What age did you start giving them bottle/sippy WITH their meals?

When did you guys start this? Do they give you any "clues" as to when they're ready? I'm doing either bottle or solids every two hours and I am EXHAUSTED!

And when you do switch to this, when do you give them water/juice? Is it a "snack" or treat at that point? Or do you reventually replace a bottle with water/juice? We have 4 bottles a day now.

Right now, water/juice is with solids, although they have not mastered the sippy cup at all, DS not even interested.

THANKS

 

We're not on sippy cups yet. I know posters have had sippies with snacks and with meals (formula might go in the sippy, for example).

I'm sure you'll get a lot of great advice here!

 

At 11 months we replaced the noon bottle with a sippy of milk with lunch. At 10 months we stopped the 4pm bottle and replaced that with a snack and a sippy of water. HTH.

 

At around 9 months we went to 3 meals a day and 2 snacks.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner were at the traditional family times and they had first formula and then not long after milk with the meal. We switched to sippies at 8 months from the bottle, so it was served in a sippy.

They also got 2 snacks. 1 before afternoon nap and one before bed with a small cup of water and something light.

Now we basically do the same thing but we are switching to milk with breakfast and dinner and water the rest of the day. We are also getting rid of the bedtime snack and just giving them water. Eventually we will add a morning snack, but right now they are just not hungry before the morning nap.

Good Luck!

 

Around 10-11 months, I started giving them sippies with water or water/juice mix in the afternoon/evening. It wasn't with meal, just during play time. Aidan took a few weeks to figure out how to suck on it to get the water to come out. Addison still hasn't figured that out yet.

Until they figure out how to drink from a sippy consistently, I'm not giving them with meals. It's just something fun for them to play with and throw on the floor now. I do give them sippies with their afternoon snack of puffs, which we eat in the family room. Again, they mostly chew and play with the sippies so they're not really getting anything to drink out of them.

 

I started sippy cups with water at 6 months. I gave it to them every time they were in their high chair for a meal. By 9 months or so, the boys were on 3 meals a day, with each meal getting a water sippy. If they were constipated, they got the rare watered down juice. By 10 months, they were on 3 meals a day & an afternoon snack. At that point, we were down to 3 bottles a day, too. At 10.5 mos, I dropped the bottle before their afternoon nap & replaced it with milk in their sippy at lunch. Being that their intake dropped, I then put milk in their sippy with all 3 meals, but still gave them water/watered down juice with their afternoon snack. Now, at 11.5 mos, we're dropping all bottles & going to straight sippies. Today is our first day & thus far, all's perfect (but we haven't gotten to the night time bottle yet !!!!!).

I started out with sippies that didn't have a valve in them until they started to realize how to drink out of them. I also liked the First Years disposable ones (Take N Toss, I think they're called) but do NOT let them throw them ! Now their favs are the Playtex Sipsters & the Gerber Sip N Smiles. Once they realized how to drink out of them & wanted to do it themselves, we put the valves in. It took them a while to realize they had to work harder, but they got it! At first, a 6 oz sippy cup could last them days (in the fridge, of course)....now it lasts about 1-2 meals. When I worry about their intake, I add a splash of Pediasure (vanilla flavored) & they guzzle it right down.

I tell ya one thing...I'll be sooo happy when I won't have to wash bottles anymore, but I will miss the snuggle time bottles provide nowadays. Mine are too busy & on the go to sit still except when they're getting a bottle...they grow so fast.....

 

We just tried offering formula in the sippies right after their solids meal last week, they took one sip, spit out the formula, and looked at me like I had two heads!!! They drink water out of them just fine, but in their world formula is only for bottles. We'll try again in a few weeks and see if they are ready then.

 

Thanks guys :icon_biggrin: So it looks like it will still be just as complicated, huh? We don't really do snacks since they're getting something every two hours, whether a bottle or solids. I figured right after eating solids they might be too full for a bottle. I guess it's just all trial and error. The fun never ends!