Feeding Baby - Saint Louis,MO

My pediatrician suggested using a different sippy cup for formula. Because she may be expecting water when you give her formula. So I suggest using a sippy cup that looks totally different than the one you use for water.

Hi N.,

As long as you are feeding Norah solids (which I assume you are), along with once daily liquid baby vitamins, she should be fine with drinking water, and even regular milk from a sippy cup. At one of my son's six-month check-up, our Pediatrician indicated as long as our child wasn't allergic to milk, that he could begin to drink milk before he was a year old. Mine began to drink some regular milk at 9 months old with no problem. I obviously didn't bombard him with it though. Every Pediatrician seems to be different. My Pediatrician is old fashioned and believes there is too much hype out there regarding regular milk being taboo. (Of course he didn't mean this for newborns, wherein it should be breast milk or formula), but I understood what he meant. There is a lot of hype.

Anyway, as long as your child is getting solids, she should be fine. Just make sure she gets enough to drink to keep hydrated, (water, juice, milk, etc...). If she will drink out of a sippy cup (wherein it sounds like she is willing to do so), then more than half the battle is over! She'll do just fine!

Good luck!

this may sound odd but this is what happen with my frist . i tried giving him a sippy cup at 4 months but he choke on it. so i waited a bit longer and tired a spilled proof one and it worked! but didn't always want it sooo what did i do lol well i put chocoate in it just a little bit. ohh boy he loved that . after that no more bottles.with my daugther she wouldn't drink any thing but formula.i mix with water ,put in sippy u name it i tried it. then one day i bought juice pouch for the boys.well i took one sat in front of her and handed her one and i had mine. i drinkedg now. but love to use a straw. she was under a year at the time i think she was 11 months or so.what works for mine may not work for your's but you can always give it a try.

It is kind of funny you mentioned this. I am a mother of three. Two of them use cups now. When it came to start weening my oldest off my mother-in-law kept telling me to go by the Farmer's Almanac. I ignored her for a long time. I had the same problem as you. Finally I broke down and used the Farmer's Almanac (the moon signs), and IT WORKED!!! I did the same thing with my middle child and IT WORKED AGAIN!!! Something about the moon signs help. You can go online and get the days you would need. I had both of my children weened off a bottle by 10 months. It might seem silly, but I thought I would share with you. Good luck!!

S.

N.,
We also have had great success with the Nuby sippy cups...they were the only ones my son would drink milk out of, because they resemble a bottle. We did this at one year and continued to give him the sippy cup at the regular time of when he would be drinking his bottle. He loves milk to this day! I do feel like they need the milk at 10 months(formula or whole milk), and if she won't take to the sippy cup just yet, maybe wait for a couple months and try again. I was told that they really need the milk even more than other liquids, due to the fat content in milk that is so important for brain development. We also didn't offer my son juice, because there really is not much nutritional value, and he prefers water and milk to juice any day now! Good luck! A.

Hello N.,

My name is C. and I have two little boys who were off the bottle by 8 months old. The best advice I can give you is when you change the pattern ALWAYS stick to it, no matter what. I will also tell you that the reason why she may not want the formula in the cup is because she's used to having it in the bottle. Give it to her in the cup and just stop bottle feeding all together because they seem to get confused on what they can and can't have in a bottle and why they can't have the bottle all the time. You may also try using a different cup because some cups don't always have the right size wholes.

When I switched my son to sippy cups, we used the AVENT brand. They interchange with their regular bottles. It was the only sippy cup he would use because it had a soft nipple, and has an insert to prevent leakage and makes it so its kind of like sucking on a bottle. I also found it easier to keep giving him his formula in a bottle, and give his water to him in a sippy cup. This way he was phasing out the formula and the bottle at the same time as he used the sippy cup more and more. It was a pretty easy transition!

I work at a daycare center and we usually tell parents that as long as a child continues to have a wet diaper that they are getting plenty of fluids. My doctor told us that fluids would include juice, formula or breast milk, and water. The vitamins that the child is recieving from food gradually replaces the nutrients in the formula.
I tried splitting up the formula throughout the day. A couple of ounces every hour and a half. If my daughter would drink more I would give her more. Eventually she came around to the formula out of the sippy and she would drink a full cup with morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack. With bottles in the morning and evening. I do agree with the other ladies the Nuby cups are great, my daughter loved these cups.

hey N. k yeah you will get through this i kinda had problems with that but instead of the sippy cup it was a bottle well all i have to say is be persistant and the baby will start to get used to it and want it more and more.

I had the same problem with switching my daughter to sippy cups. We tried every single cup we could find! We finally came across the Nuby cups with a soft spout. They don't leak, but don't have a valve. They sell them at Walmart and Target. As far as switching to milk, I started that change right at one year. My ped suggested slowly mixing whole milk with her formula. Such as, on day one, adding 1 oz milk to 7 oz formula for each feeding; day two, adding 2 oz. milk to 6 oz formula; and so on, until you have 7 oz milk to 1 oz formula, then 8 oz milk. We had a very smooth transition to milk by doing this. My friend tried to switch to milk, cold turkey, and her daughter (now 3 years old) does not like milk. Hope this helps!

Hi N.,
We also had issues with my daughter drinking any formula at all out of a sippy cup. She too would only drink water and juice out of a sippy. We used the Avent sippy cups with the soft spout too, because we had tried every other one on the market (including Nuby, which, with my daughter, I fould those harder to get my daughter off of after a certain age since they resemble the bottle nipple to a certain extent). She finally switched over to the sippy after we started introducing small amounts of milk instead of formula - closer to 12 months because she had some lactose issues at first. And trust, me she could tell the difference if I tried to put formula in it - she would throw the cup down and start screaming! Anyway, hope that helps some and good luck!
R.

By 10 months the only thing my daughters drank out of during the day was a sippy cup. The only bottle they got was at bedtime. Once we got closer to 1 yr. we started eliminating the bedtime bottle also. It made it alot easier to remove the bottle from the picture. Both of my daughters were off the bottle after their 12 month checkup. At their 12 month check up the doctor said are we losing the bottle and I said yep. Both of their last bottles were when they went to bed that night. After they went to bed I packed up the bottles (out of sight, out of mind). The next day was sippy cups and we've never looked back! We were also giving them slightly watered down juice by 10 months. Just keep offering the cup more, the bottle less. I don't know if your trying to wean her off the bottle by a certain age or not, we were. My sister-in-law lived with us (with her 4 children) for appox. 5 months and her youngest was 4 and still taking the bottle. Everytime she'd try to take it away he would throw fits. He absolutely had to have this bottle at bedtime or he would be up for hours! I witnessed this up close and personal and it was then that I decided my girls were coming off the bottles at 1. Good Luck to you.

Something that helped us transition to a sippy cup was offering diluted juice in her sippy as well as just water, that way she didn't come to think of the sippy as a "water only" thing. This may help with offering formula in the sippy but I've never tried it so I can't really say. I hope you find something that works for you! Best Wishes and Good luck! :)

hi,

I have a seven month old, and about three weeks ago, we began to use a sippy cup - we had been doing at least one feeding a day since he was born with a bottle - all other times I was BF. Then one day, he refused the bottle... we tried and tried and ended up using a sippy cup. He loves it.
I dont know much about formula, but maybe it is too thick to get through the holes in the sippy cup... ?
Have you maybe thought instead of using a formula to replace those feedings, to maybe try a banana and let her drink the water... or something like that?

Hi N., Is norah getting any solid foods? My daughter mixes juice with half water, to where its not so concentrated. I would think fluids would be nutritional as well as keep her hydrated during this hot weather. sippy cup is great idea, she seems to be ready and willing to give up bottle. The Dr always told me to keep babies on formula till their 1 yr old. Good luck