Can't seem to give up the bottle...suggestions

Ok, so Max & Lily are almost 15 months old. Lily eats her solids like a champ, drinks from the sippy cup, and could totally give up the bottle but we give her one because she freaks out if Max has one and she doesn't. Max is giving us serious issues. He will only eat a solid if it is a carb like crackers or fruit. It took him 4 weeks to eat a banana and scrambled eggs after repeated offerings. He refuses to drink out of the sippy cups and we have been trying to phase out the bottle, but he is hooked. When we tried to give him his milk in the sippy cup instead of the bottle this weekend he threw serious tantrums to the point he was crying so hard he would stop breathing.

So I am wondering do I just keep him on the bottle until he is doing better with solids? I would like to see him eat a protien besides scrambled eggs and some kind of veggie. At least we are off the formula and totally on soy milk because he is allergic to cow's milk. It is just so difficult when one eats whatever is put in front of her and the other throws fits at anything new.

Any suggestions? We tried the ice water in the bottles and warm milk in the sippy. He threw both across the room and then the tantrums started. DH has been hiding protein like chicken and beef in his puree jar food, but I hate hiding food. I thought we would be done with bottles and jar food by now. My friends and family say we are being to easy on him and should just go cold turkey. They figure he will eat in a day or two, but I can't imagine doing that to him. It is just so frustrating.

 

Have you tried different sippy cups? I would try to get one that is more like a bottle nipple. I think the Born Free ones are good for that. I would just offer the sippy at meals with the soy milk in it. If he doesn't seem to be interested after a week or so, you might need to go cold turkey. I know my girls weren't really into the sippy cups until that's all they got. I think they realized that if they wanted to drink, they needed to drink out of the sippy. Maybe try a straw cup too? Good luck. It's not fun when they aren't eating. It's so hard not to worry. Have you talked to your pedi about it?

 

Some people have had great success with going cold turkey, they don't drink a lot the first few days but then they get the point. Ours were not completely bottle free until 16 months and then we took them off the bottles gradually, we started with the bottle they would miss the least (the afternoon one), then the morning one and finally the nighttime one. That worked well for us. We went right to the straw cups and the kids got the hang of it pretty quickly. I would also suggest maybe having your DD completely on sippies and see if by him seeing her only get a cup, then he will be more interested in it. Good luck!

 

barging on again...even though mine arent quite 1 yet; I had a friend who asked her pedi about this, her pedi said we dont give babies enough credit-if they are thirsty they will drink out of it. So she did a whole day without any bottles, no matter what and her twins started using sippies full time that day.

 

I may have to do this. My ped said throw away the bottles at 1 year; I'm giving them "preemie credit" and letting them transition for an extra month, but Nate is not getting it. If he's still having an issue next month I may try cold turkey and see how it goes. He's not that into liquids, so I'm hoping he won't get dehydrated, but a couple days of trying can't hurt him too much, right?? :unsure:

 

We've taken away both morning and night bottles since Sunday and it's going ok. Brody was pretty upset this morning when I offered him the sippy with milk instead of his bottle -- he actually batted it out of my hand. I put him on the ground to sit and he SCREAMED..but I was calm and explained to him that he could get his milk from the sippy. I think it'll get better as time goes on, it has too. Just do it cold turkey ... we did!

 

With both of mine we just went cold turkey with the bottles. My dd didn't care and took to it immediately and my ds didn't drink a whole lot of milk for about a week and then realized we weren't giving him his bottle back and started drinking out of his sippy. And yes, he threw the mother of all tantrums when he wanted his bottle but I just ignored it because I was determined to get him off (he was 18 months, and I think the older the worse the tantrums get) after a few days the tantrums stopped and he got used to it.

As for the food, I know it's frustrating having one that doesn't eat whatever you give, but give him time and keep on offering it to him. :good: My ds was on baby food until 16/17 months and then sloooowly started accepting some new foods. He'll get the hang of it eventually and start eating more, but I know it's hard to believe when you are in the middle of it. It was for me too. I thought he'd be on baby food forever.

good luck!!

 

We didn't really have this problem but I BF'ed and my kids self-weaned (with some help along the way from me to drop some feedings) over a long span of time. Given that theory, maybe you could take away one bottle and no matter what, not give it back. Always make that serving a sippy. Then maybe try a second one after a period of time, gradually getting rid of all of them. Maybe they are ready to drop a serving, too? Maybe he is drinking so much from the bottle that he isn't hungry enough to try more foods. Maybe you could decide to try and get him off of bottles and let him keep eating purees for the time being, then once you get THAT hurdle over with, you can tackle moving him onto more diverse solid foods. Do they drink water from the cup but not milk? Mine would only drink ICE cold water from sippies until they were about 15 months old. Just throwing out some thoughts that are crossing my mind. I feel for you! :hug:

 

that totally horrifies me, though i know many will suggest it. it just seems so insensitive. especially if he's not eating enough solids to really depend on at this point. i would give it a litlte more time.

as for sippies, we switched over to straw cups (rubbermaid litterless) and that's been much better. they still spit it out sometimes and dribble it down their chests, but rarely now. my parenting class teacher suggested those because sipping from a straw is a skill that iwll be helpful later on.

best of luck. i know it's hard! hang in there.

jl

 

I tried doing it slowly with no luck. They new they would get a bottle next time so they would just chuck the sippy. Mine were also on warm milk so I thought I would have a terrible time. At 15 months I decided that enough was enough and we went cold turkey. Cold milk in straw sippies... and guess what...they drank it!!! I was thrilled how well it went after getting rid of the bottles. Good luck!

 

As a PPer mentioned, the problem with giving a bottle sometimes, is that they will hold out, knowing they will eventually get their way and get the bottle. If you go cold turkey and no longer have the bottle as an option, they will start drinking from a cup. Also, after a year, most of their nutrition should come from food, not liquid, and they really shouldn't be eating more than 16-20 oz. of milk a day. If they are drinking more than that, they will fill up on the milk and not want the food. I would just keep offering the food, he will get hungry enough to eat it. Also, I found with my poorer eater, that if I held off and didn't give him snacks, he would eat much better at mealtime.