Author Topic: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)  (Read 5103 times)

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Offline *Kara*

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Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« on: May 25, 2012, 20:22:50 pm »
Well, DD is coming up on 19 months and has had 2 bottles a day for about 4 months now.  I know that she doesn't need them as she will STTN just fine on the rare occasion that she doesn't drink her BT bottle... she eats a well balanced diet including cheese, yogurt etc... she doesn't tolerate milk at all.  She still has formula in her bottles.  So, we have now come to terms with the fact that milk won't be a part of her diet for much longer (we are going to discontinue formula in the next month once the case I just bought is gone).

So, any tips to ditch the bottles?  She has one before her nap and one at bedtime. 

Is it better to switch both to a sippy (one at a time/together) or better to just reduce the formula in the bottle until it's gone?

Right now, she will not drink formula from her sippy if offered... she drinks loads of water from it though ::)

Any advice or ideas are more than welcome!



Offline *Becky*

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2012, 09:06:00 am »
Hi kara,
I think we were quite lucky with DS as this was one area I stressed about but had no reason to. I got rid of the am bottle first, just put it in a sippy and went with it. The first couple of days he did not take much if at all but I did not go back to the bottle as I knew he was getting enough dairy for his needs. After about 4 days i would say he drank it all and that continued. He was 13 months at the time. At 15 months I used the same cup and did the bedtime milk. It was no problem at all. He was so used to the cup and tbh he is not a cuddly boy so was quite happy to sit and drink it himself while i read him a story. So my advice would be to not start with the bedtime one and get her used to the cup for a while....I got a different sippy for milk to his water one so he knew what it was for.
Hope that helps a bit..




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Offline *Kara*

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2012, 15:39:14 pm »
Well, she had the new almond/coconut milk again today and doesn't really bother with it... so... now we are ditching her bottles for the sake of no milk.  Ugh.



Offline Buntybear

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2012, 17:28:41 pm »
Keep trying Hun. There is no rush. As you say she is getting enough nutrients from her diet to completely drop that day bottle right?

Offline *Kara*

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2012, 02:29:19 am »
According to the doctor - yes.  Momma heart - no.  But I would probably feel the same if she was 12 YO.  Maybe I will just transition her to formula in her sippy for a while...



Offline *Amy*

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2012, 04:31:49 am »
I am stopping the bottle too, dd gets cows milk though.
She also has her bottles at the same time as your dd. I am thinking of getting a sippy and giving her milk before nap and again sippy and bed. I have no problem with her drinking milk before bed until I am trying for night time dryness!


Offline *Liz*

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #6 on: May 27, 2012, 05:17:45 am »
Oh ladies I must do this as well. Here I am celebrating DDs second birthday yet we are still on 2 bottles a day  ::) ::) ::).

Offline snowbird

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2012, 20:48:30 pm »
Liz, we're going to be like you with LJ.  She's on 4 bottles at the mo - wake-up, 10am, 2-3pm and bedtime.  So far I've cut the 2 day ones down to 7oz  and she doesn't necessarily have all of that now.  But she does love her milk and she loves the bottles too.  Tried offering it to her in as sippy cup and from the carton with a straw but not interested.  She's 13.5 months at the mo and it's going to take a while.

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Offline *Kara*

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #8 on: June 03, 2012, 21:02:59 pm »
Snowbird - that is a lot of milk for her age hun... how is she with food?



Offline snowbird

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #9 on: June 03, 2012, 21:22:47 pm »
I know, Kara.  Need to sort it out, but it's difficult.

She wakes in the morning and isn't interested on breakfast anymore.  Although she used to have breakfast first and then milk, we've started giving her the milk and then trying breakfast an hour later.  Sometimes she eats some, sometimes she doesn't.  Never has much though! We try and give her a snack of fruit around 9am and then milk at 10am.  She has plenty of lunch - sandwich, cucumber, fruit afterwards.  In the afternoon she has a snack - rice cakes/homemade savoury flapjacks.  and then dinner.  Sometimes eats loads of dinner, sometimes hardly touches it.  Usually depends on what it is.  Loves pasta and rice and will eat loads! Also has fruit with yogurt for dessert.

Her solids are on and off. When she's teething she seems to go off them and be more interested in milk.  We keep trying though.

Like I said, she won't have it out of a sippy cup.  I think one of the problems is she's got used to having a bottle before her naps and now expects it.  She seems to like the suckling and it relaxes her! I know she doesn't need the milk as for months (and even now most of the time) she refuses milk at nursery (one day a week) and is fine.

Would be great if you've got any ideas about which bottle to cut first/how to do it.

Snowbird xxx



Offline *Kara*

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #10 on: June 03, 2012, 21:29:57 pm »
I totally know where you are coming from hun!  I have an almost 19 month old who thinks that milk comes from a bottle and water from a sippy - no messing with this or you will hear about it! 

We were in the same situation at 13 months - but with three bottles as we were moved to one nap... we had a bottle at wake up, one before nap and a BT bottle.  I managed to get rid of the AM one first... it did take a couple of weeks though!  I just reduced it from 8 ozs to 5 ozs and then would try each morning to skip that bottle and offer breakfast right away... some days it worked and some we had to warm a bottle after we tried for 5-10 mins to get her to eat.  We didn't push too hard and she did do it on her own.

We still have the nap bottle and BT bottle now.. but they are reduced down to 5 ozs at nap and 7 ozs at BT.  I can tell you that the odd day where she has a tough night/EW, I will give her a big 8 oz bottle and put her down before lunch and she will generally eat far less over the course of the day.



Offline snowbird

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #11 on: June 03, 2012, 21:39:02 pm »
Mmm - so maybe work on getting rid of the early morning bottle first!? Could try that - was thinking we'd keep that for a while yet and it was the day feeds I needed to get rid of, but makes sense.  Not sure if she's just not into cereal as she eats fruit at her morning snack and wolfs it down.  Might try some banana with her cereal or something.

Thanks, Kara.



Offline *Kara*

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #12 on: June 03, 2012, 23:48:37 pm »
I added applesauce or pear sauce to her baby cereal and she would wolf it down :)



Offline snowbird

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #13 on: June 04, 2012, 05:34:11 am »
Thanks - she'd probably like that xxx



Offline julesdq

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #14 on: June 08, 2012, 19:13:51 pm »
My LO is 20 months and has one bottle at BT. I've been trying to encourage milk in a sippy cup, through a straw, carton... ANYTHING but she would just spit it out in disgust. Then yesterday we were playing with her teaset and I was pretending to pour milk out of the little plastic jug into a teacup and she asked for some and ran to the fridge. I gave her some cold milk and she poured it in her little teacup and drank it all then asked for more. She did the same thing today. Maybe this is how she'll be drinking her milk for a while! I think they all do it in their own time and their own way!
Now to stop that night time bottle...........

Offline clairebear79

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #15 on: June 08, 2012, 19:26:28 pm »
I have an almost 19 month old who thinks that milk comes from a bottle and water from a sippy - no messing with this or you will hear about it!
^^^this is my DS too. ::) ::)

He is 21.5months & just has one bottle at bedtime, but he screams & yells for it.  We tried to get rid of it a few months ago but he just wouldn't drink milk from a sippy although he drinks water from it no problem during the day.

We finally thought we'd had a breakthrough about 2 weeks ago b.c we were looking at a book & there was a picture of milk in a sippy & I told him 'big boys drink their bedtime milk from a beaker not a bottle' and he suddenly ran to the kitchen wanting to choose a beaker to have his milk in.  He only drank 3oz & the next night he asked for his bottle again.  We gave it to him & I think this was a mistake & we should have persevered.  We are having terrible trouble with his eating right now though, & most days he is refusing dinner so I don't want to take a stance over the milk yet as I want him going to bed with something in his belly.  And I'm not unduly worried about him having 1 bottle/day, esp since he's MPI so its really the main opportunity for him to have his calcium.  But the time is coming....very soon!  ;)

Offline ZacsMumme

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #16 on: June 08, 2012, 19:37:23 pm »
Ugh, we're in the same boat. I did the dumb thing too where I replaced BT bf with bottle because I was terrified he would scream if I offered nothing. Now he loves his BT bottle ::)

I'm trying to reduce the volume for his pre nap bottle. We're on 150mls about to drop to 100.

BTW Claire- I hear you on the BT bottle and dinner disinterest!
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Offline Rizo

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #17 on: June 08, 2012, 19:47:35 pm »
We weaned the before nap bottle at around 16months and the BT bottle at around 19months (same as you). I reduced the amount of milk over a couple of weeks from 200ml down to 100ml. Then one day when he was in a happy mood about going to bed, quite tired, big morning and exhausted I just did his stories and didn't offer the bottle. He didn't even notice! :o

We did the same with the BT bottle later. When we were reducing it and he complained about being finished I would just say "thats all the milk, you must have drunk it all up" and he would look at the bottle and be like "oh yeah theres none left now, ok"

Offline *Kara*

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #18 on: June 08, 2012, 19:52:39 pm »
Mine can't drink cow's milk so I have that issue as well... I will be weaning her just to water soon though!



Offline ZacsMumme

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #19 on: June 08, 2012, 19:57:52 pm »
We're also on formula, Z refuses cows milk. But I dilute it. So really he gets the equiv of 1 formula bottle not 2 ATM. Doesn't bother him.
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Offline *Kara*

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #20 on: June 08, 2012, 20:39:10 pm »
I have cut Alexandra way back too...

5ozs at nap and 7 ozs at bedtime.



Offline ZacsMumme

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #21 on: June 09, 2012, 02:23:55 am »
Umm we cut his nap bottle to 100mls today and he had a little fit when he finished lol
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Offline *Kara*

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Re: Ditching the bottle - advice please ;)
« Reply #22 on: June 09, 2012, 03:51:27 am »
LOL~!