going cold turkey on bottles and Q's

sawyer918

Ok so we are attempting to go cold turkey on bottles.  Yesterday wasn't too bad b/c they just drank what they wouldn't drink in the morning throughout the day, then at night they drank about 1/2 their usual amount from the sippy cups.  This morning they screamed.  They drank about 1/2 again from the sippy cups but it was a challange.  My questions are: 1. When your LO's finally drank from sippys was it like chugging from a bottle or did you need more time?  2. Did this force you change up your routine?  The reason I ask is b/c we were doing wake up at 7 with a bottle then breakfast at 8:30.  Now I am thinking we need to put them together at 7am.  Does this seem right? 

AlishaMay

At 9 months my girls wanted very little to do with sippy cups.  I transitioned to only giving them bottles with their meal, to get them used to only having milk at meal time.  This is also when we went cold turkey with the bedtime bottle, which wasn't too bad actually.  Also, at 9 mo their pedi recommended reducing their formula intake to 16-18 oz, with the goal of getting to 12 oz by 12 months.  As we started transitioning to sippys, their intake naturally dropped from 16 to 12 oz, but it was good to have some guidelines to know how much they should be taking.

A couple of weeks before their birthday I started weaning them off the bottle, doing 4 oz in the bottle to start the meal, then 2 oz in their sippy, and gradually increased the amount in the sippy over about a week.  Finally one day I gave them the sippy and never looked back.  Their intake was a little less for a few days, but gradually they just started drinking it.  They still don't chug it down like they did their bottle.  It's more like how we'd drink with a meal - a bit here, and a bit there.  GL!

macchiatto

We did cold-turkey, too (at 12.5m) to straw sippies. The first two days were rough but by day 3 both boys were fine and we never looked back.

Sometimes they'll chug their sippies but generally, we give them milk with meals and water in between. Sometimes milk in between or with snack if they ask for it, but if they've already had 20-24 oz of milk that day I'll cut them off and go with water.

tmbuchmann

I've only briefly introduced the sippy cups a couple of nights ago, and nothing really since. IMO I think you are forcing them to early, but that's just me.

jbl126

We went cold turket at 12.5 mths and once I took the bottles away, we never looked back. 

they used to get a bottle and then breakfast.  But once I took the bottles away, I just gave them milk with their breakfast at their usual breakfast time.  They get milk with all their meals and then water in between if they want something esle and also with their snack.

You can try different types of sippy cups to see which ones they like best.  Good luck!

floridakat

I think some of you might be misreading her ticker. It looks to me like her kiddos are 14 months, not 9.

Anyway, we're introducing sippies now with water, and our pedi has recommended going cold turkey with bottles/formula at 12 months. He said we can eliminate one bottle at a time if we want, or we can just make the switch. I'm just trying to make sure they're comfortable with how the sippies work before we take away the bottles completely.

sawyer918

tmbuchmann:

I've only briefly introduced the sippy cups a couple of nights ago, and nothing really since. IMO I think you are forcing them to early, but that's just me.

I thought that by 15 month appointment they would want me to have them off bottles.  I think we have about a month until that appointment.  The boys love the sippys they have and will drink some milk from them at meal times but not like a bottle, which is where I think I was being kind of ignorant about the milk/sippy concept.  I think they were doing exactly what they should be doing with a sippy but I just thought they would be chugging it like a bottle.  I think I just need to adjust my schedule to not have a "bottle" of milk when I used to. 

tmbuchmann

sawyer918:

tmbuchmann:

I've only briefly introduced the sippy cups a couple of nights ago, and nothing really since. IMO I think you are forcing them to early, but that's just me.

I thought that by 15 month appointment they would want me to have them off bottles.  I think we have about a month until that appointment.  The boys love the sippys they have and will drink some milk from them at meal times but not like a bottle, which is where I think I was being kind of ignorant about the milk/sippy concept.  I think they were doing exactly what they should be doing with a sippy but I just thought they would be chugging it like a bottle.  I think I just need to adjust my schedule to not have a "bottle" of milk when I used to. 

I'm sorry, I thought your ticker said they were 9 months old, I apologize.

In that case, I think what you are doing sounds right, when I weaned DS1 from nursing we went straight to sipply cup and that was at 11 1/2 months old. He did get a bottle at daycare but seemed to do better with a sippy at home and at daycare.

2shihtzus

I think what you're doing sounds right.  My boys are around the same age as yours and they will not drink one drop of milk from sippies.  As soon as they take a sip and realize it's milk, they spit it out and scream.  So...I think it's great that they will take some milk, even if it is less.  You may just have to offer the milk more often. 

You are waaayyy ahead of us, we are struggling up in here.

sara1014

We introduced sippies around 8-9 months, but only with water in them at snack time.  

Pretty much right at 12 months, bottles vanished from our house and they did very well with them (I've already forgotten the brand, but they were super soft spouts that were very bottle-like then switched to the harder spout).  Mine still don't really like the straw ones even though I wish they did!

 

EDIT:  WHOOPS!  I misread your ticker too!  Sorry!  Then YES, when we switched to sippies, we did milk with breakfast instead of some before and then breakfast.  Though nowadays, they want milk right when they wake up before I get breakfast ready, so it's almost like we're back to having something first!  I pretty much have to have milk waiting on the table to avoid meltdowns!   

klr210

DD weened herself from nursing and pumped milk in bottles at 10 months. Ped. said to introduce sippy cups and we did a born free version with a soft top that seemed to be a good transition.

https://www.amazon.com/Born-Free-Trainer-Colors-Vary/dp/B000MRLYHE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1308842188&sr=8-3

here's a link so you can see what we used. anyways, she still was taking in less fluids overall and so I was concerned about dehydration. Ped. said not to worry as long as she was getting lots of fruits to eat (90% water or something like that) and was having wet diapers. Knowing this allowed me to feel comfortable about not forcing the sippy but not allowing the bottles.

 

togagirl

We did cold turkey but not until about 13 months.  They would scream bloody murder in the morning so I started making breakfast as soon as I heard them up and then brought them right down to their highchairs to eat. 

Haven1

I am so not ready for this.  They're doing really well with water in their sippies, but if the 12+oz of formula they've been drinking in the morning this week is any indication, I don't see cold turkey in our future.

My plan is to chat with my pedi about milk at their one year and go from there.  She said they probably won't like formula in their sippies, and I'm too cheap to waste it trying.