12 month old - Expressed breast milk in a sippy cup?

[Joy-filled]

My DS turns 1 today!  I am still BFing and plan to do so for at least another 6-12 months, it just depends if I need to wean him in order to have baby #2 once we're ready to try for that.  Still no AF so not sure if I'll have to wean early.... I really hope I don't.  But that's another story. 

Anyway, I'm not sure if this post fits better under eating for toddlers but I thought I'd try here.  I currently BF 4 times a day (first thing in the morning, 4 hrs after WU so around 11/11:15 (before his nap at 12/12:30), after pm snack around 3:15 and at BT.  I'd like to continue this frequency for as along as I am BFing as I've struggled with low milk supply for the entire past year despite regularly pumping, taking herbs, taking domperidone, eating oatmeal, etc.  Anyway, I'm going back to work in October 3 days/week and I plan to pump 1/day at work so my DS can have expressed breast milk during the day at his home daycare.  He has a lot of experience drinking expressed breast milk from a bottle but I have not yet tried to give him milk in a sippy cup - I'm not sure he'd get enough milk if I did.  It seems like it is highly discouraged to use a bottle with a baby after they are 1.  Please excuse my ignorance but can someone explain why that is so important? It seems like there's a big push to move away from the bottle to a sippy cup and I'm not sure what the rush is?  A bottle is like the breast so I'm not sure why it's so important for him to drink breast milk out of a cup when he'd be drinking it off of me if I was there.  Sorry if I'm missing something obvious!

He is great at drinking water from a sippy cup so he is learning how to do that without issue however he only drinks a few sips at a time so I don't think he'd drink enough milk if it was in a sippy cup instead of a bottle.  He drinks about 4 oz worth of breast milk at the 2 feeds during the day but I highly doubt he'd drink that much from a cup.  However, should I do it anyway?  Should I start giving him expressed breast milk in a sippy cup in preparation for day care or is it okay if he takes it in a bottle at daycare?  Or will he learn to drink more at a time from the sippy cup if it's milk and I shouldn't worry about it? 

[Fiver]

Please excuse my ignorance but can someone explain why that is so important? It seems like there's a big push to move away from the bottle to a sippy cup and I'm not sure what the rush is?

No worries.  I think the issue with bottle usage after 1y is that they have a lot more teeth so there is concern that sucking at a bottle can affect that and cause issues with tooth decay.

A bottle is like the breast so I'm not sure why it's so important for him to drink breast milk out of a cup when he'd be drinking it off of me if I was there.

Funnily enough, the action of sucking on a bottle at the breast is quite different.  LOs have to make a wave-like motion with the tongue in order to BF and the milk is delivered to the back of the mouth.  When they aren't actively sucking, there is no milk going into their mouth.

With a bottle, milk is constantly dripping (unless you have some sort of fancy bottle with a valve that only gives milk when being sucked) and the teat doesn't necessarily sit towards the back of the mouth.  Because of those things, you can end up with milk pooling behind LO's teeth (if they fall asleep feeding) which can be an issue with teeth (although not quite so much of an issue with EBM as with formula).

If you feel it's important for him to have that extra EBM during the day, I would either persist with the sippy or an open cup.  As milk isn't the main source of nutrition after 12m, you could always not provide those feeds for the days you're at work and he could have water or cows milk at daycare.  Milk supply is fully established by 12m and you should be able to continue to give the feeds you want to on the days you're not at home without too much trouble.

[Joy-filled]

Thanks for your response!  I gave it a try and turns out he chugged the milk from the sippy cup!  So all my worries were for nothing . 

I wasn't sure what you meant by

Milk supply is fully established by 12m and you should be able to continue to give the feeds you want to on the days you're not at home without too much trouble.

  Do you mean that I shouldn't need to pump on the days I'm at work?  I'm assuming that if I don't pump it will decrease my milk supply (my constant fear due to 10 months of not having enough milk for DS until he was well established on solids).  If you don't think it will decrease my milk supply to  not pump on the days I'm at work, would he get enough nutrition/calories if he had water instead of EBM during the day when I'm at work?  I don't want to give cow's milk as we are vegan and do not consume animal products.  I know solids will be his main source of caloric intake from this point on, but I don't want him to miss out on needed calories/nutrients and I just would want to make sure he's getting enough from the am and BT feeds if I'm going to cut out the day feeds on the days I'm at work.   What do you think?

[Fiver]

Sorry to answer a question with a question, but what sort of solids diet is your DS having?

[Joy-filled]

Not a problem!  Here's a typical day:

Breakfast - 1 piece of gluten free toast with avocado spread on it (was delaying wheat until 1 year old as reacted to wheat in my diet when he was younger)
Lunch 1 (before nap) - veggies (eg. broccoli, green beans) and protein (chick peas, kidney beans or black beans)
Lunch 2 (after nap) - tomato and rice cake with hummus/tahini spread
Supper - protein soup (eg. lentil soup) with veggies (eg. cauliflower, peas) and avocado chunks

[Fiver]

So he's on a vegan diet too, yes?

Honestly, I don't know much about being vegan and combining that with BF.  Under different circumstances I would've said that your supply would cope with not doing those day feeds for 3 days a week while you're at work and then doing them at home, but given your previous issues, I wouldn't want to stake my reputation on everything being ok if you do that .  Also I can't say for certain whether the diet he is eating at the moment provides the nutrition/calories needed without the extra BFs, simply because I'm not that clued up on the vegan diet (which, presumably, you are).

Ultimately it's up to you what you do and whether you pump and offer that in a sippy while you're away.

Glad he took to it well, though

[Joy-filled]

Yes, he's on a vegan diet as well .  I've done lots of research and there's a lot of evidence indicating that children on vegan diets do very, very well so I really don't need to worry about it, especially since I'll be supplementing with BM. 

I think just to be safe that my supply doesn't decrease, though, I'll still plan to pump at work.  Thanks for the input!

[Fiver]

No problem.  I really thought you would've looked into it carefully.