how much does your little one drink? jay still takes 3 six oz bottles a day (as well as approx 5 - 8 oz of juice or water.

just wondering what some other babes are doin. and please don't give me any crap about the bottle...i will wean him soon enough

actually, i'm afraid he won't get enough liquid intake w/ out the bottles. he doesn't reject his cups, but he doesn't seem to drink as much when offered a cup. but, he does eat alot of fruits & veggies daily so i guess he's getting water that way.

anyway, i would love to hear where some of you guys are with this!

Hanzi
You sound like a great mom. One year olds are amazing, aren't they? And so cute, too.

I don't have an answer about how much 1 year olds drinks. I'll try not to give you crap about the bottle. Is Jay just a year old or closer to 2?

Unless he's had feeding issues before, he will get all of the liquids he needs from a cup, sippy cup and/or straw cup. Don't let that worry be the reason you wait to wean him. If he's had difficulty nursing or eating from a spoon, you should talk to his doctor about your concerns.

Caution: exclusive sippy cup or extended bottle use (pacifiers, too) promotes atypical development of the mouth muscles and some kids end up with speech problems.

Thx for responding. Jay is just 15 months old.

He has no feeding issues at all (so far). So, do you think i should quit "counting" how many ounces he drinks now & just offer him cups?

Purely opinion, but I think you should still pay attention to how much he is drinking, but let it go if he's not reaching the goal every time.

Maybe some new, fun tot cups will keep him interested enough to drink more.

Take the transition gradually, maybe keeping one bottle at first, before switching completely. Cups without lids are tough for little ones to control, it will be messy if that's what you're doing. Nothing wrong with it, though it takes them a while to master. The latest research is suggesting that drinking from straws is better than sippy cups. (but sippy cups are SO convienient).
Have fun!

My ped. told me that if she is thirsty my daughter will let me know. But I was like you I was worried about if she was getting enough. So what my ped told me to do was offer her a cup of milk (should be whole milk after age of 1 year not formula) at every meal. Don't worry if they finish it or not. Just offer it. During the rest of the day have a sippy cup of water in your childs reach. This way while they are playing they can take sips and what not. One thing that I have heard every where is until they are about 4 or 5 you should limit how much juice you give them. Only 4 oz a day of juice. Also I didn't ween my daughter of the bottle until late also. But one thing my ped told me not to do was the water you offer that isn't with a meal should be in a sippy cup. This way they aren't carrying around a bottle in their mouth but also it gives them practice drinking from the sippy cup. Good luck if you need any advice on weening from a bottle when you do decide let me know sierra gave me quite a fit when I finally weened her. Hope this helped. Also another tip I read in some magazine is your child will get some liquids from the cereal you make with liquid and adding milk or water to the foods you serve.

Shannon

thx so much for your thoughts!!! also, allow me to clarify: jay does currently drink his water & juice (diluted) from a sippy cup - he only has his milk in the bottle. and, i have a question for you...should the milk i offer him at mealtime be in a regular cup, or is sippy cup okay? i do need to invest in a few straw cups - he uses one at daycare so i know he knows how to drink from it.

That is really up to you. Most kids use sippy cups until they are about 3 or 4 (in my experience with kids. I am an early educator) for all their liquids. But if you think your child can handle a normal cup or you don't want your child using a sippy cup then thats fine. I have a friend whose 11 month old only drinks from a normal cup and nothing else other than being breast fed. My daughter went from bottle to straw cup and then to sippy. She has a hard time with a regular cup because she doesn't know when to stop taking liquid into her mouth and then either chokes on it or spits it out. Hope this helps

Shannon

quote:

Originally posted by Hanzi:
[qb]thx so much for your thoughts!!! also, allow me to clarify: jay does currently drink his water & juice (diluted) from a sippy cup - he only has his milk in the bottle. and, i have a question for you...should the milk i offer him at mealtime be in a regular cup, or is sippy cup okay? i do need to invest in a few straw cups - he uses one at daycare so i know he knows how to drink from it.[/qb]

Hi..A regular cup is totaly okay. My son, 15 months drinks mostly from a regular cup. With my supervision of course (catching the spills). Whatever he is comftorable with is best. As far as bottles go, I was worried my son was drinking too much of his bottles(milk) and not eating enough. But now that he is done teething he has a bigger appetite and is down to 3 bottles a day. I was scared about having to ween him off of it but I think children will slowly ween themselves with moms help of course. When I decide he is ready to be done with it I am going to just throw them all out so he doesnt have sight of them. I do worry about geting him off of that stupid pacifire. I hate to see kids at 2 with those in. So any advise for that. ???!!

quote:

Originally posted by amee:
[qb]

Hi..A regular cup is totaly okay. My son, 15 months drinks mostly from a regular cup. With my supervision of course (catching the spills). Whatever he is comftorable with is best. As far as bottles go, I was worried my son was drinking too much of his bottles(milk) and not eating enough. But now that he is done teething he has a bigger appetite and is down to 3 bottles a day. I was scared about having to ween him off of it but I think children will slowly ween themselves with moms help of course. When I decide he is ready to be done with it I am going to just throw them all out so he doesnt have sight of them. I do worry about geting him off of that stupid pacifire. I hate to see kids at 2 with those in. So any advise for that. ???!![/qb]

Hehehe I'm with you, I've seen kids up to 4 with pacifiers and it breaks my heart. My nephew, who is two months younger than my son, was very attached to his pacifier. In my opinion the best way to break them of this habit is to just take it away and throw it out and pretend you have no idea where it is. Let your little guy go around the house looking for it, and stick with him, make him feel like you are looking too but keep saying "Gosh, I don't KNOW where it is? Is it under the couch? No?! Well lets look under the cushions. Nope not there either. WHere could it be?!" and so on. Hopefully he will concentrate on the search and not on the fact that its missing. Make it fun for him. When you are done searching just say "well I guess you can't use it any more cuz it's gone bye bye" and every time he asks for it just say "sorry, honey, it went bye bye, remember? we couldn't find it" That way he doesn't feel like it is being taken from him.

Here's some more suggestions about the pacifier. Discouraging the pacifer by taking it out of the child's mouth after she falls asleep is a trick my sitter taught me. Another suggestion is don't hand it to them but keep it in a place where they can get it (not in plain sight), and discourage (by distraction) its use. Make them take it out when they talk or go outside. My mother taught me that you can have "rules" like pacifiers are only used in bed. If you want a pacifier, you have to sit in bed. The child can get up any time she wants but the pacifier has to stay in bed. Eventually, pacifiers may all get lost or disappear.