Do you want to chat about transitioning to a sippy cup??

[*Liz*]

I just hold it for him if it is an open cup. I do have a doidy cup and he will sometimes hold the handles but I have to control it. I have no idea how long it will take for him to hold it himself - but I assume it will be a while.

I'd still keep offering a free flow sippy with handles as well with the same stuff him as as then sooner or later he will pick it up himself, stick it in his mouth and realise 'oh, its that stuff' and slowly start to do it himself.

I don't think I ever really taught him though - he just eventually got the idea.

I never pushed it very hard TBH but I'm happy that he is drinking water and juice out of his cup at 11mths. He is consistently refusing his middle bottle at my mums house so I think we are going to try some milk in his cup instead next week.

Lizzie - how many bottles is your lo having a day? It is not uncommon for a 12 mth old to still reject milk in a cup - sounds like your first lo did really really well.

[ladyinred]

Hello LizJ

   Natalee is taking 3 to 4, 7 to 8oz bottles a day(24-32oz a day). The 32oz has dropped, as I think that was a recent growth sprut. She will drink a few sips out of the sippy cup, and then whine and want her bottle. So I pour it back in and sure enough she will finish it. However if their is juice in it she will drink it. She drinks juice,ice-tea, regular organic milk from her sister's older sippy cup. She's on a step up formula until she's closer to age 2, then we switch to organic milk.

Caroline was very easy, and by the end of 12 months all the bottles were gone. I had no issues. I did not know that some 12 month olds refuse formula/milk from a sippy cup.

My friend had her 9 month old baby boy off the bottle and on sippys. He is off the charts in weight and height.

I hope of the next few months that she will frink the formula out of the sippy. I hate seeing 2 y/o's with bottles.....

Lizzie

[~*Nicole*~]

Ladyinred-Is there any reason Natalee is on the step up formula? I am only asking because I was told to not use any formula after 12 months by DD's doctor so I was curious. Also, I did find that if I kept giving DD formula in her bottles she kept refusing the cups, but the more I offered the cups and didn't offer the bottle if she got frustrated the faster she got the hang of it and switched to the cups. But she isn't so touchy so she tolerated my pushing a bit easier than some. She would gladly still take a bottle if I let her as she was very interested in her 9 month old cousins this past week on vacation. She kept taking his bottles and saying "cup" and walking around with them and tried to put it in her mouth a couple of times. I had to keep taking them from her. She didn't cry though so that's good.

[ladyinred]

Hello Nicole,

  Both of my girls are adopted from the same  birth parents. Although this is an open adoption in that I know who the birth parents are, and we met them, and we know some medical history. We do not know all. Intelligence...that is a touchy area, and their 3 other children are healthy and going to school. My first DD has an expressive spreech delay. She is very intelligent but has trouble with expressive language. I can't ask the birth parents if any of their children have or had speech problems. One I don't think they would know or understand, as they are not that up to date on everything. They move around a lot because he was out of work so much.

  I put both of my DD on step-up formula(which has less fat than regualr formula) but the brain boosting DHA ptoteins(LIPA), because I don't know the genetics of my children. I do this until they are closer to 2. Then we go to 1% organic milk. Organic is because all the hormones in milk can cause girls and boys to develope early. I don't do organic everything. Just a few things. There was an article that said there are 10 kinds of foods to use organic in the first 5 years. One was milk. One was apples. I'll find the rest of the article as I want to remember the rest of the foods.

So if you choose to, you can a step up formula if you want to. It's a personal choice.

She will use a sippy for a bit, than want the bottle. We wait until she's whiney.

[~*Nicole*~]

Lizzie-That is very interesting. I don't know anything about organic foods and have never purchased any. If you have any other information about that I would be interested in hearing about it especially b/c my DD is now drinking full fat regular cow's milk everyday. I understand what you are saying about the birth parents and not knowing the complete history etc. Also about the expressive language issue as I teach children who have multiple disabilities and all of my students receive speech therapy for some reason or another. Also, I agree with you about 2 yos with bottles. ICK.

[ladyinred]

Hi Nicole,

I didn't forget about you. Now I have a very sick 3 y/o. She has bronchitis. And I'm sick too. And Natalee is teething(very late with her teeth also, but so was Caroline). I used Earth's Best baby food for both of them too. I went to a lecture when Caroline was 3 months old and they had a guest pedatrician and he recommended it, as he said all those chemicals in baby foods can cause food allergies. I know apples was on the list, along with milk. I'll see if I saved the article on my desktop computer downstairs. My girls are big, so Caroline went right to 1% milk(organic), when we got off the step up formula. Costco has the best prices, but they only carry 1%. Since I've been sick I have not even tried the sippy. When I feel better we will start again. Natalee picks up Caroline's big girl sippy ups and drinks out of them, but wants the formula from the bottle.

Lizzie

[~*Nicole*~]

Lizzie-Odd. I am quite sick as well. Ava was at the beginning of last week and now it's my turn. I don't blame you for not doing any sippy cup stuff while you're all not feeling well. I wouldn't have the energy either. Good luck when you start up again. I guess the formula/bottle is a comfort thing b/c she is used to it...esp. since she can drink from the cups when they contain other things so it's a matter of slowly getting her used to the idea of taking the formula from the cup.---I am not sure whether Ava would be considered average/big...she was 8 ob 15 oz at birth which I thought was toward the larger end. She was 21 lb 4 oz. at her 9 month check up. Her 1 yr. appt. is Wed. so I guess I'll see what she is then. She slimmed down a TON since she started walking so it's hard to tell now. Thankfully she has done well in regard to allergies. Just a weird reaction to celery but we have a family history of that on both sides strangely enough so it wasn't too shocking when we realized that.

[ladyinred]

Hi Nicole,

  That's interesting celery?.....Natalee was 8lbs 14oz at birth. She had the RSV  virus for two months, and was hospitalized, too. At 9 months she weighed 20lbs 1 oz, and was 27inches long. I think you are suppose to triple your birth weight which would have put Natalee in the 27 pound range. She was 28inches long and 22pounds and 8oz. Caroline weighed more, and was 29 inches long. At 3 Caroline is 39.5 inches tall and weighs 39.5 pounds. She wears a size 5 in clothes. She gained her height from 2 to 3. When is Ava's b-day? Natalee started to walk at 11.5 months, Caroline 11 months.

Lizzie

[~*Nicole*~]

Lizzie--Her birthday is today! She should be close to 27 pounds, but she is probably less. She has been walking since about 10.5 months or so and has slimmed down a lot. She's losing her chubby thighs that I love so much! I don't remember her height from her last appt. but we will find out tomorrow morning all her current stats.

-Nicole

[ladyinred]

Hello Nicole,

   hope you are doing well. we had a family emergency in Florida, actually my FIL passed away suddenly due to an MI. Being that DH is of the Jewish faith(non-practicing) he was buried on Friday.He passed on Wednesday morning(27th). DH and his sister have been here going thru things with the estate lawyer, and his mom. They are clearing out his closet, and getting all the financial information in order. His mom is not all there, so his sister and my husband want to know about her assests. She may move up to live with his sister, and rent out the condo. Natalee has gotton two more teeth in. She's been a trooper thru all of this, as she is now sleeping in a pack n play. She did well on her first airline flight too. A bit cranky, but she slept thru some of it. I bought her a seat, as there is know way I was holding her for the 3 hour flight to Florida from Islip.

How is your LO?

Lizzie

[~*Nicole*~]

Hi Lizzie-So sorry to hear about your FIL. A good friend of mine is of the Jewish faith so I know a little bit about their practices. Where is Islip? My DH's grandparents are residing with his aunt for similar reasons....the grandmother is not all there and the grandfather had too many health problems and was unable to do stairs and look after her as well anymore. It's tough.

Glad to hear that Natalee did well with those two top teeth. They were rough ones for us. Ava never did well sleeping in a pack n' play. I found with this last trip we took to the shore a few weeks ago that a portable crib works much better for her.

Ava is good. She had her 1 yr. checkup. She was 22 lbs 5 oz I think and 32 1/2 in. tall. Said she was tall and had a large head but was lower in weight from walking etc. They were very pleased overall with her and actually thrilled with her speech so that made me beam like a proud momma We're in an OT loop currently b/c of just everyday life things...her birthday parties and people stopping by, end of summer things, we have another birthday party to attend tomorrow for her cousin....we just can't stay on schedule. Poor thing. I'm having a catch up day as we speak and trying for 2 naps today (had one for 1 hr. this am and now she is napping for about 34 mins so hopefully it will continue for a decent length.)

The seat you bought for the plane....can you also use it as a forward facing car seat? I know there are some car seats that can function as airline seats for los and was hoping you got something you can use for other purposes (so practical and thrifty I am hehe)

_Nicole

[ladyinred]

Hi Nicole,, much closer to our home in /w

  My Natalee is napping now too. I'm in the hotel, and glenn has Caroline. The wifi is working...it sucks big time here. We are here in the hotel as it is not big enough in his mom's condo for all of us. This trip cost us 5K (airfare, hotel times 10 days and rental van). His sister did not rent a car, and is staying at his moms.

I have the Britax Decatholn(actually 2 of them one in each car) for Natalee, and yes it fits in the airline seat. We have the go-go-kidz cart to wheel it thru the airport too. Caroline is in the Britax Frontier in the van, and I just got her the sunshine  booster carseat for the accord. I can take off the back and the bottom can travel with us when we travel and rent a car. I paid $50 for a booster carseat rental, that costs $17 in the store. When you travel by plane pay for a ticket for your child and put her in a carseat. Ava is tall, and Natalee is only a few ounces more than her. (Long Island Macgarther Airport is in Islip much closer to our home in West Babylon)

  Did I mention that Natalee is now drinking a full juice in the box from the straw? She really likes it. When we get home I am going to try one of those straw sippys and see if she will drink her Formula from that. I have two different kinds. One is the take and toss sippy with the hard straw, and one is the straw sippy cup.

I hope that she is napping for you. How is the sippy cup transition going?

Lizzie

[~*Nicole*~]

Lizzie--We are all the way sippy cup transitioned! Have been for awhile now actually. I don't think I have given her a bottle in near 2 months (maybe 1.5). She really liked the straw sippys at first because she didn't know how to tilt her cups upwards. But now she does great and seems to prefer the typical kind. We are using the Gerber brand and they are fine. She will use other ones as well now....esp. if another child is drinking from one and puts it down, she'll grab it and pick it up and drink whatever is in there! hehe. I like the Britax carseats but we didn't want to spend that m\uch money so we have Eddie Bauer ones. They work fine, but are not as cute and I doubt have as good reviews in regard to safety.

Alright, we've been up awhile again so I need some coffee.

[ladyinred]

Hi Nicole,

I'm on my 2nd cup of coffee today. I just got back from breakfast with the kids. DH is out with his mom doing again banking stuff. He had a huge blow-up with his sister last night, and now they are not speaking. Her kids are running around the condo and she is doing nothing about it. His mom is yelling at them to stop the "horseplay". All Beth is doing is chain smoking in the patio area.

Natalee was up for 1.5 hours last night, and I know it's the second upper tooth coming in. Today we go to my cousin's house in Boca to see my cousin and my Aunt and Uncle. Tomorrow we fly home. I am so looking forward to coming home. It's been 10 long days. My husband is going to come back in October by himself to go over some more things, as he's in charge of the finances. Caroline wants to see our dogs Sammy and Stubby.

Hopefully in the next month I can transition her to a sippy cup. She likes juice now. But I only want her to have one glass a day. Enjoy your holiday weekend. Where do you live in Jersey?

Lizzie

[ladyinred]

 Hello Nicole

I'm home here in NY. I'm loving this cool weather. Today I got Natalee to take her step up formula from a straw cup. WHOHOO. I'll be working on it more tomorrow.

Lizzie