temp, no matter how hungry she was she'd push it away!

Laura- u know u said cows milk is less filling than formula? does that mean i should slowly swap ounce for ounce at BT bottle too when we do that change, to prevent her suddenly waking in night hungry? would it make that much of a difference?

Anna xx