Bottle Question

Here goes, my first question in this forum!!

Mine just turned 1, and are now fully on whole milk and have no issue with it at all. I got a bit overwhelmed at my 1 year appt ... found out that Hailey had a double ear infection, and Jake had a temp of 102.5 with a virus, so we talked mostly about postposing shots and getting them better. After I left, I realized I never really talked to her about the bottle/milk/meals issues.

She did tell us that by 15 months she wanted no more baby food at all. We currently do 80% table food, and 20% baby food ... they still don't want to eat table food veggies ... so I'll give them baby food veggies, and then table food chicken, pasta etc for dinner. At day care they only eat table food. And breakfasts we are still using baby food fruit until we run out of it.

Anyway, I currently give 3 bottles a day. 1 around 10am and 3pm (at daycare) and one before bed. We give them their sippy cups with water at meals.

Should I be getting rid of the bottles all together, and just giving them milk at their meals and snacks?

DH gives them breakfast and home in the morning, and then daycare does a morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack. Then we feed them dinner. So should I just throw the bottles away and offer milk?

I'm going back to the doc in 2 weeks for their shots (assuming all are healthy) and I'm going to double check with her ... but I know most pedis want you to get rid of bottles right at 12 months. I was just curious to hear what moms are REALLY doing as far as bottles are concerned!

Thanks in advance!
Erica

 

I am a few months ahead of you and I was doing almost EXACTLY what you are doing now - 3 bottles of milk, water in sippies at lunch. My pedi said it was fine if I had them off of bottles by 15 months. I started slowly by giving them milk instead of water in their sippies at meals, but we kept the morning and night bottles. They did not drink as much milk out of their sippies as they did water with meals, but oh well. I continued to offer them water between meals in their sippies, but only milk at meals. About two weeks ago (do it on a weekend when you have help at home in case there are tantrums and so you stay strong!) we got rid of the bottles. They still get a sippy of milk with 7 oz first thing in the morning - we just swapped the sippy for the bottle. They get milk all meals, and a sippy of milk before bed. Water if they want it in between (we live in Hawaii so it is hot, they have always been big water drinkers). Many ts posters got rid of the milk before bed without a problem. I think mine would be fine and go straight to sleep, it is just a way for them to get a little extra milk since they still don't drink that much at meals.

As for baby food - we still do baby fruit jars for breakfast - that way I know they are getting at least 2 servings of fruit a day - and they are going through a "no veggies" phase right now, so I went and bought some more of those to sneak in. I think your pedi is worried that your kids won't eat real table food or chew - so if you are just supplementing a little with baby food but mainly reg. food, I don't see what is wrong with that.
Good luck. Slow transitions worked beautifully for us and I was soooo glad to see the bottles (and washing!) go!

 

If you can ditch the bottles now without much protest, I would do so. Once mine started drinking well from a sippie I got rid of the bottles at about 13 months.

As for the baby food issue ours worked it out themselves. I was still feeding just like you do at that age and by about 13 months or so they just decided one day that they didnt want it anymore.

 

We are still doing 2 bottles a day (morning and evening), but the morning bottle is going next weekend. We are transitioning to milk since we had some issues when I tried to go cold turkey (the return of curdled puke-ug).

So the girls get 80% milk/ 20% formula in a 6oz bottle first thing in the morning, 50/50 milk/formula sippy with lunch, and 20% milk/80% formula in a 7oz bottle right before bed. When I switch the morning bottle to a sippy next weekend it will be all milk. Then I'll try to up the milk and decrease the formula at lunch in the sippy and the bedtime bottle (which will be last to go)... by 15 months.

As for baby food, I keep some in the house just in case. When Ana was teething bad a couple weeks ago she didn't want to chew, so I gave her some baby food. Also, DH does breakfast too and he always does fruit (actual not baby food), baby food oatmeal mixed with a baby food fruit puree (oh and cheerios). I don't know when we'll stop that... its an easy breakfast for him to do during the week and I've found its best if I keep it simple for him.

Hope you lil ones are feeling better soon.. gotta love daycare. Hugs, Leighann

 

We basically went cold turkey from the bottles not too long ago. I expected a big protest but they did very well. It took them a few days to really drink their milk from the sippy. They drank water beautifully but weren't digging their milk in it at first. I just kept offering it to them and after a few days, they got it. They drink it just fine now. We also cut out the bedtime bottle. So, they get a sippy of about 5 oz of milk with their 3 meals. Good luck!

 

Mine were never big fans of baby food, they liked table food, so we were off baby food by about 10 months. I also started giving them cold formula with each meal, and cutting down on bottles. At 11 months, we were down to 2 bottles (mid-morning and bedtime) with breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner. The next bottle I got rid of, around 11 months/3 weeks, was the mid-morning and replaced it with a snack.

Right at 12 months I switched the cold formula in the sippies with meals to cold milk, they still got warm formula in their bedtime bottle. About 2 weeks later I dropped that bedtime bottle, did a few nights of milk before bed, but they didn't really need it so we dropped that.

So by 12.5 month they were on this schedule:

breakfast with a sippy of milk (6-8 ounces)
snack, with half water/half juice (or just water)
lunch with a sippy of milk (6-8 ounces)
snack, with half water/half juice (or just water)
dinner with a sippy of milk (6-8 ounces)

I do not give them the sippy of milk until at least halfway through their meal, or else they'd fill up on milk and not eat at much. Now that they are 2 and the pedi put them on skim milk, this isn't as big a deal as it was with whole milk. Also, they don't need to drink as much milk as they were formula (my pedi recommended 16-20 ounces/day tops).

I personally had no trouble with them giving up the bottle. The older they get, the more stubborn they become (IMO) so I think the earlier you do it the better. I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out how to get my DD's paci away from her. It's just when she's in her crib, but she's so attached...it's gonna be hard and I sort of wish I'd done it shortly after the bottles.

 

i still use baby food - honestly it's easier. We mostly mix it with yogurt and baby oatmeal... they like most table foods, but it's just easier...

why did your pedi say 'no baby food?'

as for the bottles, we are still on 3 a day....and we are going to go cold turkey in about a month...my husband is traveling this weekend and we just aren't ready. They drink milk from the sippies, but the one or two times we have offered milk, they haven't been thrilled. I think Becca will be ok, i think jake will be a disaster.

 

We slowly replaced each bottle with a sippy of milk. The last two to go were the 1st one in the AM and the last one at night. With the twins it was at 13 months, with Liam it was the day after his 1st bday (basically, once I ran out of formula....he was done).

As for food, he lost interest in baby food before he even turned 1. I have used some of my leftovers(fruit), but gave most of it to my sister whose son is 3 weeks younger.

 

Oh man...the dreaded bottle question! At 1 year, mine were still on three bottles. Then, I slowly got rid of them, down to 2, down to 1...I still (I must admit) I give bottles sometimes before bedtime. My DS really likes a bottle. My pedi told me not to worry about it - that we put too much worry into it. I liked what she said, "He will not be having a bottle when he is 20 years old, so do not worry about it."

Just follow your instincts. You do not have to do anything you are not comfortable with doing. Good luck!

 

We went from bottles to straw sippies at 1. I figured it was easier to transition them rather than get them more attached to the bottles. Honestly it was no big deal and after a few days they were drinking the same amount as on bottles. I gave them some baby food until they were about 15/16 months old and at that point they stopped wanting to eat it.

 

We did the formula to milk and bottle to sippy cups cold-turkey in one shot at about 12 1/2 months. I had planned to do it near their 1st birthday but they were sick. It was pretty painless in our house. We just started giving the milk with meals in sippy cups and then one before bed time and did water with snacks throughout the rest of the day. I personally prefer the all-in-one shot, but I know others who have replaced one bottle with a sippy and it worked just as well.

As for the baby food, mine started refusing it around 13 months so that is when we stopped.

 

My older DD had three or four bottles a day until she turned 2. She was a picky, picky eater, and she refused to drink milk from anything else, no matter how much I tried.....so, I didn't stress, and at age 2, she was old enough to understand that we were going to switch to sippies.

Anyhow. She's a totally normal 4-year-old now, who drinks from a regular cup or a straw. I don't think I've scarred her for life.