Dropping Bottles/Switching to Milk

This will be one of my last 'legit' posts on the board as the girls turn ONE tomorrow (gulping back tears here!)....we've made big progress these last two weeks as they are STTN (not twelve hours, but they go 10-1.5, which is a huge improvement!), BUT - it seems that I can't even get rid of ONE bottle!

They have one as soon as they wake, which they suck down as if they were starving. I do breakfast about an hour - 90 minutes later, give or take - some days they're really interested, some days not. THey often will whine for a bottle then, so i'll feed as much solids as possible and then give them one. They alsohave sippys with water at all meals and during the day.

To go down for their first nap they want another bottle. Sometimes they are finishing the bottle they had with bkfst, sometimes it's a whole one. So it's now no later than 10 am and they've had two bottles! Depending on when they wake from a nap we have a small or large snack, then lunch with a sippy. By 2 they are desperate for a bottle, and it's nap time anyway. Even if they only have water with dinner they still have a bedtime bottle, which puts us at FOUR - and i can't figure out a way to get rid of ANY of them!

I'm worried they'll still be drinking bottles in junior high, not to mention the moving to milk thing. Suggestions, please!

 

Take a deeep breath!!!! There is not a magic switch at 12 months, it is not suddenly not okay to give bottles This is just when you can start working on it. My thoughts are to work on the middle of the day ones and leave the morning and bedtime for a while. Or you can go the route of COLD TURKEY :unsure: No more bottles period. Just like with CIO it can take a while for them to get the point, lol, but they will.
We personally, kept the bedtime bottle until 15 months then stopped, and soon after they didn't need anything at bedtime, thier last milk sippy is at 3pm.

 

I agree with Kristi. Last week we cut out their post-lunch bottle. I actually switched it to a sippie and they look at me like I'm nuts "WTH? Why is my formula in this sippy?!" So now we are on two bottles a day (wake up and bedtime) and we will slowly transition to milk in sippies. Take your time and follow thier cues. GL!

 

Other than the lunchtime bottle, which mine dropped at 7 months, we had 3 bottles a day until the day we switched to milk. The one thing I would work on, is moving those bottles so they aren't using them to go to sleep. Try to space them a bit, because that will be the hardest transition.

 

Thanks, I think i just needed to be talked off the ledge. I'm certainly not ready to go cold turkey with bottles, nor do I see any reason for it. I just get concerned that in addition to their being addicted to the bottles (i say that with a huge grain of humor/salt), they are not eating NEARLY enough solids to keep them going at this point. I guess I will just remember that transition means just that!

 

Slow and easy.

At one year, we were on three bottles a day, right before meals and sippies of water with morning and afternoon snack. We slowly replaced bottles of formula with sippies of milk (mine look at me like I was an alien when I tried whole milk in the bottle...the plan was to get them used to the milk first then get to the sippy...but oh well) before/during meal times. We have taken our time, and we're still transitioning the morning bottle out but otherwise have sippies of milk with meals and sippies with water otherwise.

Like pp said, i would work on moving them away from bottles for sleepy time...that would probably help. i would also watch how much water you give during the day because that can fill them up too. I'm not saying to keep water from them but make sure they aren't "filling up" on water. if that makes any sense.

Mine started eating much more once we moved to sippies of milk because they weren't filling up on bottles. I totally understand your concern about eating (we have weight issues) but they will eat more solids when they aren't drinking as much.

Good luck, and take your time.

 

QUOTE(Jordari @ Mar 19 2008, 02:25 AM) [snapback]676386[/snapback]
Thanks, I think i just needed to be talked off the ledge. I'm certainly not ready to go cold turkey with bottles, nor do I see any reason for it. I just get concerned that in addition to their being addicted to the bottles (i say that with a huge grain of humor/salt), they are not eating NEARLY enough solids to keep them going at this point. I guess I will just remember that transition means just that!


This was a huge concern of mine too- the fact that they weren't eating enough food to drop a bottle. But for us at least I had to drop a bottle for them to eat more food. We dropped the 4pm bottle and replaced it with a sippy of water (I did formula first, but they didn't drink it), and a snack. After a day or so guess what?! They started eating more at all meals!!! Now we've dropped the after lunch bottle, but I do offer a sippy with formula during lunch (they don't really drink it) and again they eat more for lunch!

At our 1 year appointment yesterday our doctor really made a point of saying no more than 16-20oz of milk per day because it will cut into the amount they eat and obviously they can't live on milk like they could on formula.

I was really freaked out about dropping these bottles, but I think that stems from the fact that I still see them as tiny preemies whose lives hang in the balance if they don't eat enough. Its time for me to stop seeing them as those tiny 3 1/2 pounders, and see them as the 19lb kids they've become!

Oh and :birthday: :birthday: girlies!!! Wish you lived closer so we could get the girls together for a playdate!