November 2014: The one that needs baby-proofing!

[ladydolly]

And maybe ends with 1st birthdays!!

Yeah I always assumed the no bottles after 1 thing was something roundly ignored!

I believe its something to do with obesity. Cos formula is chock full of calories so in their 2nd year they get so much from food that if they're on bottles too they're getting 2X the amount they can use. Apparently there is a marked difference in the weight of babies who continue it to 2/3 and babies who stop at 1ish.

But thats not the reason I want to stop early - its cos I honestly can't face a battle in a years time. Its a lot easier to stop something with a 1 yr old than a 2 year old!

Also, DS loooooves his dummy. I'm going to have to start weaning him off that in the coming year so I don't want to have to wean him off 2 things at once! Get rid of bottle first is the plan. Then tackle dummy.

DS can't drink cows milk. But I wonder if the other milks are nutritionally good enough to have as a main milk? I know they vary a lot. I must do a bit of research.

Annarose the alprosoya 1+ and oatly blue carton are nutritionally fine as a main drink from one both are high in calcium we have used oatly before in food - sshhh don't tell anyone but if you were to email alpro and oatly about having a dairy free child and swapping to alternatives from formula and could they send you some coupons alpro May send you £3 worth and oatly £2 worth and both often on offer for £1 carton or 3 for £3 in Sainsbury n Tesco.

Baby has now managed to get from laying back to sitting up over weekend and is trying to pull to standing just using his arms as is to lazy to use legs but only gets to his knees, he crawls backwards but prefers his method of moving on back and even rolls turns pushes back rolls,again etc to get to desired destination and is pretty accurate!

Oh and ordered these for baby for Xmas outfit they are gorgeous got 1-2yrs and was worried would be huge and they are long but cuffs roll right back so get more wear out them and tried them on him and a little baggy but will be fine.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401011297083?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=670540215393&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Ah, I thought there was something wrong with the bottle itself not the formula milk So then follows that the official view is that up to 1y they should get their main calorie and nutrients intake from milk and after 1y it should be out of the window. It almost is as if they have to make big bang switch-over in one day. DD won't be impressed .

DD's milk intake varies greatly in function how much food she has eaten. If she had decent amount of food during the day, she would only wake once around 3am. If like now that with the recent cold she is eating very little and mainly drinks milk, the nights are fairly crap and the amount of milk she has is almost double, just like before start of weaning. I hope she drops the bottles herself with eating more solid food. I can see Anna why you want to get rid of the bottle battle .

Thanks eastmids DH has suggested staying with the Neocate (but the Junior version) as we get it almost free on perscription! But I'll ask my GP as luckily he has a toddler who has CMPI also so has been there, done that.

BTW re: car seat. We ended up getting the Maxi Cosi Priorifix. We went to Halfords and fit the Joie Stages but the fit was a disaster in my car - wobble central - despite the poor salesgirl almost busting a gut to get it right. She was sweating buckets! So we went for isofix and the difference is insane! It was rock solid. €100 more though.... but needs must. At least I'm earning again!

Strawberry I really dunno whats the deal with bottle vs beaker tbh.

I do know that after they've gotten teeth you're supposed to not give them a bottle to sleep i.e. After they've brushed their teeth as unsuprisingly it leads to tooth decay. But I'm not sure what we'll do there tbh. He has only 4 teeth so I'm not going to be too hasty. He's so small yet!

I thought the reason for getting rid of bottles at 1 was to do with teeth, so it doesn't matter what milk you are putting in a bottle. I can't remember exactly but nursery did an oral health week earlier in the year and sent home info sheets from dentists which included no bottles over 1yr.

Happy birthday baby happy! Hope you've had a lovely day.

Anna don't worry about giving up bottles overnight. I also thought was partly to do with teeth & partly about not giving them milk as their main source of food anymore. Re teeth I think so long as you dont leave baby with bottle in cot or let them drink juice from a bottle all day there's no issue anyway.

I intend to let dd self wean from bottles - just as ds did. He dropped to 2 bottles (morning & bedtime) at around 12 months, then by around 15 months was only drinking between 1-3oz in the morning so we switched it to a beaker. He refused to drink milk from it - though water was fine, so that was the end of the morning milk feed. Bedtime bottle went a similar way at around 18 months & was replaced with a snack & drink of water instead. IME babies like to keep the bedtime feed the longest - its a real comfort to them.

Thanks for the info re which dairy- free milks are suitable as a main drink after 1yr. I've been trying to work that out for a while. I saw Alpro 1+ a while ago in waitrose, but haven't seen it anywhere we can easily get to. The paediatrician said we can introduce dairy to DD, but it will be a while until I will be happy giving her a cup of milk.

We have had a nice day. DD1 'helped' her open her presents, we went to wagamamas for lunch then went to Sealife Centre (after DH had been to buy a pack of Kellogg's for the free entry voucher). We lit a candle on a small cake this evening at sang Happy Birthday. She looked at us as if we had gone mad but she liked the cake.
For anyone still seeking inspiration for birthday presents, she has enjoyed the Early Learning Centre garage, musical instruments , Hide N Squeak Eggs, new Happyland and the book Dear Zoo.

Ahh happy glad you all had a nice day for ds1 1st bday we had a small party on the green in front house with friends (since moved and have big garden) but was Aug. So we are hoping for a dry late afternoon to have a small firework party week before baby birthday.

We have those hide n squeak eggs and both boys have loved them. A firm fav at the moment is the Fisher price treetop zoo we collected all the animals to it over a couple yrs for ds1 and now ds2 sits forever playing with it putting them in the swing and down the slide.

www.amazon.co.uk/Fisher-Price-Little-People-Talkers-Playset/dp/B004R1ZUNA

Link to what I mean but only comes with 2 animals and there are about 20 available boots used to get them in at Xmas for£4 each n 3 for 2 so we scoured many boots (yes v sad but cheaper than Amazon n eBay at £8 each!)

I didn't mention the best thing about yesterday: DD woke up at 5.30, but had not woken up previously since I put her to bed the night before! Last night she only woke once although she kept me awake for about a hour before that crying in her sleep and coughing. Poor baby is full of cold again.

Glad you had a nice day happy! Can't believe they'll all be turning 1 soon. Eek.

I can't decide what to do about bottle either. Currently DD has a breastfeed when she wakes at about 7:30, then another breastfeed at about 6pm just before her bath and then she has a bottle after - I make 8oz but she usually drinks about 6oz. She also has a 4oz bottle some afternoons at nursery - I think she'll drop that one fine as she never has one when we're at home, but the bedtime one I'm not sure about. Cos she's all snuggled up and lying back and drowsy when having that bottle, I can't imagine getting the same experience from a beaker! Maybe I can get her drinking milk from a cup/beaker after dinner and during her last little play session before bath, and then do breast feed last thing instead. Don't think I'm going to worry too much about it though. I'm dream feeding her again at the moment just so she goes through the night, so don't want to start messing with milk right at the moment.

Anna I wonder whether it is easier changing things now or in another year... with the dummy I've decided we're definitely putting that battle off until we can reason with her a little bit!

Oh she finally got a tooth poking through the gum on Friday!! Much celebrating :-) Also my DBro's baby girl was born on Friday too and I'm going for tiny newborn cuddles this evening after work. Can't wait!

As for teeth I don't think it will make much difference to drop the bedtime bottle feed unless the baby lets you clean/brush her teeth before going to bed? Obviously I am not a dentist but I struggle to see how it could make a difference if I give her beaker with dinner instead of bottle before sleep if she has her mouth zipped whenever I intend to clean them? Th closest to teeth brushing we have got is to give her play with baby toothbrush and she would chew it. If I see any food leftovers I do go 'evil mummy' to get it removed, but otherwise it's not too great with this part of hygiene. :(

We have a dog toothbrush that you slip on the end of your finger. We haven't tried it yet though!

Was talking to my GP about it this morning (have a never ending UTI - grrr) and he said

a) move to beakers within next month, but keep the "comfort" bottles till last.

B) Dilute the bedtime one in the meantime so eventually it's just water.
C) stay on Neocate rather than switch to soy etc as there's no point rocking the boat, and not to bother with the Junior versions as they're much the same.

Oh he also said it should be down to 3 feeds a day now - morning, night & one during the day.

We've been at 4 but we're dropping the 11.30am one. I don't think he needs it tbh. And we're gonna try a beaker for the afternoon one now.

We started diluting the night time one last night but only by one scoop. We'll do it super super gradually.

Thanks Anna. Will wait till DD is over the cold and solids refusal phase and will start to dilute the milk. She had half a yogurt this morning which made me ecstatic... It's good she has lots of liquids to help clear congestion etc., but it is still unnerving that she refuses everything I try to put in front of her.

strawberry I'm with you on that. I'm always thinking I'll just stick to breastfeeds first thing in the morning and at bedtime, but then i think I will start it when she is over her cold or something but the next cold/ cough/ sickness/ teething/ other illness comes almost straight away. My DD is also barely eating and taking lots of breastfeeds. She ate one spoon of breakfast today and a couple of pieces of tomato at lunch. Even favourites like hummus and banana are not eaten. We let her stay at home from nursery today as we are off work.

You all sound like you have plans for milk/dummies/bedtime. I feel so out of control. How much cow’s milk are they supposed to have at 1 year? I still feed dd 3 times and day (7, 5 and bedtime) and then at least twice a night but sometimes more. She seems starving as well so can’t see how I’d give those up. I still feed her to sleep as well so not sure what to do with that feed. After months of signing for milk she’s now reverted to pulling my top down – that was interesting in Tesco. I’m stopping pumping at work and by 2/3 my boobs are filling up! I’m starting to get quite worried…

Dubai travel was a success, after sleeping all the way there she slept on and off all the way inbetween playing with cabin crew and eating crisps. She was quite poorly while we were away and it made her really grumpy so DP had a hard time with her. She wouldn’t eat, only crisps and biscuits. She’s getting her appetite back now but still off veggies… she’s been sick since chicken pox over a month ago so now on antibiotics to clear it all up. I say on antibiotics but she’s actually spat both the 1st two doses out… tonight we’ll try mixed with yogurt. Any advice on how to get it into her?? Anyway, the travel meant she was out of sync anyway so on Sunday she slept until 8 (but was up for an hour at 5am).

She was a little celeb in Dubai though, the novelty of a dad and baby without a mama meant all the hotel staff knew them both by name. She also kept having her photo taken by tourists, we had at least 4 mini shoots at the Burj Khalifa tour and around the hotel and Indian woman gathered all her children round her for a pic. In hindsight should I have been letting all these people take pics of her?? She seemed to like it! I’m not sure what the attraction was though, I mean obviously I think she’s cute but she’s kind of your average baby and Dubai is very multi-cultural so I wouldn’t have thought it was the novelty of a western baby?

We had a successful long weekend with the in laws, topped off with dd not only clapping for the first time but also crawling! !! There's definitely no stopping her now!

Ladydolly could you try giving her the antibiotics with a calpol syringe thing?

lady we may sound like we have plans but I bet in a few months everything will be just the same! I have no plans to reduce DD's breast feeds so am finding it a bit hard to get very worked up about the bedtime bottle. Don't know the answer to the question about how much cows milk they SHOULD have - it's about calcium I presume so any cheese, yoghurt counts and green leafy veg (yes I'm sure all our babies just can't get enough of that..)
Also about half the time she still only has a few bites of dinner, so I do think she needs the milk later on to fill her up. I won't sacrifice my sleep yet for the sake of switching her - I think the tooth decay thing is only a small risk and I am fairly militant about sugar the rest of the time. She hasn't ever had a raisin poor neglected child! Plus she only has a sliver of tooth yet. That reminds me I must a brush. Ha Anna I do have a lot of cat tooth brushes somewhere perhaps I should use those... TBH based on DD's tastes in food she will prefer the fish flavoured toothpaste to mint stuff!!

Only suggestion I have for antibiotics is yoghurt - or I have seen medicine-dispensing dummies but she may still just spit it out!

I really think with breastfed babies its a whole different ball game. Its dictated largely by the babies, whereas formula is dictated by the parent, IYKWIM.

I am really overawed by you BFers. I couldn't do it, I just couldn't. Makes me stressed even thinking about it. I didn't mind when he was little, but he's too strong and demanding now. You are all much more corageous than me!

Oh and try custard with antibiotics. Its sugary so most babies gobble it.

I agree Anna with quantity being determined by baby but I am trying (& so far succeeding) to be in control of frequently. We've recently gone from 4 feeds to 3 meaning that the morning nap has to be done with no boob. He cried quite a bit the first day (Saturday) but this morning did one little wimper then went to sleep. He literally went from awake having his sleeping bag zipped up to asleep in 5 mins. They're pretty adaptable. Afternoon nap feed will be knocked on the head soon too. I'm not stressing about quantity of cow's milk. He'll drink what he drinks. He eats well.