Advice Needed! LO getting off the bottle

Mike_Patti

What would you do in my shoes? Here's the situation:

-LO is 10 months old.

-She nurses well at home but has been taking pumped milk from the bottle at DC.

-The past 2 months she has been slowly refusing her bottle more and more. Last week she had 3 days of daycare where she took 2oz total all day and 2 days where she completely refused all milk from the bottle.

-She will not take milk from the sippy cup (we've been trying for a while), though she will take sips of water from the cup.

-She eats a good variety of purreed foods well.

-I am perfectly happy with the idea of her weaning off the bottle. I will continue to nurse her for as long as she's interested in nursing.

My questions:

For daycare tomorrow should I pack a bottle? If so do I pack formula or breastmilk? Keep in mind that if I pack breastmilk it will need to be frozen breastmilk that will need to be dumped at the end of the day if she refuses it. If it's formula I don't mind dumping it (formula bottles are usually only packed as the "just in case she needs it" bottle of the day).

Should I stop pumping now? (I have about 20-30oz of frozen milk stashed)

allardr

Have you tried straw cups, my LO figured those out before sippy cups. May be worth a try. 

I'd only change one thing at a time. So if you try a new cup then do breast milk. If you stick with the bottle then maybe do formula for less waste. But I wouldn't change too much I think that'll only make it worse. 

emberlee3

DS did exactly the same thing at that age.  I stopped bringing bottles around 10.5 months because it was pointless.  I tried cow's milk in a sippy (he wouldn't drink BM or formula from sippy), and thankfully he drank that.

I continued pumping now and then to have a little extra BM to mix with his cereal or other foods.

Get your baby eating table food ASAP.  It is much more calorie-dense than purees.  Easy ones for LOs to gum are cheese, toast, muffins, pancakes, soft cooked veggies, banana, pear, watermelon, avocado.  They can pick up cooked rice with their fingers and eat it.  You can test any food by trying to mash it between your tongue and the roof of your mouth.  If you can mash it up that way, baby can, too.