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update: my son is pissed! we got him a sippy which is very close to a bottle nipple hoping to gradually change him over. he is screaming and throwing the cup accross the room, whenever he see's me with it he starts kicking his legs and screaming at the top of his lungs! i am determined.........but so is he.
update: my son is pissed! we got him a sippy which is very close to a bottle nipple hoping to gradually change him over. he is screaming and throwing the cup accross the room, whenever he see's me with it he starts kicking his legs and screaming at the top of his lungs! i am determined.........but so is he.
Best of luck! Stay the course!!! Bottles are bad for his teeth the longer he is on it. Not only can it cause an overbite, if he sleeps with it, the sugar (lactose) in the milk is sitting on his young teeth which hastens tooth decay on baby teeth. My suggestion is to buy a plastic cup (regular not sippy) which might feature something interesting to him. For example, if there is a cup out there with say a picture of a duck in water, where the "water" would be the milk and it goes down when he sips and eventually makes the duck "swim", it would be more fun for him. Get straws with little umbrellas on it...make it FUN for him so that he would overlook the fact that it is in a cup and not a bottle. Like the other posters have said, eventually, he'll cave!
Babies have sucking instincts that disappear and wain at different ages, depending upon the baby. Why is it a problem to let the baby have a pacifier longer than 6 months?
In my experience, I only used a pacifier for my tiny infants to give them instant gratification while getting the bottle ready, or when all else had failed and they couldn't be soothed for what ever reason. Once they got to be a few months old, they just spit it out and didn't want it.
But like I said in my previous post, I'm of the opinion that if you pay attention there are windows of opportunity. I also think a 3 or4 year old with a pacifier looks stupid.
update: my son is pissed! we got him a sippy which is very close to a bottle nipple hoping to gradually change him over. he is screaming and throwing the cup accross the room, whenever he see's me with it he starts kicking his legs and screaming at the top of his lungs! i am determined.........but so is he.
Don't give up. My son would drink out of his sippy cup during the daytime but wanted his bottle at night. I used to just put him in his bed and put the sippy cup next to him. After a few nights, he realized I wasn't going to give him anything else and he started drinking from the sippy cup.
Another poster said it's a battle of wills and they're right; it's just a matter of waiting to see who will give in first.
I never used a pacifier for either of my kids and didn't have much problem when I transitioned them from a bottle to cup, I did it a little over time. I started out by giving a cup for lunch and the bottle for breakfast and dinner, I snuck in a snack or two with the cup and pretty soon the cup was the only thing that I gave them. If your son doesn't like sippy cups try using one of the spill proof cups with a straw (Munchkin makes them).
thanks again to everyone who gave such great advice! i can now proudly say the bottles are all in the trash and the little dude is just as happy with his sippies!
get rid of the bottle... only put the sippy out and only put something very delicious in it... juice/choco milk... (a few days of this drink isn't going to harm the kid...just bribe them)... and feed lots of juicy fruits... watermelon, oranges... things that will keep them hydrated when they refuse to drink... if the bottle isn't there they won't have it to choose from... there will be tears and fits... ignore them and don't give in... this too shall pass... just be strong...
I would get rid of the bottles, all at once, and go straight to something else.
You could use a sippy cup with no valve. It is incredibly hard to get the drink out of some of the sippy cups. I have tried and could not believe how hard I had to suck to get the liquid out. It was truly ridiculous! I don't even know how kids get the necessary requirement of water or other liquids out of some of these cups, you have to suck so hard to get so little.
You could also find something tiny for your child to drink out of. I found that at first my kids didn't like to drink out of typical child sized cups, when they brought the cup up, it covered their whole face! So I had these little condiment cups from Tupperware, about two ounces, and the diameter of about a half dollar. I would fill it up with water and it was perfectly proportioned to their face. (yes you would have to refill it a couple of times, but do you really want your kid to be using a 6 oz. cup of liquid to start out? It's just less to spill onto the floor when they drop it.)
I wouldn't let the bottle thing go on though and as long as your child knows that you will bring out the bottle he will hold out until he gets it.
Ps the watermelon thing was a great tip, if you are worried that he will not get enough hydration during the switch.
........ Babies are EAGER to learn new things, like feeding themselves and drinking from a cup and going potty, if parents are alert to the window when it presents itself. If you miss these windows, that's when you have trouble with transitions.
SO true. They say only let it last while it's a necessity. When it becomes habit, it's more difficult to break. The window is between necessity and habit.
When my daughter was a baby, I decided she could use the bottle until her first birthday (before that, it was only in my arms before bed. Never did she carry a bottle around with her). So, on her first birthday, we made a big deal about throwing out the bottles and using a cup. She never missed the bottle. She did use sippy cups for a while, mainly because she was so active and prone to tipping things over in her haste. She talked in sentences at 8 months, and walked at 10 months, so she was always in a hurry.
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