At what age did your LO hold his/her own bottle?

[Bootsie]

I have twins who just turned 8 months (7 months, age adjusted). They can hold the handles of small straw cup and drink out of it. We've been practicing mid afternoon. After stroller walks (especially now that it is hot out), I give them watered down apple juice in a straw cup and they are both pretty good at drinking out of it by now.

They are still not holding their own bottles though. (My DD will sometimes drink what would go in her bottle out of the straw cup. My DS refuses to.) We were using 8 oz Dr. Brown's bottles and I thought perhaps those bottles are so long and require such mastery at tipping and holding that it might make sense to go back to the 4 oz bottles (Avent) that we used when they were really little and let them have 2 4 oz bottles. I'm not sure whether this will help. Neither one is showing much interest in holding the smaller bottle either.

At what age did your LOs hold their own bottle and what did you do to encourage it and encourage trying it?

[mom2khj]

DD1 was probably 6 or 7 months, I can't recall for sure. DD2 never did. I ended up switching her to straw sippy cups around 9 months and she would use those. DS seems to be following DD2. He's 8.5 months and still won't hold his bottle (we use Tommee Tippee). I've been trying to straw sippy for him, but so far he doesn't want anything to do with it (other than chewing on the straw and a few sips). I'll just keep trying every few days. :)

[♥ms.pacman♥]

My ds never learned to hold his own bottle, and we gave him bottles up to 15mos. At first I thoughtit was because I exclusively breastfed and so he only had a bottle a couple times a week or so, when I gave him pumped milk. Bt then at 12 mos he weaned and went on to drinking cows milk out of a bottle (we used dr browns as well) and he just was not interested. He never mastered the sippy either...I think from 7mos on he learned to drink water our of a straw cup and that's what was easiest for him. I guess it's easier bc he doesn't have to tip it. Also my ds is very active and he likes being able to drink and play at the same time...I think that's a little harder to do with a bottle.

[BabyH]

I don't remember DS ever holding his bottle. However, I switched him cold turkey to sippy cups (the ones with handles) around 11.5 months and he just learned..... now he's onto the ones without handles!

[Canna]

I'm wondering why you want them to hold their own bottles? They can hold and use sippy cups, so they're coordinated and have the motor skills that would be necessary, so you don't have to worry about that. Is it just that it would make it easier at times? I guess I personally like to see adults holding bottles for babies. It seems snuggly and also more similar to a breast feeding relationship where you would be close to mom having one-on-one time while nursing.

[llama8]

I would say she held the bottle well by 6-7 months.

[blue]

Ummm, DS never really learned to hold his bottle. He physically could, but refused to (scream at the top of his lungs) unless in his crib. He could pick up and hold his sippy cup of water just fine. But, if his bottle was right in front of him, he would cry, refuse to pick it up (or occasionally throw the bottle at me). I don't know why, but bottles where not to be help and picked up in his mind... The funny part is he didn't want to snuggle or be held most of the time as he got older. He wanted me to hold it and he drank like a baby calf standing up (probably because that left both his hands free to play well drinking his formula ;))..... I did drop bottles completely by around 13-14 months (when we changed to whole milk in a sippy cup). It is nicer now, he will come and snuggle with his sippy of milk with me now sometimes (I was glad to see the bottles go, they were causing to much frustration for us both)......... I mention all this OP, because some DC's will not hold bottles (at least mine never did).

[jren]

Neither of mine held their own bottles. It actually worked out better for usin the long run, but I don't have twins so I don't know how hard it is if they're both needing a bottle it the same time.

For us, I always insisted on holding their bottle but I refused to hold the sippy cups. When time came to get rid of the bottle, it was super easy since they weren't a security object that they carried around. Plus, around one is when my kids didn't want to sit still long enough for me to give them a bottle anyway. We still snuggled at other times not related to feeding. My DS's (2 1/2 yo) favorite comment is "Let's snuggle", and he says it MANY times a day. Had nothing to do with breast or bottle feeding.

[Melaine]

I'm wondering why you want them to hold their own bottles? They can hold and use sippy cups, so they're coordinated and have the motor skills that would be necessary, so you don't have to worry about that. Is it just that it would make it easier at times? I guess I personally like to see adults holding bottles for babies. It seems snuggly and also more similar to a breast feeding relationship where you would be close to mom having one-on-one time while nursing.

Do you have twins? I TOTALLY understand where the OP is coming from. For instance, mine were slow, reflux-y eaters and both had to be burped constantly through feeding. Once they finally started holding their own bottles, I could burp one without the other screaming bloody murder. Bottle-feeding two is a different story. There is nothing cuddly about it, I'm afraid. It's more like a cafeteria line.

OP, these were totally worth it: http://www.amazon.com/Leachco-Keep--Easy-Bottle-White/dp/B002RT93U0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1306584497&sr=8-2
I got them late in the game, but it made feeding so much less stressful. They started holding them up with those right off the bat.

[crl]

Dd started doing it around 6 months. She pretty much insisted. I switched from glass Dr. Browns to earthlust stainless steel bottles then and they have optional handles and also convert to sippy cups. She flings her bottle/sippy when she is done so it was good I switched!

Catherine

[♥ms.pacman♥]

I'm wondering why you want them to hold their own bottles? They can hold and use sippy cups, so they're coordinated and have the motor skills that would be necessary, so you don't have to worry about that. Is it just that it would make it easier at times? I guess I personally like to see adults holding bottles for babies. It seems snuggly and also more similar to a breast feeding relationship where you would be close to mom having one-on-one time while nursing.

can't speak for others, but i know that once i had two kids (14mos apart) to care for at the same time (one being a newborn that needed to be held, nursed, or changed pretty much constantly), i just did not have the time to sit there and hold my son's bottle. it was just so much easier to just hand him a straw cup of milk and let him drink that on his own and play and run about the room while i attended to my DD.

for those with twins, i knew a girl in another forum who used those Podee handsfree bottles with her twins. the concept looks pretty cool.
http://www.podee.com/