What is the best way to wean from the bottle?

[gabrielsmommy]

Hi everyone.  My son will be a year old next Friday.  He is in daycare and will be transitioning out of the infant room next week.  In this room they have more of a set schedule for the day.  The problem is they feed the children lunch at around 11:30 and my son is not ready to eat then.  After lunch they have nap time from 12-2pm.  I need to transition him off the morning bottle to facilitate an earlier breakfast so he will be hungry for lunch when it is offered at daycare.  Here is our schedule currently at home.

7-7:30am  Awake and 7oz bottle
9am          Breakfast with milk in sippy cup offered
10:30        Nap
12:30-1pm Lunch with milk in sippy cup
3:30pm      Nap
5-6pm        Dinner with milk in sippy cup
7:30-8pm   Bath, Bottle (7oz) and Bed

We are just getting away from an afternoon bottle with nap by offering milk in a sippy cup with lunch and before the nap.

Thanks for the advice!
Robyn

[gabrielsmommy]

In the new room there is a schedule, not in the infant room.

[Texomamama]

Robyn,

Your routine looks very similar to what both of my girls were on at that age.  Not sure there is anything you can do specifically to alter it, except maybe cutting back on the size of that 7 am bottle or offering a smaller breakfast.  Personally, I would just leave it alobe, and I think he will probably figure out that lunch comes at 11:30, not 12:30.  Also, the fact that all the LO's are in there eating together will probably spur him to eat.  Peer/social eating works even from this young an age.  Lastly, if he just picks at his lunch, don't stress too much about it.  He has 2 other meals to make up for it.

As an aside, I notice that you live in Pensacola.  My husband and I were just there in April where he was interviewing with a surgical practice in Gulf Breeze.  We decided on an opportunity in Denver.  Anyway, we really, really liked the Pensacola area.  Of course, the beaches were some of the nicest I have ever been to, and it really seemed like there was a lot of new construction and urban turnaround going on.  We lived a year in Jacksonville in the mid 2000s.  I love what Northern FL has to offer.  I am sure you enjoy it there

[Buntybear]

Hi, what time will he be starting nursery in the morning? Does he have breakfast there? When we started nursery at 11.5 months we tried to align there routine to ours a bit so it wasn't such a jump.

That does seem a lot of milk in a day but as we BF I am no expert on how to drop bottles. At 12 months we were on the morning and BT BF I am think I gave milk at snack times but water with meals.

7-9am does seem a long time to last until breakfast! Olly wouldn't have lasted that long! I would be looking to reduce the morning bottle so he is hungrier for an earlier breakfast - would that fit in with your routine?

Will move you post over to the Toddlers board as your LO is so close to 1 x

[gabrielsmommy]

He is usually at daycare by 8am.  He is not a great eater and I stress about it all the time.  He fight me when  try to feed him almost every meal.  I put food on his tray to encourage him to self feed too, but he mostly just throws it in the floor or squeezes it in his hand and makes a mess.  This is why I try to encourage so much milk because I worry he doesn't eat enough.  He has been eating breakfast at daycare but we need to try and start feeding him before he goes.  I guess I will try to just get him up and give him half the bottle he normally gets and feed him breakfast shortly after or not offer the bottle and feed him immediately with milk in his sippy cup.

[Lolly]

I think that offering more milk because he isn't eating much is probably not helping the eating! He is filling himself up on the milk so he isn't hungry enough to eat. From 1 they only need 12-14oz of dairy to get their needs met and that doesn't have to be liquid milk, food counts.

I think offering a smaller bottle and breakfast soon after should work, if it doesn't you can go the food first milk after route. I would also stop offering milk with meals until he is eating better, maybe give a sippy of milk with a snack if/ when he has one but stick to water with meals. You can increase the amount of dairy based foods like yoghurt and cheese to keep his levels up!

Laura

[gabrielsmommy]

So how much fluid should a 1 yr old consume in a day?  I offer milk and water all day long because I worry he is not drinking enough.  He drinks about 10oz of milk a day and maybe 4-6 oz of water.  He eats maybe one container of yogurt a day and he isn't fond of anything that is cheese flavored so I don't offer it.  I can stop offering milk with meals and give water or nothing until he is done eating.  He still takes a bottle at bedtime so that is on average 4-5oz of milk.  When should I offer the other milk?