Transition questions/probably repeats

kaiteygrl · December 2014

So sorry if this has been asked and answered. What is everyone doing about the whole 1 year transition stuff? For example, have you already completely weaned off of bottles and formula to milk? How about pacifiers? Lo like milk and takes it from a bottle. She drink water from a sippy cup. She takes a paci at naps/sleep time and in the car. I am so overwhelmed trying to figure out how to change all of this and how urgent/important it is that I do it NOW. I can't imagine her not having a binky to sleep with. She plays with one and sucks the other and that's how she falls to sleep. She spits out formula or milk if it's from a sippy cup. She drink whole milk well but I still put 1 oz of formula in it and if I eliminate that ounce then she will only take a few sips. Input? Advice? What's everyone else doing?

Jen4033 · December 2014

I'm just continuing with status quo until his 1 yr check up at the end of the month, but he has really been doing some self-weaning already & I have just been going with the flow. Over the last couple months he has slowly lessened his amount of BM bottles at day care from 4 to 2 and is eating pretty much table foods with every one else. Whatever we are eating, he eats & does well with it. Actually - the 'bottles' he has there are now in sippy cups. He doesn't use bottles really anymore.

Once we are past December, I will probably start some leading of my own with nixing bedtime nursings and eventually morning ones. I think he will probably be weaning himself down to 1 bottle a day at day care soon too. I'm just not in a hurry before he is officially one anyway. I don't want him to stop drinking so much when he isn't getting WCM yet either. If he starts suddenly weaning himself too much over the next couple weeks, I'll probably move ahead with giving him WCM before his official one year mark. My first son had a terrible intolerance when he was under one, but by the time he was one, he took the WCM just fine. DS2, however, hasn't had issues with anything made with milk, persay, but I don't think he has had anything significant enough yet for me to feel confident he can take it. So we'll be starting slow with that. His older brother had violent vomiting when he had even 2 oz of formula as a baby.

lisab613 · December 2014

I agree with @pearsforpoops‌. We switched LO to whole milk cold turkey and she loved it but if you need a little more time that's nbd in my book. We are still using bottles as she hadn't gotten the hang of sippy cups yet but we are working on that. LO still uses a paci but our pedi said that's fine to 18 months. LO has really just started with table food.
Long story short: I wouldn't stress about flipping a switch and making all these changes at once. It's really not a big deal if they still have a bottle until 13 or 14 months.

anakah · December 2014

Maybe I'm a bad example but my twins got a bottle of wcm at bedtime and first thing in the morning until they were a little over 2 and they are fine. They refused to drink milk in any other vessel and I wasn't comfortable with them not drinking any milk at all up until we ditched the bottles. DD also didn't give up her pacifier until around that same time period. I wouldn't stress over getting rid of everything at once. Each child is different so see what your child needs and go from there.

Cbowl · December 2014

I'm having similar anxieties...my LO is EBF and has never taken a bottle (wah!). She drinks a bit of water out of a sippy or straw cup during meals. But I'm anxious to be done nursing...and I have tried to introduce WCM for taste at meals. She gags on it...no joke. I have tried bringing a sippy of BM into her bedroom to replace the nurse before naps and she just screams until I nurse her. It's stressful during this transitional time. I figure we can't really force too many transitions at once so maybe tackle one at a time?

ErinO21 · December 2014

I'm a big fan of dealing with one issue at a time. I feel like doing the transition to milk is more important that dealing with getting rid of the bottle or the paci. If you do all at once, you're going to be an exhausted mama dealing with a hungry exhausted and unhappy baby.

So far my LO is getting about half formula and half milk. He nurses in the morning, then while at MILs he will have a 5 oz bottle of formula and 4-5 oz of milk. This week I've started doing 4 oz of fomula and 2 oz of milk at bedtime in separate bottles. I'll probably do 3 and 3 tonight since he isn't having any issues.

Don't stress yourself out about it. Take your time!

sleepymonkey · December 2014

I'm sticking with the status quo at least until I can get some advice from the pedi. She will drink formula out of a straw cup (she can't get the hang of sippy cups) so I'm not worried about transitioning her off the bottle. The thing that concerns me is that she is just not interested in table food. She eats cheerios, puffs, sometimes beans and sometimes bits of apple. But she just spits out everything else we try to give her, if she even puts it in her mouth. She does fine with stage 2 and 3 foods but just has no interest in table food, even ones with chunks in them so it's not a texture issue. So we're very hesitant to even try to transition her to WCM until we can talk to the pedi. LO turns 1 on NYE but her 1-yr appt isn't for 2 weeks later.
As for the paci, she is going to start going to daycare in mid-January and the place she will be going is paci-free. If a child uses a paci to go to sleep, they will allow it for the first few weeks but not after that. So I guess she will be transitioning off that habit then. I don't think it will be too hard because she's not particularly attached to it.

chemily8 · December 2014

Lurker. What's the big deal about the paci? I had a pediatric dentist tell me it's fine up until 5 at the most extreme case. DD1 we took it away at 3. It comforts them..impersonally don't see the big deal. If baby was not speaking or developing because they constantly had one in their mouth that would be a different story. But for bed times and times of comfort I don't see the big deal.

kaiteygrl · December 2014

@chemily8 I'm of your mindset on one hand. I sucked my thumb until I was almost 10 and have no issues. On the flip side, I hate seeing three and four year olds walking around with bottles and pacifiers. My thought is that, while I'd love to just wait, I feel like the longer I wait the harder it will be for her. But after all of the discussion I'm going to take it one day at a time and not sweat it. Right now she has so many changes I think we'll wait on the pacifier and just make sure she only uses it while sleeping and in the car.

Thanks, Ladies, for all of your input and support!

sleepymonkey · December 2014

@chemily8 - From what I have heard, some people have a problem with "long-term" use of pacifiers because they believe that it causes the child to rely on it for comfort when they should be learning to self-soothe. I don't have a strong feeling one way or the other but that's just what I heard. I planned to start weaning LO from the paci when she turned 2 but now it will be much sooner because the daycare does not allow them. That I understand because I'm sure it would be hard to keep track of what paci belonged to what kid and also trying to deal with the babies swapping pacis.

thesportsgal · December 2014

We're doing WCM in both bottles and sippy cups. She's so used to the bottle I didn't feel the need tp take that away from her, especially first thing in the morning and at night. I'll continue to give her a bottle at those times for now. Daycare works on WCM out of a sippy cup for her during the day but if she doesn't take it, then they try the bottle. I figure she'll let me know when she's ready to be done with the bottle - and really, I don't think giving it TO her twice a day is a big deal. I'm not going to let her walk around with it though.

And my kid would kill me if I took away her paci right now. That's not even on my radar

musicnmoon123 · December 2014

The only thing I'd be concerned about is dropping the pacifier by 18 months because that is the age "they" say they become really attached to them and it's harder to take away after that. We let DS1 keep his beyond that and I really regretted it.

Other than that, I agree with other posters - just focus on one thing at a time.

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