April 2004 Babies - eight is great!!!

[Yorkiegirl]

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thanks for all the food advice! Will be brave and keep trying various kinds of lumpy things. It's not so much a problem for me, but dp has a phobia about other people being sick, and although ds2 has only been sick a couple of times, it's when he's been choking on something he's eating, so she's really nervous when he's eating stuff that isn't absolutely smooth. I try to introduce lumpy stuff at weekends when I'm feeding him, but he makes the most dramatic choking noises it's horrible!

Another question (sorry - you wouldn't think we'd been through this before...). When do they stop drinking from bottles? I think ds1 had cut out milk altogether by now (he was a little bugger!) but ds2 loves his 3 bottles a day. He drinks water from a cup but I suppose I'm worried if we start giving him milk from a cup he might not drink as much...

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They say to stop drinking from bottles by 12mths but i think this is just a guide i suppose its when your dd/ds feels happy to do so.

A quick question for all of you, how much water/juice does your dd/ds drink in a day?

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I always have ds water cup filled and on the pouffee/floor and he drinks from it continuously during the day - so in total prob 2 cupfuls. But at nursery I think they only give water with meals so he guzzles his water bottle when I pick him up!
I alternate between bottles and cups for his milk during the day (whatever's clean and to hand) although he always gets a bottle for his bedtime drink.
ds is great at chewing now - he is ssoooo cute eating half a strawberry - just like a proper little boy.

Gosh! Dd gave up bottles at Christmas.
I am sooo lazy, I stopped sterilising them in October and couldn't wait to get her onto a beaker so I didn't have to wash the blimin' things anymore!
Some days she drinks loads of milk other days she doesn't, she eats so well I don't worry about it anymore.
Must be bad mummy!!

Lunavix, I have heard it called 'baby' fleece. But it's hard to find. I couldn't find it in Oxford and ended up going to Banbury, hence my suggestion to ring round. I only needed to make the one trip though, I bought two square metres - plenty!!

Mrs D - does dd have bedtime milk in a beaker too?

My dd (2.6) only just gave up her single solitary bed time bottle of milk about 2 months ago

That probably makes us chavs! However, neither ds or dd have ever swigged orange squash from a bottle so perhaps I can be saved....

Must make an effort to encourage ds to use beakers for his milk. Thus far have been discouraged by his tendancy to hurl beakers across the room.

I feel totally behind now - I thought they were meant to have all milk from bottles to distinguish it from drinks! Ds drinks a lot of juice a day ( won't touch water) but still has 4 bottles of milk (18 oz). Should I give him the milk in beakers?

is it from a teeth hygiene/alignment point of view that they shouldn't have bottles? or is it just for convenience that you don't need to have seperate bottles for the babies and they can start using normal cups soon?
From reading many other threads - bottles seem to stay around for a long time for a lot of babies and we are by no means in the minority.

dd1 was finally banned from having milk in a bottle at 3.5 years. and stopped drinking milk at that point - she would always just give up the milk rather than drink it from a cup. it seemed mroe important for her to drink milk than give up bottles.

dd3 doesn't mind whether bottle or cup so maybe this time I will get round to chucking the bottles out when she's about 12 months.

tracyk you get very differing opinions about whether it matters. some people say it rots the teeth drinking milk from bottles but others, including dentists, say it makes no difference. I still don't know really.

surely if they just drink it and then put it down it wouldn't rot their teeth? id it not more if they use the teat for comfort and keep suckling it?

actually dd1 did use it as a sucking comfort thing, she'd go to sleep sucking it. maybe that is common among the toddlers who won't give up a bottle and that's the problem. even so a dentist we asked said it wouldn't matter unless you put sugar in it.

not saying I approved of this but dd1, usually a very amenable child, was very determined about this one issue.

ds does sometimes fall asleep sucking it - but only for a minute or two and then it'd fall to one side. But I lnow that sometime son we're going to have to give him his milk and then take him and brush his teeth before sleep. wich will be a pia as he's all nice and sleepy after milk.

ok I am convinced. dd3's bottles are going into the bin!

wouldn't like to seem to be a chav!

I bought dd3 a flashing toothbrush for christmas but she's only used it once.

No teethbrushing here really - I am still (breast)feeding dd to sleep.
DD has water from a beaker and when she has formula she has it in a bottle with a soft spout (she still doesn't drink much formula though). DS guzzled milk from bottles and had a bedtime bottle for quite a while - I can't remember when he actually gave it up - 2 maybe?

ps we're off to Malvern to see friends this weekend - have a good weekend all!

Eyes open with matchsticks - slight delay on the satellite!! Yorkiegirl - my boy was born 18 may 04. I also have a 5 yr old dd (5 on 28th Feb).

I can sort of brush ds teeth - but a bit hit or miss. When should I start to worry that they're not being brushed properly? he has six more or less completely through.
lovely and white - not like mine! it keeps reminding me to book an appt with dentist to get mine whitened - sposed to take 4 or 5 years off your age!

Popping in to say hello back to HD, but she's in malvern and lots of interesting things going on here! How How How do you give a cup to a baby??? I find it hard to imagine that one month from now DD will understand the concept of spillage. Do they really hold onto it themselves? or do you offer sip by sip???

on the fleece issue, any fleece ought to do. I use regular fleece, but there are some long pile types around (often used on buggy snuggles, for instance) which might behave oddly.

Gorgeousgirl, sorry if we have failed you... I know conversations on these threads can sometimes seem a bit exclusive but I think that's it's easy to forget all that's been said between reading what's new and adding your own input. You end up 'answering questions' rather than saying hello to everyone. That's my theory anyway! If we seemed rude, really sorry.

Anyway, hello HD when you get back! hope you had a lovely time.

my ds can take a cup but again hit or miss whether he sips in at the right time. sometimes he's too soon and gets no water and sometimes too late and he gets too much and it all goes down him

Mrs Doolittle - what cup do you use to give dd her milk? Ds still on 3 bottles a day and sips water at meal times. Our hv said to carry on with formula milk until he doesn't want it any more but I thought we moved on to ordinary milk at one. Does that mean still sterilizing?! Gah!!!!

haven't sterilized since 6 mo

Wow lots going on here...where do I start answering all the questions.
We haven't really used bottles at all, left it a bit late and at 6.5months had to go mean mummy and give dd formula in a cup so she could go to nursery not fully breastfeeding. We had avent bottles and she was sipping water from an avent cup from about 4 mths so we bought a few sipper cup tops and put them in the bottle instead of the teat. She then had milk from 'bottles' but they had a cup top and then her water from her coloured sipper cup. We are still doing this and are going to pack up the steriliser this weekend. We are still using the 'valves' that the avent sipper cups have to stop spillage.
Food wise dd has good days and bad. She had really lumpy food last night but other days she is fussier. She eats quite a few things finger food wise but doesn't really like many veges (like her parents).
I've been a bit anal with the teeth brushing and have been using one of those finger brushes every morning and every evening since she was about 6mths old. I do the evening one before her bath so after her dinner but before her milk and then she has another brush in the morning before she goes to nursery after breakfast and her bottle. She has really started protesting so have just gone out to buy a proper baby toothbrush today as maybe she will be happier chewing on it and that will give her teeth a bit of a brush in some form.
Have a good weekend everybody.