bottles- how to wean

Can you help me with ridding morning and afternoon bottles? I will get rid of night bottles after morn and afternoon are gone.


MORNING:
Currently, they get morning bottle and about 30 min. later they get breakfast.

If I drop the morning bottle, would I give breakfast right away and give milk in a sippy with their meal. (I know they will drink the sippy and spit it out when they realize milk is in there and not water!)

Or, do I give them milk sippy when they wake and still wait abot 30 minutes before giving breakfast?

AFTERNOON:
lunch- 1:30
bottle- 3:30

Should I give milk sippy with lunch or keep same schedule but put milk in sippy intead of bottle.


Thanks so much. I am ready for this next challenge!

 

Nicole, we started introducing whole milk at about 10 months. We would put either that or water in the sippy cups and formula in the bottles. We slowly changed their daytime bottles to sippy cup w/milk. We then did the first bottle of the day to sippy with milk. (My kids typically never ate breakfast right when they got up, but did want milk when they got up). And finally at about 13 months, we gave milk in a sippy in place of that last bottle of the day.

 

well, since i just went through this fairly recently, i can share with you my experience. when i switched to sippies it was really hard and really frustrating. they would NOT drink the milk from the sippy and would throw it on the floor. i became very panicked that they weren't drinking milk and thought they couldn't possibly survive without it . so i would cave in and give them the bottle again which was the worst thing i could have done because each time i tried again they would fight me even more on it. finally, i literally tossed out ALL of the bottles so that there was no turning back. we actually gave up the nighttime bottle first which was so easy for the girls. i was able to just give them dinner much later (i gave them a snack to hold them till the later dinner) and then sippies of water before bed and there was absolutley NO protest. i was still freaking out about the the morning and afternoon sippies because their milk consumption deffinately went way down for a good week or so. then i caved in yet again and started putting vanilla quick in their milk to entice them and it has worked. i wish i would have given them a little longer to adjust to the plain milk but i just needed to know they were getting their dairy/calcium so i'm totally ok with it now. eventually i will probably phase the quick out but for now, they drink their milk. but many people reassured me that as long as they are eating other dairy products throughout the day they would be just fine. so i gave them yogurt everyday and cheese wherever i could. to this day they don't drink as much milk as they did when it was in a bottle but they are eating so many regular foods and getting so much calcium and dairy throughout the day that i'm totally ok with it now.

i usually give them their first sippy at about 6:30am (within 15 min of waking up). if they drink it all then i will give them bfast about an hour or so later. i really go by them. if they are signing that they want to eat then they eat. usually, Arwen will only drink about 1/2 of her sippy. I give them 45min to drink it and then if there is enough left over, i put it in the fridge and give it to them to drink with their bfast (unless they are have cereal in milk or yogurt in which case i will save it for their lunch) or with their mid-morning which is usually about 1/2 hour before their nap and then soon after they wake up they will have lunch. i try to give them juice once a day either with lunch or with their afternoon snack. throughout the day they have sippies of water available at all times. then they get another 8oz sippy of milk around 4:00 (possibly with a small snack) and then they eat dinner at 6-6:30 and then bed is at 7-:730. this is what has worked for me after lots of playing around with the schedule. not sure if it helps you any but good luck.

 

I put a sippy in place of that morning bottle, and they have access to one throughout the day. I found that they didn't necessarily drink a whole cup full like they would drink a bottle.

This is our schedule since we dropped to one nap at 14 months...

7am wake and sippy
8 breakfast
1030 lunch
11 nap till 130
230 snack
530 dinner
630 bed

And they have a sippy available to them pretty much all day. Things become a lot more flexible(I think!) when you get rid of bottles. Good luck!

 

QUOTE(becky5 @ Sep 8 2007, 04:53 PM) [snapback]398773[/snapback]
I put a sippy in place of that morning bottle, and they have access to one throughout the day. I found that they didn't necessarily drink a whole cup full like they would drink a bottle.

This is our schedule since we dropped to one nap at 14 months...

7am wake and sippy
8 breakfast
1030 lunch
11 nap till 130
230 snack
530 dinner
630 bed

And they have a sippy available to them pretty much all day. Things become a lot more flexible(I think!) when you get rid of bottles. Good luck!

Except for happening about an hour earlier, this is close to us as well. Oh - and mine still do 2 naps for the time being... Sorry I seem to be following Becky again!

 

Nicole, I give the sippy right away and then we have our breakfast within about 15 min. I think that is fine. And I would just swap the milk into sippies for the others! Good luck!

 

I'm getting ready to get rid of the bottles, and I have a question about this too. When you say you give them a sippy in the morning, are you giving them their milk/formula in their high chairs or are you allowing them to walk around with it? Also, when you say that you have a sippy available to them all day, does that mean that you have a water sippy out? Or, does it mean that you give them a milk/juice/water sippy when you think they want it?

I hope this isn't "stealing" this post. Just trying to expand on the replies received. Thank you!! Shannon

 

Shannon, feel free to ask more questions! Thank you to everyone for your advice. If Seamus would have told me to 'get lost' when I gave him his afternoon milk in a sippy, he would have!! Nicholas drank half of it so that was good.

My mom was here tonight and I gave them their night milk in a sippy. Again, Seamus hated it so I put his in a bottle and Nicholas would take a sip and throw it and take a sip again. If you remember, I did a poll months back about warm or cold milk since my mom and I were in disagreement. SHe also thinks it is too early to stop bottles so I felt stressed with her here. I will try again at night when it is just me or me and dh!!! Actually, I think I am going to work on morn and afternoon and night when the other two are solved. Thanks again everyone!

 

We give the girls milk in a sippy as soon as we come downstairs and then breakfast about 15 minutes later. They don't drink very much but it is available to them until they go up for their nap somewhere between 9 and 10.

After their nap they have watered down apple or prune juice available to them until dinner.

They get a sippy with milk with dinner and then whatever they don't drink they get in a bottle before bed.

I would say the girls drink about 10-12 ounces of milk a day but they get some sort of dairy with each meal (yogurt, cheese, oatmeal) which makes up for it.

 

When you say you give them a sippy in the morning, are you giving them their milk/formula in their high chairs or are you allowing them to walk around with it? I let them walk around with it.

Also, when you say that you have a sippy available to them all day, does that mean that you have a water sippy out? Either water or milk.

Emma did not like the sippy and she would just throw it and wait on a bottle, until she realized one day, that she was not getting that bottle! She has loved her sippy from that point on!

Good luck to both of you!

 

Thanks ladies! We are quickly approaching one, and I cannot wait to get rid of the bottles. I really think it's easier to use them, but lately it's been a battle to keep them in one place long enough to take it. If I'm feeding them myself, we're on the floor with a pillow and they just roll off and play then come back for more and then play again. That is kind of telling me they are ready to be done as well. The only one I think will be tough to get rid of is the morning bottle. Just because they are starving when they wake up and don't want to mess around with the sippy. :icon_biggrin: We'll see. Thanks again for answering my "additional" questions.

Shannon

 

Nicole, Shannon, how are your sippy days going? We had some crying tonight before bed but I think they did ok without their bottle.

 

I hope the bottle weaning is going well! It took my two a little time to get used to the idea. Their intake dropped for a few days to a week while we made the transition...but now they take them with no trouble. Basically we just swapped the morning bottle with a sippie....then as they took to it...dropped the rest. I worried because my son just didn't want anything to do with his sippie. Now he does just fine. Let us know how things are going!!

 

Nicole, just checking in... how's it going?

 

Sarah, you want the truth...I dont have the energy to do it right now! How bad is that! My little pumpkins love their 3 bottles they get! They get so excited which I KNOW is the reason they need to get off them now since it will be harder later.

I just had a hard time seeing them get so upset when they would get that first sip of milk from their sippy. They could not believe I would put milk in there instead of water!

I think I may be fooling myself but I am hoping when they understand more I can reason with them! I know that is nt how it works though! AHHH!

Thanks for thinking of us though!

 

Oh Nicole, don't beat yourself up! You need to do what you feel is best right now. I think in a few months you will see that it is really time to move on from them. I would just start with one out and keep the two. Then by 15 months, it will be easier to wean from two to the one and then by 18 months, Walla! you will be done. I know how hard it is to see them upset. :hug99: You are doing a great job! :Clap:

 

How about trying a different type of sippy for the milk? When we switched we used straw cups for milk and regular sippies for water. It seemed to help stop the confusion.

 

Nicole,
Just so you know, I am really struggling with getting rid of the bottles. We are down to two and I am trying to get rid of the afternoon bottle before their nap. DD is fine with it, but DS has a fit! I too just don't have the energy to deal with it, but my kiddos are older and I need to buckle down. I think like doubleornothing, I might have to get rid of them!!!

Nicole,
Just so you know, I am really struggling with getting rid of the bottles. We are down to two and I am trying to get rid of the afternoon bottle before their nap. DD is fine with it, but DS has a fit! I too just don't have the energy to deal with it, but my kiddos are older and I need to buckle down. I think like doubleornothing, I might have to get rid of them!!!

 

This morning we tried switching to a sippy for that morning bottle. Jonah didn't mind but Morgan sure did. I think the problem is that Morgan was trying to tip up his cup like a bottle and it was a straw sippy which meant he wasn't getting any liquid. I kept trying to hold down the cup for him but that just frustrated him. We'll try again tomorrow. I actually sent sippies to daycare today too (with empty bottles packed as backup). We may be cold turkey cutting them out! We'll see. I think Jonah will be fine but Morgan may have a bit of an issue.

It would be so wonderful to get rid of the Dr. Brown's bottles (sooo many parts)!

Shannon