question about bottle weaning

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
question about bottle weaning
8
Mon, 06-13-2005 - 10:22pm

How will you/did you wean your baby off the bottle, especially the night time one? Jacob will be a year old July 28! He is very dependent on his bottle to go to sleep at night and for naps. He does use the sippy cup but barely gets anything out of it, mostly throwing it on the floor or chewing on it! I know I'm supposed to switch him to regular milk by a year but how many times a day does he get it? Is it as many times as the formula? I'm so confused about this! I want to do the right thing. Thanks for your input.

Jenny & Jacob (7/28/04)

 baby

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-21-2004
Tue, 06-14-2005 - 12:07am
I breastfed, but wanted to bump this up for you so someone would answer :)

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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-13-2003
Tue, 06-14-2005 - 1:41am

Hi Jenny,

I pumped breastmilk for dd for about 9 months, until my milk dried up, after that my dr recommended formula until we reached the 1yr mark were she could have cows milk. She said that its not necassary to cut off bottles at one yr, just that some people like to get rid of them sooner lol. I gave her (for the first while) about as many bottles of milk as she had formula, or as she wanted it. I would however, make sure that she had some food, or cereal first, so she wouldnt fill up on milk. She just turned 2, and I have noticed that she isnt very intrested in bottles anymore. She would rather have a sippy cup, or a big girl cup with a straw. She does love the nightime bottle still, but I have found that she sucks on it for a bit, then either puts it down, or falls asleep with it in her mouth, not even drinking it, and I take it away. I am actually going to try putting water in the nighttime bottle and see what happens.

Good luck to you!

Lesley

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-08-2005
Tue, 06-14-2005 - 1:18pm

Hi Jenny, I plan with Aston to do the same I did with my dd's. We just did cold turkey. I know it may sound a little mean, but it worked for us. We just threw all the bottles out. Good luck with weaning. Keep us posted on how it is doing.

Olivia

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&nbs
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-22-2004
Tue, 06-14-2005 - 1:55pm

I have this very same issue with the weaning to cup right now...I thought about cold turkey but was afraid my ds might not get ANY fluids b/c of his insistant resistance to the cup. So if anyone had a really hard transition to the sippy, please help us.

I have several different types of sippies I'm trying. Two are short and have the stoppers in them. I've tried taking the stoppers out AND leaving them in. When I take them out, even though he's drinking upright, the milk goes EVERYWHERE. He won't drink anything out of the sippy except milk, and that's a feat in itself. I began with the noon bottle, replacing with a sippy. If he won't drink the milk, I give him yogurt to cover the loss of getting milk and give him a bottle of water (lemon flavored or else he won't drink anything at all). Well, the night before last, he did so well drinking 2 oz. of milk out of the sippy at lunch that I tried it for dinner and he got 3 oz. down! I was so happy! But then, yesterday's lunch wasn't very successful and the dinner sippy was a total disaster. I had a temper tantrum myself. I'm not going to subject either of us to that again while my dh is out of town. So I know the advice I've seen is to try to cut the midday bottle first, then the dinner, then morning, then last bottle of the day. So how long does this process take if you don't go cold turkey? And to Olivia, how old was your baby when you went cold turkey? My ds is 13 months on Monday, and we're just starting the whole sippy thing b/c he just never would even try it before, no matter how available I made it. Any advice from those who made the transition is welcome, but especially from those who had babies between 10-15 months when they switched (b/c that's the age they are least likely to try something new so the experts say).

I drink from a sippy at the same time to encourage him (that might help the original poster for a hint). Also, the amount of milk suggested for a 1-year old is 3 cups a day. I began by using 3/4 formula and 1/4 milk and mixing those together (pediatrician said that is FINE), did that for a week, then went to 1/2 and 1/2 for a week or so, then went to 3/4 milk, 1/4 formula, and by the time he was 11 months, he was on cow's milk only. My pediatrician said I could start the process of switching at 9 months, but it's different for everyone on choice and we all have different doctors and preferences. I give my ds 7 oz. in the morning, 6 oz. midday, 6 oz. dinner, and then 4 oz. last bottle. That is 23 oz. or 1 oz. short of 3 cups, and he gets yogurt or some other dairy in the day, so it's still well over 3 cups in the end.

Hope that helps somewhat, and someone please help us to understand the art of sippies.

Debbie

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-08-2005
Wed, 06-15-2005 - 2:12pm

Debbie, When my dd's were babies they had just came out with the first spillproof cup (playtex). So that is all that I used with them. They were both around 12 months when we went cold turkey. I remember my oldest dd by her 1st birthday she was no longer drinking from a bottle. For both we had started the cup around 6-7 months. With Aston I just started giving him a cup around 2 weeks ago and he is now 7 months. When you go cold turkey you just have to throw out the bottles and don't worry about them not getting enough. When they get thirsty or crave for the formula or milk again they will drink. I think that is a good idea offering him yogurt if he does miss his bottle. Good luck to ya and keep us posted. BTW...with Aston, now there are so many cups out there to choose, I just bought him the playtex brand as well. On my Nov2004 playgroup board a lady recommended the Gerber Transitional Cup to everyone, haven't tried it though.

Olivia

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&nbs
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-01-2003
Wed, 06-15-2005 - 3:40pm

Hi Jenny;
What I did was use a sippy cup with the soft spout. That seemed to help but I am kind of like another poster. I just went cold turkey. That is just my style with everything with my kids. My 2 oldest nursed but were bottle fed because I worked but my 3rd was fully nursed, no bottles, so we didn't have that problem.
I think the problem is that there are too many "things" out there to make the transition so it can overwhelm you. Try just a basic sippy cup or even one that uses a straw. Some kids might like the straw type better. Hope this helps in some way. My youngest is 4 and I am pretty much brain dead to what happened when they were babies. 3 babies in 3 years tends to do that to you! LOL!

Heather

Heather

 

 

 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-21-2004
Wed, 06-15-2005 - 3:59pm

Hi all, I did some research and found this for you. You could try this if it makes sense to you.



SWITCHING TO MILK

I've been feeding my baby iron-fortified formula. When is it okay to switch to whole cow's milk? Research comparing cow's milk and formula-fed infants during the first year of life has shown that cow's milk is irritating to the intestines of a tiny infant, causing infants to lose a tiny bit of blood in their stools, contributing to iron deficiency anemia. There is very little iron in cow's milk anyway, and the iron that is there is poorly absorbed. Concern about iron-deficiency anemia has led the American Academy of Pediatrics, backed by solid research, to discourage the use of cow's milk in children under one year of age. One of America's top pediatric hematologists (blood specialist), the late Dr. Frank Oski , Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkin University (and co-author of a book entitled: Don't Drink Your Milk) advised parents to be cautious and not rush into the use of cow's milk, even during the second year of life. At present it would seem prudent to continue giving your baby iron-fortified formula during the second year of life and very gradually wean him to dairy products, beginning with yogurt. If your toddler generally has a balanced diet and routine hemoglobin tests show that he is not even close to being anemic, then switch from formula to whole milk sometime during the second year, but don't be in a hurry.

NUTRITIP
Dairy Dates
• no cow's milk before age one
• whole milk until two
• nonfat or low-fat milk after two


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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-22-2004
Wed, 06-15-2005 - 5:40pm

Now THAT was some good information. My cup thing is going much better each day. I'm slowly getting my ds to drink more from the cup at lunch, and today he drank almost the entire amount on his own without me having to pick up the cup!! I also try to use it at dinner, but I know this one will probably take longer...so for right now, I'm concentrating on the lunch cup which is much less stress on the both of us. I also drink from a sippy at every meal in front of him so he'll be more interested in mimicking. If he had an older brother or sister, I'm sure the cup thing would have been earlier (or if he'd been in daycare or whatever..learning from other kids), but at least he can watch me. Anyway, I've heard cold turkey works, too. If this doesn't keep on going forward, we may try that. For now, it's ok.

Thanks again, Debbie