bottle questions and more.....

[bunnyfuller]

Oh dear,

we are in a muddle...

DD#1 is 15m old and still on 2 bottles a day.  I am trying hard to substitute sippy but she plays with it more than anything.  Does this gradually stop?

The morning bottle she has been waking earlier and earlier for and is unignorable!!  she hollers and hollers...when I have tried giving sippy for that one we've had meltdown...would it be better to get the sippy going for bedtime properly before working on morning one...?

Also - I read here about children' dropping' a bottle - how do you compensate for that lack?  If Alice happens to decide she doesn't want much of bedtime bottle she wakes up several times hungry...and we just can't seem to get more solids in her in day - in fact today for example, her diet consisted of one slice of toast, lots of grapes and cucumber....she's just got SO fussy with her food it is incredible..

Please, we feel totally at a loss, we give her vitamins in her drink (which we limit or she would happily fill up on that) but can't see how dropping more milk will help...and how to!


woe is me, posting everywhere....


Nic xxxxxxx

[Mum to cool dude]

I am not sure I can be helpful but we're sort of in a similar situation:

DS is down to 2 bottles a day now, which I am OK with because they supposedly need about 2 pints of milk until they're 2. He's good with the sippy but only has water in it at meal times and when thirsty. I sometimes worry about the effect of the bottles of his teeth but according to the 3rd book most toddlers willingly give up the bottle by age 2, so we'll see by then  (I'm probably too lax about the effect on teeth, I know). Tracy suggested cutting holes in the teats to get rid of the bottle

I am currently trying to cut down on the amount of morning milk, because it interferes with his breakfast. I guess it will be a matter of cutting down 20 ml by 20 ml very slowly (I did the same with the night bottles)

We're currently keeping the night bottle right before bed because it's part of the bedtime routine and because I need him to sleep on a full tummy in order to sleep through the night, but I also try to encourage him to have a half-decent dinner earlier

The idea is that if you cut down on milk you should add a corresponding amount in solids. Supposedly one ounce of liquid = 25 g of food. It sounds like an impossible task when you have a picky eater on your hands but if you cut down on milk you should find an increase in appetite

Good luck

[tylersmommy]

We ditched the bottle when Tyler turned 1, and he wouldn't take much from the sippy until the bottle had been gone completely for a week or so. It's like he knew there was another way, so he was holding out. ::)Since he wasn't getting his recommended 24 oz of milk each day during that time, we made up for it with other dairy like cheese and yogurt, and we offered the sippy of milk frequently during the day. We gradually cut down on his bottles and his solids appetite adjusted fine.

He wanted no part of substituting a sippy at "bottle times" like bedtime or first thing in the morning, so we just stopped that part of his routine and made sure breakfast was pre-made so we could get some food into him quickly first thing in the morning. If he didn't eat much for dinner, we'd offer a snack before bed to make sure he wasn't going to bed hungry.

[bunnyfuller]

thanks girls,

we're no further ahead really...we had to get a cup Alice couldn't just launch and spill everywhere, and the little minx has sussed it!  she keeps looking all over it and throwing it really hard to try to make milk spill..I guess we have to wait for the novelty to wear off and just keep offering it.

Unfortunately she's in a 'i only eat what I want to' phase - and that isn't including yogurt or anything like that.  So guess she's gonna have a low calcium couple of weeks while we transition.  Ditto trying to get extra food in her to make up for lack of bottles - we have to wait for her to catch on I suppose.  At the moment the whole thing (and teeth) is impacting sleep and I feel dreadful!


Nic

[Brynnsmom]

my dd is 14 mos and we have had similar battles. We used to offer 4 bottles a day, morning, after morning and afternoon naps and then before bedtime. WE first got rid of the afternoon bottle as i think it was too close to dinner time and was intereferring with her meal. We offered a snack and milk in a sippy. She would eat the snack but throw the sippy....followed by tears. I stuck to my guns though and kept offering the sippy- I wasn't worried about her not getting enough at the time cause she would eat something. After about 5 days she would start to drink a few ounces. We have since dropped the morning-nap bottle because we are transitioning to one nap (yet another set if problems!!!) and offer a sippy with a mid morning snack now. I am going to start after our June holiday to get rid of the morning bottle by offering breakfast earlier with a sippy of milk and see how that goes. Then it will just come down to the night bottle...

Hope this helps- I found a lot of trial and error with this but thought I'd at least try it for a week and see how it went!

[bunnyfuller]

no further with the sippy here Bryansmom, but the one nap thing...

Alice dropped hers about a month of so ago, expect some rattiness for a bit, as they still feel tired....maybe bring bedtime earlier for a wee while to help him along!


Nic xxxxxx