milk/sippy/bottle help

i am really failing at the whole bottle transition thing. my LOs drank 4, 8oz bottles a day and now i've cut the two bottles to about 5.5 oz and the morning one is at 7 and the evening one is at 8. we just finished the last of the formula and i know im not supposed to give more than 18 oz of milk a day.
how do i do this! :headbang:
only 1 kid gets the sippy cup and he wont lay in his boppy and drink it. he wont sit in his highchair and drink it either.

UGH! :blink:

 

We are struggling with sippy cups too, so I have similar frustrations! Though I had never heard that babies should not have more than 18 oz of formula. Is this a common rule? Because our boys just switched to whole milk, but still aren't eating enough solids, so they still get about 24 oz of whole milk a day.

 

i am not sure.
my pedi said that the AAP recommends 18 oz of whole milk a day. she told me my 32 oz of formula was way too much so i am cutting down as best i possibly can. we only do 3 meals; no snacks. i think that might be my problem.
i am really not sure how much of a snack i should give them or WHAT i should give them.

 

I did not make the transition from bottles to sippies until 15 months but when I did do the transition:
They had a sippy of milk (around 8-9 oz) in the morning with breakfast and would get the other sippy before bedtime. They had a sippy of water throughout the day.
Sometimes when you make the transition, their milk intake will go down, so I would supplement with dairy products (yogurt, pudding, cheese, cottage cheese).
As for snacks...my schedule went kind of like this:
7:30 sippy of milk/breakfast
11:00-lunch/sippy of water
12:30 snack-yogurt/cereal bar/fruit/veggie/teddy grahams/Beech Nut yogurt nibbles/Gerber puffs/cereal
1-4 nap
4:30 dinner
6:30 milk sippy
* I would offer an evening snack but did not worry if they did not take it. They had a sippy of water throughout the day.
I also flavored the milk at first to get them to take it. I did a tiny bit of strawberry syrup & added Caranation Instant Breakfast for the extra calories.

ETA: My pedi recommended 16-24 oz of dairy/milk per day. My two were on 24 oz at 12 months because they were beneath the 5th percentile in weight at that time. Once they put some weight on, then she told us that 16 oz would be fine.

 

I was BF and stopped the two daytime feedings and that was no problem, but they ate alot more snack(hard boiled eggs,cheese,fruit,goldfish,grahms,anything they could pop into their mouth) I also kept them very busy before nap time to distract them. I was really surprised how easy it was. At 12 months I took the am feeding away, that was hard on me! It made me a bit sad. They started eating a lot more breakfast. usually they eat oatmeal, or cream of wheat, or eggs and toast, whole wheat pancakes, or french toast,or a waffle and some fruit. We still nurse right before bedtime at night but that is mostly a comfort thing as it only lasts about 5 mins. sometimes less than that. They are always so exhausted. I find it easiest to completely take it away all at once(meaning no bottle at what ever feeding your taking away, the will figure out the sippy cups. My DD had to have a slower valve because it just poured out of her cup. Also my older son, his doc told us to warm the milk and put chocolate in it because he wouldnt drink it and let me tell you that was a huge mistake. He would only drink his milk warmed with chocolate like that until he was about 5! It was terrible and the dentist billl was about 1500.00 for two caps!

 

When I was trying to get them to give up a bottle, say the morning one, I would slowly dilute it with water (1oz water 7oz milk then 2oz water, 6 oz milk) and slowly it ended up being all water and then they wanted nothing to do with it. I would replace that bottle with a snack and they transitioned quite well. As for the sippy cups, I would just keep offering it and once they realize it's the only way they are getting the milk they will drink it. Hang in there!!



(this coming from the momma that still gives her 23 month olds a bedtime 8oz bottle..........)