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My dd is 12 months now and on 4 bottles per day (7am, 11am, 3pm and 7pm) with 3 solid meals inbetween (at 8:30am, 12:30pm and 5pm). I know I should start dropping bottles and moving her to a sippy cup but I am not sure how. I'm looking for people who have done this and can offer suggestions.
Thanks!
Our DD is nearly 15-months, and she's down to one bottle a day (at night before bed).
As far as bottles go, it wasn't too hard to eliminate them. I don't remember how we got from four to three bottles- I think she eliminated the noon bottle on her own. Once she started taking less and less during her afternoon bottle (normally she took six oz., but gradually started taking closer to five oz.), I just eliminated it cold turkey. She didn't complain and started eating more solids for lunch instead. We just eliminated the morning bottle about a month ago. One day we just got her up and fed her breakfast right away. I don't think she really even noticed. We don't plan to eliminate the night bottle for a while- we're expecting another baby in January, and I feel like she might need some comfort when the baby comes.
Getting her to take a sippy cup was an entirely different challenge. She still won't take milk from a sippy cup, so I have to make sure she gets enough dairy other ways (yogurt, cheese, etc.). She drinks water like crazy though- probably two or three full sippy cups a day (8 oz. each). She will only drink out of sippy cups with straws- I've tried other kinds, and she just can't (or won't) tip them enough to get some out. We started with sippy cups fairly early (probably six months), but she didn't really master them until close to a year. Like I said, she won't drink milk out of one, but her doctor said as long as she's getting dairy some other way, that's fine. I don't give her juice.
Have you tried any sippy cups? Just keep trying them and buy all different kinds. Eventually she'll get it. I know some people just quit bottles cold turkey and give only sippy cups, but I didn't really want to do that. I found that it was easy to eliminate bottles once she was taking in more solids.
Hopefully this was some help! I feel like I'm just rambling!
Erin
How about dropping the 11am and 3 pm first - start with formula in a cup - or even go right to the whole milk and a snack. I know that DS is hungry about those times and is looking to eat. Maybe your dd is hungry and needs a little more food.
Here is what we did...
I still BF first thing in the morning - and once or twice during the day depending on what we are doing and how DS feels.
DS was getting a bottle or two a day -
about 2 weeks after his first birthday we just stopped giving him the bottle.
We tried milk, but it didn't agree with DS - so he just got water in the cups. And he would drink a sip and then spit it out.
Just yesterday he wanted soy milk... so he has had that for 2 days.
We started with the NUBY cups (walmart for a $1 something) He uses those every once in a while - He uses the playtex cups - We have the handles and the taller ones without handles (although the lids fit both)
The peditritian said that as long as DS was getting 600-800 mg of calcium per day then it didn't matter that he wasn't drinking as much milk. Cheese, yogurt...
Good Luck!
It will all work out!
Sounds very similar to where we were at. When he turned 12 months, it was cold turkey -- and he barely noticed! I would drop your 11am and 3pm bottles immediately, cold turkey. Replace them with snack instead. Make the 7am and the 7pm sippy cups with whole milk. Go half and half if you want to ease her into it, but mine went from formula one day to whole milk the next day with positively no inkling of a notice. Here's what we do:
WAKE UP
8 oz(ish) of milk in an Avent sippy cup cuddling on the couch. The toddler top, which is green. The beginner's top is white and alot more flexible, so if you haven't used a sippy yet, might want to try the white top one first
IMMEDIATELY AFTER MILK
Breakfast. Usually oatmeal, an egg & sausage, or yogurt and a banana
MID-MORNING
Snack. Usually yogurt, applesauce, or fruit
LUNCH
I try to give him something healthy, but I have an issue, myself, with what kinds of foods to feed him, which is why I'm on this board today in the first place. I'm not a good source of advice on this, but we're currently giving him Kidz Hormel meals, veggies, buttered noodles, little chicken chunks or Tyson Veggie Tales Nuggets, or fish sticks
MID-AFTERNOON
Snack. Usually fishy crackers, wheat thins, fruit, yogurt, applesauce.
6PM
Milk in a sippy cuddling on the couch
DINNER
See lunch.
Now, note, that we don't do the same foods for each meal. If he has a yogurt and banana at breakfast, he won't be eating that again at snack or lunch. May repeat the yogurt for afternon snack, tho.
Bottom line, get the bottles out of your daughter's life, and don't go back. We kept some forumula around -- still keep it around, actually -- just in case we run out of milk, etc. It's kind of irrational, cuz there's so much other dairy sources all day long, but I'm just not willing to let go yet. So, it sits there on the counter and hasn't been used for 2 months (my son is now 14-months-old).
Also, he has water whenever he wants it out of a playtex straw cup. They are AWESOME. they have a doohicky on top that hides the straw and makes the cup spillproof; as long as the doohicky is closed. If open, not leakproof. But it's a wonderful cup. I also like avent alot. I don't use any other maker's cup.
Once in a blue moon, I give our son some juice diluted with water. I can count on one hand the number of times we've done that in 14 months. If you don't start with juice, he won't know that he wants that more than water.
Good luck!
UPDATE- We did it w/o a problem. She now just drinks milk from her sippy at breakfast, dinner and 2 snacks. I give her water in her sippy at lunch. Her only bottle is 8oz at bedtime. Went easier then I expected!