So, I discovered something interesting last night. Or more, read an interesting article.
Apparently,
We are supposed to have Mustang Boy bottle free by the time he is a year old. To do this, we get him a sippy cup at around 6 months old, and let him hold it and play with it. When he can hold onto this well, we start filling it with water, or other appropriate beverages to his age. Then we start substituting it for bottles he would get during the day time hours, until he isn't using bottles anymore.
All this, before he's even a year old? Really?
The article(s) that I read were going on and on about bottle rotted teeth, and childhood obesity when you let them keep the bottle too long.
Now, it's not that I want him going to kindergarten with his bottle in his Star Wars lunch box or anything, but I hadn't really given that much thought to when the right time is to switch him to other containers. So far, I've been going by instinct, and pediatrician advice over when to do major things, like feed him solid foods, ect. I think having no bottles by the time he is 12 months old is kind of pushing it though. But he might surprise me.
So, people with kids, how did you know when it was time to faze out the bottle? And how old were YOUR kids?
5 comments:
Nolan is almost 16 months old, and although he is capable of recieving all fluids through a sippy cup, he still gets a bottle at bed time and another first thing in the morning with whole milk. He just recently weaned from breastfeeding (like last week) but I'm not ready to force him off of a bottle when I really JUST introduced it. I'm not in a hurry to make him grow up.
Gilda would have a sippy cup with water in it - man, I'm thinking when she was about 6 months old, actually. I think the articles you've been reading are right on the mark. It certainly won't hurt him to get used to one - it'll take him a little time to get used to it. However, she drank an only-at-night time bottle until she was 2. I was more concerned with getting rid of the pacifier than the bottle (and we did that at 2 and a half).
I still use a bottle .. ;-)
I am amazed how things can change so much in the time of raising babies. Things changed radically between my boys that were 7 1/2 years apart. It can be so confusing. I think each baby is different.
I always thought the rotting teeth came from giving your baby a bottle to go to sleep at night. They love to chew and suck on it and all that sugar just eats up their teeth.
I encourage you to hold your little Mustang baby for all feedings. Some moms are so busy that they have to opt out for other options sometimes like letting the bab feed himself his own bottle.
Of course it has been nearly 36 years since I had a baby. While I do think the advice is spot on for sippie cup and bottle, it all happens in time and when they are ready.
Seems like everyone is so concerned about milestones with raising children and keeping on target with first things to happen, like bottles, baby food pacifers, potty training, sleeping in their own beds and so forth. Then you have all of the growth milestones. Progression stats for normal development like lifting their head, standing, rolling over crawling, sitting up,walking and talking.
Some babies walk and never crawl, or they talk first and walk later. I had one that walked very early but did not speak until later. He had ear infections and allergies that interferred with his hearing. Our second son was born talking from the time his feet hit the floor til the time his head hit the pillow at night and he walked later.
Some sound advice I was given was as long as your child isn't on the bottle, pacifer, in diapers or all of the above when he goes to kindergarten he will be alright. That advice mad me laugh so hard it is something I never forgot.
The best advice is for you to trust your instincts about all else. I was one of those scared mothers because our first born was so sick from birth and was in a neonatal hospital for the first three weeks of his life. My MIL came and stayed for a month. She kept me all nervous because she was a doctor's wife. While I apprecated her immensely, we were glad for her to leave. I was afraid of so much with him.
You will never forget all of the wonderful memories with you little one. You have to remember the sweet things about them when they become the dreaded teenager. Ha Ha.
Sorry I was so long winded. You will be just fine. Enjoy him because he will grow up too fast and then he will be off to college.
Admittedly, I had breast fed babies, but that doesn't square with my recollection at all. Babies that age aren't even very fabulous at sippy cups yet, much less only getting their nutrition through them.
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