How much do your babies drink?
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| Mon, 03-08-2004 - 8:43pm |
I am in the process of moving from bottle to cup. DD is going to be a year old next week and it's time. She's not missing the bottle at all, really, but she doesn't seem to want to drink anything! She'll sip on a sippy cup of water all day (but won't drink anything else out of the sippy, milk OR juice and, conversely, won't drink anything BUT milk from the bottle). But all the sipping doesn't seem to empty the cup. I make due with lots of fruits and veggies and milk in her oatmeal and a bottle before bed (she'll only take about 4 oz from that bottle).
According to "What to Expect in the Toddler Years" she should be drinking 4-6 cups of water a day (32-48 oz total)! That would be 4-6 WHOLE sippy cups full of either milk or water. Between all the eating and playing and napping, I just don't think that the little busy body has the time or the interest in drinking that much.
How much do you get your babies to drink? BTW, she is totally weaned from the breast and has been for a while.
Thanks for the imput!
Melissa, Aspen's mom

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I like to take a more relaxed approach to stuff like this. If my son is hungry, he eats, if he is thirsty, he drinks. I don't really watch either one. I tried once and it drove both of us crazy. I just try to give him healthy options.
As long as she is happy and healthy and such I would not fret.
If she doesn't like to drink milk except out of a bottle, I have two options that might work for you.
1) Take away the bottle. If she is thirsty and you want her to drink milk, then give it to her in a cup. Trust me, if she is thirsty and you will NOT give her a bottle, she will give in.
2) Just give her cheese, yogurt, and such instead of the milk. My son doesn't drink much milk but he has other calcuim/milk products so I don't worry.
Beth
I just think those are guidelines on how much a child should get. not all of us have time to drink and eat as much as it is recommended.
I think as long as she is hydrated, then do not worry. Maybe try something else for her to drink and see how that goes. I know you said you have tried juice, milk.... how about other drinks and go from there.
Good luck.
Mel
Andrew 3-4-99
Dalton 12-4-03
My DD is now 21 months and she hardly drinks anything. She has milk on her cereal and a bottle before bed. she will take 6oz on a good day. I offer her drinks and she will take it when she wants it. This is my 5th child and the others all drank loads at her age. The HV said at a year old when she wouldn't drink anything but milk that she is getting sufficient nutrients from the milk so not to fret. Now she has about 4 small drinks a day.
Jane
My baby is 14 months old and I am having a hard time weaning him off the bottle. He will drink water from a siippy cup or plain cup if I hold it, but he will not drink milk out of the cup. He will only drink it out of a bottle. My son will look in the cup and if there is white liquid in there he will shake his head "no". If I put it in a sippy cup he will take one sip and push it away. My son has never liked juice.
What I have tried is to put Ovaltine in his milk. My son will drink chocolate milk from a cup (I refuse to put it in the bottle and have told my sitter not to either). The Ovaltine has more sugar, but also more vitamins. I still haven't gotten him off the bottle because he prefers it and he will drink more.
When you figure out something that works, let me know.
Tanya
Throw out the bottles. Period. Tell your child that you are giving the bottles to a baby who needs them and that he no longer needs them as he is big enough to drink out of a cup. Then only offer him liquids in a cup. If he needs to drink milk, then offer him milk in a cup.
He will say no. He will probably cry. Maybe throw a fit. But you don't relent. Tell him that the cup will be there when he is thirsty. TRUST ME, no child will go without drinking. Maybe for a day or so, but they will give in and realize that if they want to drink then they need to use a cup.
If you would like, go shopping for cups that he likes. Let him choose them etc. They have many cute sippy and regular cups for kids.
I think that things are going okay. The bottle is gone and she is wetting her diapers just fine. Though she only drinks about 2 cups of water a day and still won't drink milk out of a cup, I know that she is getting enough dairy from the yogurt, cheese and milk in her morning oatmeal.
She also has a lot of fruit and veggies. I think that I just got freaked out by the 4-6 cups total recommended by the baby book. I swear, that "What to Expect" series was written by extremists!
:)
Melissa
Once he got over the virus, he did take some milk out of small plastic cups. I tried introducing sippy cups for months before, but he would just chew on them. I even took out the spill-proof valves, but that didn't work either. None of the brands I tried worked until I started using the playtex insulated sippy cups late last week. I don't know if it was timing or the fact that this was the first cup we tried that had pictures on it, but he now drinks milk from it. I still haven't put the spill-proof valves in them, so we have have to watch and help him drink.
All I can say is keep trying to offer milk until your little one changes her mind. My ds drank water from his colored plastic cup yesterday, instead of a clear glass, and that's our big accomplishment of the week. ;)
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