Refuses bedtime bottle with spout

[Melly]

Hoping that someone can offer some advice to me. DD was one on Sunday and I changed her to cow's milk - this seems to be ok. The problem is she will drink her breakfast milk from an avent soft spout ok (ish) but tonight flatly refused to take her milk from the spout. I knew she wanted the milk so I'm afraid I caved in and gave it to her with a teat - she guzzled the lot in about two minutes flat. I know ideally babies should have all drinks from a beaker by the age of one but what do you do if they refuse? I've had a hard time getting her to take water from beakers but eventually we got there with a tommy tippee beaker with a very soft spout and then progressed to an avent magic cup which she seems to have mastered (she has tongue tie and I'm not sure whether this has contributed to the problems).
She has been poorly for the last couple of days, high temperature and a bit of a cold so I'm wondering if it's a comfort thing. The first night I offered her the milk from an avent spout she did drink it eventually but she took about 20 mins, but last night she would only take 2 ozs and then tonight only about 1 oz until I changed back.
Sorry if this is a bit rambling.....had a bad day today, complete loss of confidence as dd also not taking to lumpy food and I feel like a crap mum because I know I should have persevered on both issues.

Why can't she have a bottle for her cows milk at bedtime for a while longer - she is still a baby.

Thanks Mears, Yes I will continue with the bottle for a while, because, as you say, she is still a baby. I think sometimes I read too much for my own good and then give myself a really hard time when things don't go "text book style"

Melly

You are not a crap Mum and loads of us struggle with lumpy food and cups as well as much worse - I know I am!!!

Please try to relax - I keep telling myself that you don't see many six year olds eating puree and drinking from Avent bottles, so eventually they will all get the hang of these things.

I just keep offering cups and lumpier food every few days and eventually seem to be getting there slowly - I had reasonable success with some juice in a magic cup yesterday

But if my ds wants to drink his bedtime drink from a bottle for longet I can't see why not - no point in making bedtime stressful unnecessarily.

HTH

Just to add I think you're right about "text book" - also I compare him to what other children are doing, but then, he's progressing differently with lots of things - I've come to the conclusion that there is NO average baby!!!

My dd (6 mos) was being fed by dh when I got home last night. After he'd shovelled in as much fruit puree as she wanted, he decided to offer her the remains of a bottle of EBM that had come home from nursery. We've been trying to get her to take a little water at the end of a meal from an Avent soft spout, so he put a spout on the bottle, rather than a teat. When I came through the door I swear she was pointing at the teat which was lying on the table, and shouting at the top of her voice. She didn't stop till the teat was put back on the bottle, and she happily polished off 3 oz!!

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the thing about getting children to use beakers rather than bottles was to lessen contact of a drink on the teeth. If a child is taking 20 minutes with a beaker but only 5 with a bottle, surely the bottle is the better option. Or is it important that the spout shape/method of sucking replaces the teat for dental purposes?

Ds had his morning milk in a bottle with a teat until he was 23 months (by which time he was chewing teats to pieces at an expensive rate). He was a total monster in the morning until he'd had his first drink of milk, which he used to have in bed with us, and we couldn't face using a beaker because it would have tipped or dripped all over the bed. We wanted to break the bottle habit before his sister was born (because we foresaw problems with the baby having a bottle and him not being allowed one), so we did it on holiday, when the routine was a bit different anyway, and never went back to it when we got home. What Mears says is right - she's still a baby, and you've plenty of time to worry about that later.

My dd is 18 months and now only has a bottle before bed - but with a teat..... Every time I changed a bottle from teat to spout with her other feeds she started refusing it - which was fine as I was gradually dropping feeds but I don't want to drop this one ( she is dairy allergic so not getting much 'milk' anywhere else) so in the end ( like you after many 'oh I've failed to do it ''properly''' feelings!) I just thought - oh what real harm can it do???
There are many 'ideal world' things that we don't quite manage but probably don't make a blind bit of difference in the end - and having learnt how many differences there are in the 'RIGHT' thing to do between even countries as similar as the USA and Germany I have finally manged to chill out about it just a little!

We fully meant to switch our dd to cup rather than bottle for her morning and pre-bedtime milk, but at 12 mths when I tried (cos the books said so), she was v. upset and wouldn't switch. We decided that it wasn't that important, since she drank from a cup all day, and all she wanted was the comfort of the bottle.
We successfully transitioned a few weeks ago (at 17 mths) - she was drinking so much milk from her bottle in the morning that she would refuse breakfast and then be staving mid morning. So tried giving her milk in a cup with b/fast which she suddenly seemed to be happy about. And then a week or so later I tried her with a cup at bed time and she did it no probs. Have noticed she drinks a little less at bed time now it is in a cup but it hasn't been a huge drop and she still sleeps well
We also changed her routine a bit and she drinks her milk while we read together whereas when she had a bottle, I insisted she sat in my lap. For good or bad, we don't insist she sits down to drink from her cup (Does that make me a crap mother?)
So this long note is just to say, don't worry and take everything a step at a time. If she is tired or unwell is probably not the time to tackle it.
BTW, a my friend's little girl had a bottle at night until she was being potty trained and they started to limit night time drinks. She is happy, well adjusted and her teeth seem fine! So it does make you wonder what the fuss is about?

When we switched to the magic cup, the bed time bottle was the last to go as by that point ds was sleepy and not really in the mood to concentrate on something new! We got there eventually, it just took longer (3 months), at first we used the green spouts during the day and the white ones at night as they are softer, but now he does not care either way.

Thanks to everyone who responded, sorry I have not been on line for a few days.....dh just home for summer leave (in the Navy) so have been a little distracted!! It feels so good to hear from others, when you read books and your baby isn't doing the prescribed activity at the right time you sometimes feel like a failure.....but having read everyone's posts I feel very much better....thank you very much. I am giving milk from bottle with a teat....dd is happy and so am I. I will keep offering a soft spout but if she won't take it, I won't worry so much. Also spoke to HV on Wednesday and she reassured me on both counts, teats and lumpy food, so don't feel like such a bad mummy after all

My dd is the child from hell in the morning until he has his 5oz from a bottle with teat - he 's 21 months. At bedtime 6.30 he has 8 oz in a bottle too. Quite honestly I got so streesed about this first time round with daughter 7 yrs ago that I really can't worry too much this time round. They all get off the bottle eventually and he doesn't like dummies , so i'm ok humouring him on this one

Advice please - where can I buy a doidy cup - have e-mailed the company but they haven't replied.

Thanks in advance.

Lindy, I ordered some from Bickiepegs for £3.50 Tel:01224 790626. They also have a website but I can't remember the address, something like bickiepegs.co.uk I think.

I have recently bought some Doidy cups from a website - www.urchin.co.uk.

Thanks very much - will try tomorrow!