in not giving my 1 year old a beaker?

[SaffronCake]

DD2 is 12 months. She drinks 4-5 bottles of cows milk a day with 7-8 fl oz in each. She recently learned to hold her own bottle and finish it without spillage.

When I give her beakers she pours them everywhere (except the non-spill valve ones, which she refuses to make the effort for). She's not particularly keen on the various diluted fruit juices in them either. Strange, because she adores the same fruit and veg as solid food. She's got a very healthy solid diet, she self feeds magnificently, I've got no developmental concerns at all but... The books/websites/NHS busybodies/mums at playgroup all say she should have been drinking from beakers from 6 months, it's starting to niggle at me.

I have a newborn baby, a disability and a man I rarely see (blame the recession). Cleaning the floor/highchair/clothes/child for the sake of some juice DD2 doesn't even like seems so futile (and painful).

Really must I enforce the beaker? AIBU to just not?

That is a lot of milk.

I wouldn't give milk in a beaker but would definitely give water, then it doesn't matter what she does with it.
Have you tried just plain water? She might be more likely to drink some if you just leave it within reach & not try to force it on her.

I think after about 1 they do need to start moving over for teeth reasons as much as anything, and I was told milk in bottles past 1 wasn't the best idea but I can't remember why?!

YABU.

Of course there will be mess involved in teaching your child to stop drinking out of a baby bottle, but that is just one of those things you have to do. Even if you just introduce one beaker a day with water in it, you should still be encouraging her to learn that drinks don't always come out of a bottle.

Could you get a doidy cup and sit with her while she uses it at least?

I thnk the problem is not developmental but it's bad for teeth drinking juice etc from a bottle. Doesn't she eat any solids? 4 - 5 bottles a day sounds like loads! My daughter didn't really like beakers either but I just kept giving her a beaker of water at meal times and if she was thirsty..well she drank it eventually. She still plays with her beakers (trying to empty them) at 15 months but I simply take them away without saying anything then offer it again later.

water in a beaker
milk in a bottle

no brainer surely?

My children had a bottle until they went to nursery! My youngest had is at age 2.5 even though he could drink from a cup, it was the comfort angle for him. Plenty of time yet to take the bottle away when she gets older.

I'm no expert, but I'm sure it doesn't matter and she'll be able to drink from a beaker whenever you decide to give her one. DD likes to pour her water everywhere too. She has worked out how to spill from the non-spill cups we use, and she can't drink from the other cups I've tried so it's lose lose for us.

I have to say that both my children lost their front teeth at aged 4, they rotted away because they had juice in the bottles would go to sleep with a bottle of juice. I didn't know then what I know now, they are now 23 and 18,

my ds4 was the same, four bottles of milk of 9oz until he was 18mths or so, he always drank his water out of a cup but had milk in a bottle, it was a comfort thing and my elder 3 were all bfed, two of them till 3yrs of age so i saw it as the same as that tbh and as he could drink water out of a cup i was happy for him to have his milk in a bottle. he still ate well so i wasnt worried about the milk intake and he cut it down to 3 bottles at 18mths and then by 2yrs was just having a bottle morning and night, then he went down to just night time bottle and he finally gave that up this summer at 3yrs 5mths, we gradually cut downt he amount of milk in that bedtime bottle so we just had 4oz and then we went on holiday and 'forgot' to take his bottle, he was fine and ready to give it up then, he occasionally asks for it (well did for a month or so) and we said he could have milk in a cup, he wouldnt have it in a cup, so he now doesnt drink milk at all but has it on cereal, in porridge etc.

i think milk in abottle is fine as long as you brush her teeth well, she doesnt go to sleep with the bottle and she drinks water in a cup the rest of the time, hth :)

YANBU, do whatever suits you. DD was a milk monster and never used beakers. She had a bottle (milk only) until May this year at 3.2 when she voluntarily gave it up. For other drinks she has always used an open cup, very rarely anything lidded other than a brief flirtation with a cow cup.

So I wouldn't sweat it for the milk but I agree that it's a good idea to limit the bottle to milk only to get her used to drinking out of other things. Milk often has a comfort association that juice or water doesn't.

water in a beaker

obv from your point of view spilling water/liquids is a pain but from a developmental POV she will be refining small motor movements, hand-eye co-ordination, exploring what happens when she swipes her hand though a spill, using her senses to interrogate, learning about gravity and trajectory too

not a bad thing, really

I think you'd be unreasonable not to keep trying (though I understood moving to beakers at 1 was the suggestion), not unreasonable to do whatever works for you.

At one my boys were still on bottles for milk am and pm, beakers for water (and milk at nursery). Took till about 18 months to persuade them to bedtime beakers, at 2.6, now have one on an open cup, other has a bit of a "drinking problem" with it (think Airplane! and you get the picture).

my kids refuse milk from a beaker, but happily drink juice, 16mnth ds is bf, but 3 and 4 yr dds have the odd bottle still

YANBU

DS is 18 months and still has 2 bottles of milk a day from a bottle and water throughout the day from a sippy cup. We live in France now and it's not unusual for chlidren to stay with bottles and sippy cups until 2years old -- they're not so keen on messy eating here, eating is a very serious business!

There's nothing wrong with using a cup earlier obviously, but I think if your child is not really ready for it there's no harm waiting either.

You can just stop giving juice as well. I've actually never given DS juice, he eats lots of fruit and veg so why bother?

Try not to worry too much about all the guidelines and such, they are totally different over here and yet shock! French people still survive and grow up fine. They're just guidelines.

I kept DD1 using sippy cups for water rather than getting her to use an open cup because the baby was starting to crawl around and I just got fed up of mopping it all up several times a day.

At 2.5 yrs I handed her an open cup and she could just drink from it, I haven't had to teach her at all, it was no big deal. Now she has an open cup at the dinner table where the younger one can't get at it to spill it and through the day she still has a sippy cup (a free flow TommeeTippee one)

I think it might be different if its milk rather than water in term of tooth decay, but if you are just worrying about learning about using a cup I wouldn't worry too much.

To answer some questions:

4-5 a day does sound like a lot I know. It's normal for my side of the family to need about one and a half times the recommended calorie intake to stay a healthy weight. We're all very tall, but beyond that I think we must metabolise it well. She's the same with solid food too, she eats a lot. For example: at breakfast she had a double-thickness slice of wholemeal toast, cottage cheese on it and 3/4 of an apple. Her weight and height are on the same percentile and her big sister was the same (now a lovely healthy 12 year old). I just have bottomless kids I think (my mother would swear I was worse).

About fine motor skills, she picks up blueberries from the bowl, mashed potato in her hands, overcooked floppy broccoli when Daddy makes tea, sandwiches, lumps of carrot from the stew and she's started using a spoon herself for porridge. She's probably fine in that regard. If it lands on the highchair tray she will see it gets to her mouth, nothing escapes!

I never give her anything sugared in a bottle, just milk. It's just not what we have in the kitchen. I realised long ago the portion sizes here look terrible, so went at things the other way instead, by making sure that what they eat is good and not minding how much.

I've been wondering about this too. My DD is 10 months and Ive tried giving her a beaker from 6 months but she point blank refuses. She wont suck from the non spill ones, chokes on the free flow ones and wont hold it herself. Eventually she gets so upset and angry it causes a meltdown.

However, she loves drinking from a straw and has brilliant control over the flow. She even holds it herself! We've actually bought a toddler cup with pop up straw and she loves it. Its great in restaurants, but I get alot of odd looks and some comments about her not being old enough to do that and should have a beaker.

Isnt having a straw better for her teeth? Should I be enforcing a sippy cup?

YANBU. My DD wouldn't use one until she was much older. She got on much better with straws, more similar sucking action to bottles.

My dentist said a straw was fine, especially as it gets any sugary juices past the teeth. 3yo DD does love her juice!

That what I thought! My Dad always made us drink through straws as a child to avoid sugary things touching our teeth but Id read parenting guides that said this was actually more harmful.

Don't forget that milk is very sugary and not good for her teeth too.

Sorry, meant a simple sugary, very sugary is excessive.

I think you are just fine as you are. She's only 12 months and you have a newborn. The only other thing I'd do is give her a sippy cup with water in it keep it somewhere she can reach it in the day so it's there if she wants it and it's only water if she shakes it about. There are bigger things to worry about than drinking out of a proper cup at 12 months :)

Not wanting juice is a good thing - water is much better.

There's not much difference in drinking out of a cup/sports bottle or straw, the fact is that most kids (unlike adults) tend to hold the drink in the mouths and it coats their teeth anyway - there's not a lot you can do to change that, which is why water should be encouraged over any other drink.

ReebleBeeble, straw is fine at that age! Actually I once forgot the beaker for dd2 and her dad gave her a drink of water with a straw in the cafe instead- she loved it. That was at 7 months! As long as you're watching children when they drink to avoid choking, they should use whatever suits them (obvs not a bottle with fizzy/sugary juice, but you know what I mean!)