Sippy transition

I know I don't belong over here yet (soon, though!) but I have a sippy question that I'm sure I can get good answers from over here vs in the 1st year.

My boys had started fighting their afternoon bottle a few weeks back. Some days they'd only take 3-4 oz, but others they'd happily take 8 oz. We switched daycares 2 weeks ago & now we're the 'youngest' & the only 2 on bottles. It was kinda a hassle for the new staff, so we decided to give sippies a try.

It's been a week since we went down to 2 bottles. I now offer milk in sippies for breakfast, lunch, & snack, along with before their afternoon nap (when they USED to take their bottle). I keep close tabs on their milk intake & it seems ALL DAY they're only getting in 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 oz (one more so than the other). It hasn't effected their food intake or their schedule (so I don't think they're 'starved'), but they have been taking larger night time bottles (8-10 oz now).

During the sippy transition, is it normal to see their intake drop for a while until they're used to it? Some times we even have to HOLD the cup to their mouths, other times they do it willingly. If we try to get them to drink before their afternoon nap, a lot of times it makes them cry & makes naptime total chaos, so we usually don't even offer it at that time anymore & only offer it with meals. But when I noticed their intake so low, I was thinking I should be offering it allllll day! They used to get water (and, as a treat, a rare watered down juice sippy), but now it's only milk!

What are your thoughts? I don't plan to drop the morning bottle til close to a year & the night time one shortly thereafter (unless I get bold & go cold turkey on both). It's just the afternoon sippy I'm worried about. I don't want to effect their development or anything because of such low dairy intake!

Oh, they usually get dairy through out the day in cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. Does that count, even though they're under a year?
TIA!!!!

 

My girls had a significant drop in milk consumption when we switched. I went cold turkey to milk in sippies and they were getting a total of about 10 oz. a day. The pedi advised me that we can count cheese/yogurt oz. toward their daily intake, so total they were getting about 12-13.

It took them about a month to adjust to the milk and gradually increased their intake. The best thing I did for my girls was to offer it all day long. Then when they got used to it, we started to offer milk with meals and water during the day.

 

Do I have to worry about dehydration? Prior to giving milk in sippies with meals, they always got water (or watered down juice) & they always seemed to CHUG that. Now it's just sips of their milk.

They are still wetting, but not as heavy as they were before!

 

Mine also dropped their milk consumption considerably when we switched to sippies (of course they were switching from formula to milk at the same time). I, too, only gave them milk to drink. Now, they are doing much better with drinking milk and I am able to offer it for breakfast and dinner with water for lunch.

 

Mine dropped milk consumption when we went to straight sippies for milk. They had been taking juice/water from the straw sippies for a few months before we dropped the night/morning milk bottle. The consumption dropped but to help I would split a bottle of Pedisure between the sippies and then fill the rest of the way with milk to make the transition easier.

 

My boys drank WAY less from their sippies so I kept the morning and evening bottles for a long time. We just gave up the evening bottle because they became proficient with their sippies. I'd do morning and evening bottles (so you know they're going to get at least 12 oz. or so) and then let the sippies be their day-time drinks. They'll get the hang of it. My boys let me know when they were ready to drop their bottles completely. Try not to fret too much. Yogurt, cheese, things cooked with milk, etc. are good sources of calcium too.

 

Mine didn't take bottles, but they did have a "slow" start with the sippies. I had better luck intake-wise when we used straw cups. HTH