a couple of ?'s about milk

Well, I'm trying to transition my girls to sippy cups (not going well, will try the ones with the straws next) and I would like to start getting them used to drinking cold milk from their bottles/sippys. It would make life so much easier for traveling if I didn't have to desperately find somewhere to warm the milk when we're not at home. I know a lot of places are accommodating but it's a pain in the buttocks. I also have a bottle warmer for the car but it takes like 40 minutes to warm the darn thing so that's no good. So here are the questions:

1. if you give them cold milk to drink, when did you start doing that and how?

2. when do they FINALLY figure out to tip the bottle/cup up to get the liquid???

3. should I just give up on the regular sippy cuts and try the sippy cups with straws? (I guess I haven't REALLY been trying that long or that hard)

4. do you still give them a bottle before bedtime? (right now, my dh and I give them their final bottle and then put them in their cribs, often awake.) if not, when did you stop doing that and where in the day do you give them milk?

TIA!!!!!!

 

QUOTE(double-or-nothing @ May 2 2007, 09:19 PM) [snapback]241863[/snapback]
Well, I'm trying to transition my girls to sippy cups (not going well, will try the ones with the straws next) and I would like to start getting them used to drinking cold milk from their bottles/sippys. It would make life so much easier for traveling if I didn't have to desperately find somewhere to warm the milk when we're not at home. I know a lot of places are accommodating but it's a pain in the buttocks. I also have a bottle warmer for the car but it takes like 40 minutes to warm the darn thing so that's no good. So here are the questions:

1. if you give them cold milk to drink, when did you start doing that and how?

2. when do they FINALLY figure out to tip the bottle/cup up to get the liquid???

3. should I just give up on the regular sippy cuts and try the sippy cups with straws? (I guess I haven't REALLY been trying that long or that hard)

4. do you still give them a bottle before bedtime? (right now, my dh and I give them their final bottle and then put them in their cribs, often awake.) if not, when did you stop doing that and where in the day do you give them milk?

TIA!!!!!!


I love that we are off bottles!

1. have always given cold milk in a sippy cup during the day. I never heated that up. Just gave it cold.

2. Mine just figured out how to tip the cup about 3 weeks ago.

3. I was using the straw sippies for about 2 weeks, but hated that the milk or juice that was in the top of the straw would go everywhere if the cup was dropped or when you open it. But you could certainly try those. Mine got the hang of those real fast. Before that I would just hold the cup up to their mouths for them to drink, but that did get old.

4. Yes, we do still give ours a bottle of milk before bed. I do warm that up, since they are drinking it all at once and they were used to the formula being warm in the bottles. We give them a 6 oz. bottle of milk and put them to bed awake.

I am hoping to get rid of that bedtime bottle by the time we go on vacation in mid-July. I will replace it with a small snack and a small sippy of milk.

Good luck.

 

1. if you give them cold milk to drink, when did you start doing that and how? 11.5m incorporated a few ounces at a time...slowly heating less and less. My sons were allergic to milk and soy and were on a hypoallergenic formula but within two weeks they were on whole milk and by 13m it was right out of the fridge milk

2. when do they FINALLY figure out to tip the bottle/cup up to get the liquid??? I took bottles away at 12m and they adapted pretty well.

3. should I just give up on the regular sippy cuts and try the sippy cups with straws? (I guess I haven't REALLY been trying that long or that hard) Mine would not use the sippy with a straw until recently. After about 5 different sippy's the Nubby from Walmart was their favorite.

4. do you still give them a bottle before bedtime? (right now, my dh and I give them their final bottle and then put them in their cribs, often awake.) if not, when did you stop doing that and where in the day do you give them milk? 12m we stopped the bottle before bed, I did still have to give them a sippy of milk about a half hour before bed before I brushed their teeth. Now, After their 6pm snack they only get water if they ask. I give them milk at each meal and snacktime, in between they get water. The drink about 16oz. of milk a day and about 2/3 cups of water.

 

I like to think of us as a majority of the folks out there in that we are almost off of bottles now (down to 3 ounces at bedtime and going down by a 1/2 ounce every few days). My girls began their WONDERFUL school/daycare when they were 15 months. They have breakfast there at 7:30 and they give the little ones a sippy filled 1/4 full of cold milk with breakfast. They didn't drink much if any at first and for awhile. With my assistance they might tilt it up to take a drink or 2. The sippies they use are the cheap, disposable ones by "The First Years". Of course, most folks re-use them as I have. For doing milk, those really have been the best ones. I still give my girls milk in those but water in their other sippies. They'll learn. At the risk of sounding repetitive, keep at it and keep offering it to them. At each meal, they use those particular sippies. The kids, all of them, seem to like them. Before my current job, I use to take the girls to school every morning and sit through breakfast with them and their classmates. These kids, all of them are different kids when you/we (the parents) aren't around. I bought the sippies with straws and they still gravitated to the regular ones. Up until a few weeks ago, we had the SAME routine every night. A little deviation from time to time but the same for the most part.....I take Emily to their room, turn the touch lamp on lowest setting (frosted blue bulb), and sit in the rocker with her while she drinks her bottle, she finishes bottle, hands it to me, and then she falls asleep in my arms and I lay her down. Same with dh and Amber but out in the living room. Suddenly, they didn't want to go to sleep after bottles....they wanted to stay awake although they were tired. SO, we have a new routine in which I asked them if they are ready to go nite-nite, they get excited, I ask them to help pick up toys, they help poppa pick up toys while I get bottles, and then they go to their cribs, dh puts them in their cribs, I bring in bottles, and turn on their lamp and music, I had them their bottles, we kiss them good-night, and they lie down, drink and go to sleep. A couple nights ago, they finished their bottles and then they stayed up talking (didn't understand a thing they said) to each other and being goofy for about 30 minutes until they fell asleep. It's been good so far. I hope it remains once the bottles are gone for good. In my opinion, the key is to get them to do things on their own. If you figure out how to get them to want to do something, it seems to work better in the long run rather then forcing something on them. Now, the first night I cut Emily down from 7 ounces to 5, she stayed up for 15 minutes afterward having a small fit. In order to get the ball rolling, I had to force that on her, but the routine of it all was voluntary on their part. We don't carry them to bed. We have them trained to want to pick up toys (to help) and then go to their room. It's so cool. Hopefully it lasts a little while.

 

At around 10 months I started giving them cold formula in Nuby straw sippies with each meal, and they got 3 bottles a day of warm formula (am, 3pm'ish, and bedtime).

At 11 months, I got rid of the 3pm bottle and replaced it with a snack and cold sippy of formula.

At exactly 12 months, I switched the cold formula to cold milk in the sippy. No transition, just switched it to cold whole milk. They actually liked it better than formula. I also dropped the morning bottle and added a morning snack with a milk sippy.

Two weeks later I dropped the bedtime bottle. If they are fussy before bed, we give them cold water in a sippy. I never put milk in a bottle, only formula, son once the bottle was gone so was the formula.

Even today, if I give them a non-straw sippy, they still do not get that you have to tip it. But, the irony of that all is that sometimes they tip their straw sippy!! Ugh!

 

1. if you give them cold milk to drink, when did you start doing that and how?
>>One day after their birthday, I just offered cold milk in a cup. They didn't take to it at first. One of them still doesn't seem to like the taste of milk. But, now they both like cold yogurt drinks in their sippie cups.

2. when do they FINALLY figure out to tip the bottle/cup up to get the liquid???
>>It seemed to take my guys forever to figure out how to sip from the sippie cup (maybe 4-6 weeks?). But once they figured that out, it didn't take more than a couple of weeks of me helping them tip it back for them to start doing it on their own. They still sometimes don't tip it back enough but they keep trying.

3. should I just give up on the regular sippy cuts and try the sippy cups with straws? (I guess I haven't REALLY been trying that long or that hard)
>>If you think you'll be using the straw sippies eventually, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try them now. You never know; some kids just really pick them up more easily (mine did not). Otherwise, I would just say keep trying with the regular sippie cups and save your money.

4. do you still give them a bottle before bedtime? (right now, my dh and I give them their final bottle and then put them in their cribs, often awake.) if not, when did you stop doing that and where in the day do you give them milk?
>>Until a few days ago, I still offered a bottle at bedtime. But my boys never consistently took them or just drank 1-3 ounces. So, I replaced that with a sippie of water. What one of them still seems to want is a bottle first thing in the morning. Because they're not great eaters yet and they're on the bottom of the growth curve, I still give a bottle in the morning and maybe one in the afternoon. I know I have to wean them from these (two months ago :blush: ), but I want to see them drinking more milk from a sippie and eating better before I totally cut it off. One of the twins is already weaning himself so I guess it's a sign that it's just about time to stop all bottles. -_-

HTH.

 

1. if you give them cold milk to drink, when did you start doing that and how?


We did it around 12 or 13 months (were on milk since 9mo) and we just did it cold turkey because I was getting too frustrated with always warming them, not to mention the milk would go bad so fast

2. when do they FINALLY figure out to tip the bottle/cup up to get the liquid???

A few weeks, I would say. When we first started with the sippies they would just chew on them

3. should I just give up on the regular sippy cuts and try the sippy cups with straws? (I guess I haven't REALLY been trying that long or that hard)

You could try. Caleb is really picky and we spent so much money trying everything. He still refuses to drink from a straw <_<

4. do you still give them a bottle before bedtime? (right now, my dh and I give them their final bottle and then put them in their cribs, often awake.) if not, when did you stop doing that and where in the day do you give them milk?

They get a bottle with their nap and at bedtime. I'm not too worried about stopping soon. Sippies are for juice/water during the day and milk at meals.

On days that they go to daycare I still give them milk first thing to hold off their appetite so they can eat there. Then they get milk with meals, their nap and before bed.

When we're home it's just before naps and at meals & bed