Baby Holding Bottles By Themselves

I have used Avent bottles with my girls since they were born...They are 8 months now and i am "trying" to teach them to hold the bottles on their own but it seems that the Avent bottles are too fat for them to hold...Did anyone else have this issue and if so what bottle did you switch to?

 

I just ordered some Avent sippy cup handles--interchangeable with all Avent bottles. Mine keep trying to grab the bottle now and are having the same problem with a good grip. The handles are on sale at drugstore.com right now with free shipping.

 

THANK YOU for that information, I did not know that and I have both the avent bottles and avent sippy cups. Now thanks to you I can have handles on my bottles. Now if I can only get them to feed themselves. UGH! almost ten months and they don't feed themselves whatsoever. Everyday I keep at showing them how to and well here's to hoping one day soon they will get it. LOL!!

Thanks!

 

Another twinstuff mom told me about that.

 

Just wanted to comment...I got hand-me-downs, so I used Avent for my DS and Dr. Brown's for DD (she spit up more). Anyway, it seemed to me that it was actually easier for them to hold and manipulate the Avent bottles than it was to hold the Dr. Brown's bottles (they would swap when I wasn't looking).

I know that doesn't help your frustration, just wanted to share my experience.

 

And keep in mind that not all babies will hold their own bottles. My oldest two had no interest in holding theirs whatsoever. My girl twin started around 10-11 months actively taking the bottle from us to hold, and my boy twin started shortly after that. By about 11.5 months we were able to give them their bottles to feed themselves, but we still couldn't leave them because they enjoyed "painting" with their milk, all over whatever was handy! :lol:

I'm just saying, I wouldn't switch bottle brands in an effort to get them to hold it themselves, because they may just not want to hold them anyways!

 

My girls were 10 months before they started holding their bottles. I saw them one day pick up a bottle and chew on the bottom of it and I said then "oh little missies, if you can do that, then you can hold your own bottle to eat!" So after that, I would give them a bottle (put the nipple in their mouth) and act like I was "dropping" it and they'd reach down and try to keep it from falling. Then eventually they started holding it really well. Now I just lay them on their boppy's and hand them the bottle -- NICE! Now if only I could "teach" them how to properly drink from a sippy! They use the Tupperware sippies, but haven't quite figured out that the drippless sippies require a little more "sucking action" to get a drink.

 

My oldest two didn't hold their bottles until 10 and 11 months. The babies? Not even interested. There have been a few times when they did hold them at the end of their bottles but that's it. It sure would have been nice had they decided to hold them all the time but now that we're almost through with bottles I guess it doesn't matter anymore. However, we're not doing that well with the transition to sippies so I'm not sure what we're going to do yet.

 

Our girls are 8 months now and we prop our bottles with blankets for most bottle feedings. I think this has taught them to hold the bottle more. When the bottle starts to slide off they push it back over to their mouth. We have Born Free bottles and they are similar to avent.

I wouldn't rush it, if you don't mind it, prop the bottles.

 

We use the Avent and ours wouldn't even try holding until just recently. If they want to, they hold it just fine but DS gets lazy and wants us to hold most of the time. Even if they do hold their own bottle, they want to be held while they take it. I think they just like the closeness and the excuse to cuddle I wouldn't switch bottles if they do well on them...I would start introducing sippies because in a few months, you will be wanting to get off the bottles anyway.

 

I had the Avent bottles as well & used the handles. But my two were never interested in holding their own bottles!