Weaning off the bottle questions

[YouAreTheFocus]

Today is my baby's first birthday!

First question is regarding daycare:

This morning when we went into his daycare, they informed us that at 1 yr they start transitioning the babies from bottles to sippies or straws only, and that within one month the babies will be down to one bottle a day, given at nap time. (My baby currently drinks water out of a straw cup.)

Is this reasonable? I am a little irked that they get to decide that he'll be off bottles by 13 mos. I am not in a huge rush to get rid of the bottles. Also, when he's at home he never gets a bottle before going to sleep, so I am further irked that this is the one bottle that they are keeping.

Now regarding weaning:

I would appreciate any advice on how to go about this. He currently gets a bottle when he wakes up, 4 at daycare, and one at home in the evening, totaling 32 oz formula per day. So now we switch from formula to milk--I assume we should do this gradually? And how many oz of milk per day? When he wakes up, should I give him a straw cup of milk instead of a bottle? I think it is the AM bottle he is most attached to.

At this point, do experts agree that bottles must end at 1? It seems like this age changes a lot, and is somewhat arbitrary.

[catsnkid]

My daycare wants them off bottles/formula or expressed breastmilk by 14 mos unless with a doctor's note. They transitioned him over pretty easily. He hardly got a bottle at home anyway, he is BF still at home.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

babies still have a need to suck whether they are breastfed or bottle fed. Breastfed babies are not told to wean by one year, so it doesn't make sense that bottlefed babies would be.

not all babies can tolerate cow's milk at exactly one year of age. My older daughter couldn't handle it until 15 months.

You could still give him bottles at home even if they transition him to cups at daycare.

[kam]

At DD's day care, they don't take away bottles, but they start introducing cups (as in open cups, in mini size) at about 7-8 months. Just little sips of formula/bm. It's a Montessori school, so independence is encouraged. I thought this would be impossible, but she took to it like a duck to water!

By 10 months, DD was taking formula out of her little glass at meals quite proficiently. It was too cute to see her sitting at the little table eating cheerios and drinking out of a glass! From there, it was a gradual process to transfer her over completely. At 13 months, she only got a bottle for nap and bed, and that was just out of habit. I dropped the nap bottle gradually, making it smaller until she just didn't want it. Same for bedtime (actually, I droped that one cold turkey, out of curiosity, and got one inquiry and no objections.)

Now we mix in open cups at meals/when seated at a table with a straw based sippy cup when out and about (spills!).

All this is to say, while I think they're being a little imperious about it (which would annoy me), I don't think there's much wrong with what they are doing as long as your baby doesn't object. And, if you're not ready, there's no reason you couldn't continue to offer the bottle at home at times its more convenient for you.

[catsnkid]

To be honest, I find sippies much easier to deal with than bottles...

[Andi98989]

My DS currently gets 3 6-oz bottles a day - 1 in the morning, 1 after lunch before his nap, and 1 before bed. He does not eat to go to sleep, however. He drinks some water or Lactaid milk out of a straw cup at his meals. I am finding the cups much easier to deal with than the bottles; for now I am working on just replacing the bottle with a straw cup. The lunch bottle will probably the one he drops first and then the morning or bedtime one. He's already growing less dependent on the morning one - I can get his diaper changed and get him dressed before giving it to him.

FYI - you won't want to give him 32 oz of cow's milk a day; double check with your pediatrician, but generally you don't want more than 16 oz a day of milk. http://wholesomebabyfood.com/milkforbaby.htm

[YouAreTheFocus]

Thanks all for your input. He is at home for a week b/c we have family visiting and we have been giving him mostly bottles, but have tried a sippy straw w/ formula a few times and he's done ok with it (he doesn't drink as much as he would from a bottle).

We went to the ped for his 12 mos check up--she said she likes babies to have 20-24 oz of milk per day, but is ok with as low as 18 or as high as 30. This seems like way more milk than I see ppl on this board giving--isn't the thinking that if they drink that much milk they won't eat enough of other foods, nutrients, etc?

[julybaby715]

I think at 12 mos they are still a little young. The idea is to start thinking about changing over, allowing the child to experiment with the sippy but not necessarily push for change. I read in my books that I need to start the change to sippy and it really stressed me out. Asked me ped and she said "she just turned one, you don't have to push it or rush into it". It kinda made me take a deep breathe and realize that its ok to do things when it works best for me and my child. She also said that 18 mos is when they really wanna see the change.

With all that in mind I have slowly been changing. She is 14 mos and we are down to 2 a day. One when she first wakes up and one right before bedtime. Also, pickyness with food will probably hit hard at this point. I have come to realize that its ok to feed her what she wants instead of trying to get her to eat what I wish she would eat. The idea is to allow her to feel full from food and eating, not from milk and drinking. I let her get full on snacks if that's all she'll eat that day. Its better then her eating nothing at all or me caving in to a bottle full of milk. (Like to add that I started this at 12 months and now at 14 months, she'll pretty much eat anything I feed her since she understands it'll make her full).

We've had moments where i'll bring out food and she screams and cries for a bottle. I let her scream, throw her tantrum while continuing to offer her the food. I know she's starving and it makes me feel so bad...but after she's done with the tantrum, she eats! It's amazing but letting them go hungry in a sense, will help them to realize this is food and this is what will make you full.

As far as the daycare goes, I guess it kinda sucks that YOU can't be the deciding factor but at the same time, its great that they will be taking over this task during the day for you. I would go along with it and try to mimic it at home. Once he's off the bottle without tooth decay or any other problems associated with sticking too the bottle too long, you'll be thankful it happened sooner than later.

[Sweetum]

IMO skip the sippy and do the straw - it'll be one thing less to wean. Regarding daycare policy, I do find it odd that the only bottle they want to keep is the nap one. I think they just want to make their job of putting your child to sleep easier! When I was looking for daycares for DS there was one that told me that it would be against regulations to give a baby a bottle at nap time - I have not verified this, but I was personally happy about it.

I started to wean DS off his bottle after making sure he was comfortable using the straw. Then in 2 months I weaned him off the bottle. I think that was 15 mo. I must admit that it was sort of initiated by DS himself. He would go to bed at night after a bottle. One day he read some books with me, then hugged me, lay his head on my shoulder and went to sleep. I took that as a cue that he doesn't really need to bottle to sleep. By that time I had already taken away one of his bottles, the non-controversial one, the one that's not associated with bedtime/naptime, and replaced it with a straw cup. He did just fine.

And regarding cow's milk, about a week before DS' first birthday, I started to mix his prepared formula with cow's milk (please note that it's prepared formula, ie, formula powder mixed with water. this was then combined with whole milk), starting with 1 oz and gradually increasing the number of ounces. The day he turned one, he was completely on cow's milk. DS didn't seem to notice the difference.

I agree that babies have a need to suck, but I also think that age 1 onward they need to be weaned off that kind of pacification. That's just my opinion.

[Uno-Mom]

What strikes me as odd about your experience is that they waited until the last minute to discuss this issue. I'd have expected more notice & more discussion about the reasons behind the policy.

That said, you've got me curious and I'm going to ask our daycare if they have a policy about this. They're so easy-going, I doubt they do. But Sprog is 10 months & I've been thinking about when to start moving away from bottles. She does drink really well from an open cup but we've only put water in it. She hasn't ever had breastmilk in a cup - I can't bear the thought of it spilling!!

[YouAreTheFocus]

What strikes me as odd about your experience is that they waited until the last minute to discuss this issue. I'd have expected more notice & more discussion about the reasons behind the policy.

That said, you've got me curious and I'm going to ask our daycare if they have a policy about this. They're so easy-going, I doubt they do. But Sprog is 10 months & I've been thinking about when to start moving away from bottles. She does drink really well from an open cup but we've only put water in it. She hasn't ever had breastmilk in a cup - I can't bear the thought of it spilling!!

Yes, that was strange to me, too. It wasn't even the director formally telling us--it was a teacher in the hallway when we were leaving that morning. She stopped us and told us in a "by the way..." sort of way. To me this is a big change, and I would have liked more notice or more of a formal discussion. I have gathered that the reason behind the policy is that they need to prepare the older infants for the transition to the toddler room, which happens between 14-18 mos, depending on development (bottles and baby food aren't allowed in the toddler room). I have to say that in general they're not great with communicating, but he just LOVES his caregivers so much that I'm not sure I want to rock the boat and move him for that reason. But that's a whole other topic!

[Uno-Mom]

Call me suspicious, but that sounds like an individual teacher with their personal agenda/opinion on the subject. Maybe not an actual policy for the program...?

I'm new to the DCare world, but it seems like most official policies are written down someplace and given in advance.