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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
Which is a worse "habit"? Bottle or night feeding? Help!
DS just turned 1 and we are trying to get him to use a sippy or cup and drop the bottle. He refuses. He actually does really well with a cup but only wants juice or water in it. He asks for his bottle when he wants milk (using signs) and turns his head to a sippy and a cup when we offer that instead.
For the last 2 weeks we have stopped bringing bottles to DC and only give him a bottle shortly before bed. He drinks hardly any milk at DC (~5 oz) because he is so stubborn. DC tries to give him more water to keep his fluids up.
DH and I are pretty strong and will fight through this with DS. However, DS has been waking in the middle of the night because he is so thirsty and drinking anywhere from 8-12 oz of liquids! We first give him a glass of water but then he usually won't go back to sleep until he has a bottle (or 2) of milk.
DH and I are at a bit of a disagreement with this now. I would like to just give him the bottle for now and break the middle of the night large thirst fest. If he only wanted a couple ounces of water, I wouldn't care. The 10-12 ounces of milk seems excessive and I am afraid of creating bad sleeping habits. In about a month, when he is back into his normal sleeping routine, we'll try again on the sippy transition.
DH wants to push through the bottle to sippy transition and figures we can deal with the screaming and whining middle of the night thirst fits later. We have tried to put him to bed after only a few ounces and he screams and cries and whines non-stop. After about an hour we can't take it any more and have to get him to sleep so that we can both sleep.
The troubling part is that DS slept through the night very well prior to the sippy transition.
Has anyone had any experience with this? Which is worse and which should we break first? Thanks!
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Re: Which is a worse "habit"? Bottle or night feeding? Help!
I don't understand why people feel the need to push a sippy cup just b/c the kid turned a year old.
I would give him the bottle and try again in a few weeks.
DS did this (though we never gave cow's milk in a bottle, only breastmilk in a bottle). It took a couple months before he would drink much cow's milk. He would drink water out of a sippy or straw cup fine, but would hardly have any milk that way. We had day care (the only time he really had bottles) do a combo of breastmilk and cow's milk in a sippy cup and try a few times, then they'd switch to a bottle if he wouldn't drink much.
Here's what happened in the end, though. We were visiting relatives over the holidays (DS was about 14 months then) and used a tiny cup with an old-school sippy spout (no valve, no need to suck on it, just a more open sippy top), and he went to town. He would totally drink cow's milk straight that way. So maybe try a different type of sippy cup? What about a straw cup?
I totally agree. It's much more important for your LO to get the necessary milk intake than for him to drink out of a sippy cup. Really, does it matter if he has a bottle before bed, he's only 1!!!