tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602915421357912126.post119422862055346247..comments2023-09-29T08:06:39.289-04:00Comments on Conference Call on Mute: Dropping bottles - advice requestedStaceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12682866063792535916noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602915421357912126.post-27567809977498726222010-01-27T22:56:49.174-05:002010-01-27T22:56:49.174-05:00We did not start getting Josh off the bottle until...We did not start getting Josh off the bottle until after a year, and he was off it by 18 months. So if you think 11 months is too soon, go with it. Your ped does not know your child as well as you do. So basically what I started doing was when I introduced cow's milk, I put it in the sippy cup. As we started to wean from breastfeeding, we replaced bottles with sippy cups. It was a gradual process that took maybe 6-8 weeks, and he handled it fine.<br /><br />Alex, OTOH, never much liked bottles, so by 10 months he was only on a sippy cup, be it for water, breastmilk, juice, whatever. It wasn't "too early" for him. Every kid is different.<br /><br />And I agree with Laura that letting Cameron take the lead on eating is the way to go. Keep offering her a variety of food at every meal/snack, and she will eat what she needs. She won't let herself starve to death, I promise. :-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602915421357912126.post-6786395323585854032010-01-27T09:57:48.587-05:002010-01-27T09:57:48.587-05:00I would take her lead on the whole transition to t...I would take her lead on the whole transition to table food. It's hard for us type A people but you have to let her be in charge of this for the most part. Unless they are failure to thrive, kids are amazing self-regulators in food consumption until age 3. <br /><br />For us, we introduced sippies around 9 months and always offered that first. It was hit or miss, with mostly misses until 11 months or so. We always left a sippy on their tray while they were eating but again, it was just an introduction.<br /><br />Our ped said our goal at one year was to be on 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. A week after their first birthday, we went cold turkey to sippies. At day care, the 1s room does not do any bottles so we knew we needed to transition. Alex only drank 2-3 oz milk per day for about a week after the transition but our ped said that was common. Once he realized we were never bringing bottles back, he slowly increased his milk consumption. Nate took to sippies right away.<br /><br />On the bedtime bottle front, we dropped that a week later. Instead we substituted a little cuddle time with a sippy right before bed. They never missed any of the bottles and eventually they learned to eat table food.<br /><br />On the table food front, I would highly recommend the books by Ellyn Satter to learn to let go of food control. Transition to table foods is right up there with potty training in terms of parental stress. Her mantra is the parents' job is to offer a variety of healthy foods and the kids' job is to decide how much to eat. She also offers some great strategies on introducing new foods - Alex was textbook in that he needed to see a food 15 times before he would try it. He would cry the first time we put any new food on his tray!<br /><br />And we were forced to take it slow at our house as Alex was a puker. If we gave him something too advanced for him, he would vomit everywhere. We got really good at knowing his vomit face and catching vomit in his bib! It was a GREAT lesson in letting our kids take the lead. Nate would eat anything at any time, rarely puked, so again a daily lesson in each kid will eat what they need.LauraChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14322568136833382134noreply@blogger.com