bottles bottles bottles bottles bottles bottles bottles

alwaysquestions

Mon, May 02 2011, 8:08 pm

my dd is over 2 and is constantly asking for bottles..its getting me crazy.during the day I sometimes fight with her and she gives in to a cup but at night I dont have the energy to fight and drinks bottls litterly the whole night. does anyone have advice on how to stop so much botteling? its getting me insane.

MiracleMama

Mon, May 02 2011, 8:11 pm

Just get rid of them and brace yourself for a couple of rough nights. I'm going through this right now but with pacifiers, not bottles. There is no easy out when your kid is so attached. My head is killing from the tantrums that went on today. Oh well. Wont last forever. Just do it.

alwaysquestions

Mon, May 02 2011, 8:21 pm

MiracleMama wrote:

so what do you do at night? listen to her cry for loooooooong time?
the problems also that few neighbors little older then her are also busy with bottles so when she sees them with bottles she also wants. makes it little tougher.

Mini Cookie

Mon, May 02 2011, 8:28 pm

A 2 year old is still a baby. Her bottles give her some sort of security and it becomes a habit. DD drank a bottle whenever she pleased until she turned 4. No damage done B"H, she has enouhg years to grown up. She gave up the bottles at night when we got her a "big girl bed" when she was 4 1/2.

Try to stick to these guidelines so you won't go so crazy
-buy the 4 oz bottles so she doesn't drink "so much" at a time.
-Do not allow bottle drinkin within 45 minutes before mealtimes, it kills their appetite.
-If it's juice you're giving water it diwn so that it diesn't kill her teeth.
-Buy a cute looking cup, DD felt like a million dollars drinking out of a hot pink cup with a curly straw attached.
-According to the Institute of Medicine, a child between the ages of one and three needs about 1.3 liters (44 ounces) of water a day. Since their body weight is much less than those of adults, toddlers can become dehydrated easily; they also tend to ignore their thirst while caught up in play.
-Packaged juice with excess sugar and low nutritional value, should be kept to a minimum and not be given in excess of 120-180 ml for toddlers. Aerated drinks should preferably be avoided completely till they are older; each 240ml of an aerated drink contains not only 100 empty calories but also caffeine which besides being addictive, may make him urinate frequently and lose more body fluids than he is gaining.

bnm

Mon, May 02 2011, 9:43 pm

whats wrong with bottles?

Tamiri

Mon, May 02 2011, 9:51 pm

MiracleMama wrote:

I'm with MiracleMama. By this age, the bottle is actually a habit, perhaps a bad one. In addition, if there is anything but water in the bottle overnight, you may be harming the child's teeth and adding empty calories to her diet. A two year old, even in a place such as Israel where it's hot, has absolutely no need for a bottle aside from the attachment aspect. You can put a sippy cup near her bed in case she's thirsty. It really doesn't matter what the neighbors are doing: if they are eating chazer, would you give it to her? This is also a good lesson in: WE do things xyz way and not the way the neighbors do it.
If the bottle bothers you, you should probably work on stopping it now, before it gets hot at night and you worry that she really IS thirsty, and make sure your DD is well hydrated during the day. No bottle at night also makes it easier to wake up dry!

cinnamon

Mon, May 02 2011, 11:28 pm

I'm with mollys mama a two year old is very young.
My almost four year old still drinks a bottle and we are only now starting to talk about maybe giving it up soon.
These are the rules we have regading bottles:
-no bottle an hour before meals
-no walking around with the bottle She can only have it in her room or in the car if its a very long trip
-at night only water

my two yearold also has a bottle and the same rules apply.

mandksima

Tue, May 03 2011, 1:40 am

Well, we did it, finally! I was so tired of seeing my big boy (2 3/4) constantly with a bottle hanging out of his mouth and if we couldn't find one, he'd never calm down for a nap or at bedtime. He never had a pacifier and really used his bottle as one (only water, by the way) and he always drank so much. He always wet through diapers as well as his clothes.

The hard part was that this was a really easy kid. Went to sleep really easily with his bottle and only woke us up if he wanted a refill. A very friendly, no tantrum kid (well, not at that age but we are seeing it now) whose only vice was his water bottle. We have a new baby in the house, B"H, and I decided to go cold turkey over Pesach and not get him another bottle KLP. I didn't want 2 different bottles in the house and I wanted him to feel like a big boy and not drink bottles like his baby sister. It was odd but he didn't really ask for the bottle after we took it away but we did see that bedtime was a lot harder. So, I started a new bedtime routine of singing to him and rubbing his back and that is working, although for us, it was about 2 weeks of really late and very kvetchy bedtimes. I just had to find an alternate soothing method for him.

It is harder to get him drink a lot now and not want to spill the water in his cup or play with it and put things into it. He doesn't love the sippy cup during the day but I do leave one at his bed at night (he doesn't always touch it though.)

We are starting him to toilet train so we really had to do it. B'hatzlacha!

Marion

Tue, May 03 2011, 1:52 am

A two year old is not too young to be weaned from a bottle. A bottle is meant for a child who can't drink except for sucking. So use a sippy cup, or a straw cup, FOR WATER, and get rid of the bottle. At this point a bottle nipple is bad for teeth as well.

bnm

Tue, May 03 2011, 5:14 am

my 2.5 year old still drinks formula for medical reasons and I find a bottle is the easiest way to give it to her. a cup she doesn't drink, a sippy cup she never really figured out, she drinks juice and water from regular cups. she doesn't go to sleep with a bottle in bed, she only gets one before bed and when she wakes ups. she doesn't walk around all day with one....

Marion

Tue, May 03 2011, 5:24 am

Medical reasons is always different. Always.

alwaysquestions

Tue, May 03 2011, 8:35 am

THANKS all for your responds. She doesnt want water in her bottle. She needs sugary stuff.
What botters me about the bottles is that if I dont have one shes hysterical, so need to have one wherever I go..and that shes drinking the whole night. when she finishes she needs refills.
otherwise I dont care if she has bottles. and she is attached to a pacifier already so she doesnt need 2 things. Can't decide if I should stop bottles all the way. shes a very tough tantrumy child so that will be verrrry tough..

Tamiri

Tue, May 03 2011, 9:35 am

alwaysquestions wrote:

Do you have a pediatrician or dentist you can talk to? You really SHOULD be caring about the bottles and what is in them. You say she "needs" sugary stuff and I say: do you want her to be healthy? Because the sugary stuff will cause her ogmas nefesh with her teeth. The will rot. Her baby teeth need to be protected as a strong base for her forming adult teeth. Please educate yourself and do her a favor.
Another thing: You may want to talk to someone about parenting. Her tantrums need to be dealt with, and you need to be on top of them (unless CVC there is something medical/psychological where she can't help herself, in which case a professional may be able to guide you). HTH.

smiledr

Tue, May 03 2011, 9:47 am

As a dentist I can tell u that bottles have to stop by age three becauseit causes irreversible damage to the jaw causing severe orthodontic probs later on as well as speech impairments. And of course if she drinks that bottle a whole nnight it'll cause tooth decay. Get rid of it cold turkey. Its wat I did. Its not easy but its the quickest and best method. After a week buy a nice gift. Shell feel all better...

IloveHashem613

Tue, May 03 2011, 10:16 am

alwaysquestions wrote:

I agree with Tamiri. If you are not going to cut out bottles, you at least need to figure out a way how to cut the sugary stuff out of her bottles. Maybe start slowly watering it down, at first mostly juice and a little water, then 50/50 then mostly water and hopefully eventually all water. If you let her drink the sugary stuff from her bottle now, especially at night, you will have hell to pay when your kid gets older with tooth problems. NOT worth it! I have a friend who let her son have juice in his bottles at night cuz it just made her life easier at the time and she told me she fully regrets it. He had to have more then one root canal at age 4!!

Mommeeeeeeee!

Tue, May 03 2011, 10:51 am

For a child who's that addicted and that difficult in general, I would suggest a more gradual weaning approach rather than just stopping completely from one minute to the next, which would be traumatic for the whole family.
Start by restricting a little bit - make one new rule, that bottles are only for at home, if you go outside or even to play with neighbors in the same building, you don't take it with you, they aren't allowed out of the front door. She will protest, but she will get used to it. When she is walking around the house with a bottle, ask her if she would like to go play outside/to the park/to play with a friend, and then tell her to leave the bottle before going out the door so that she gets to understand the concept.
Once this has become routine for a few weeks, you can restrict further -make a rule that no bottles are allowed in the kitchen, only drinks in a cup. So if she wants to enter the kitchen, she has to leave the bottle somewhere else, and offer to pour the drink from the bottle into a cup for her so she can bring it in. Get used to this for a few weeks, then move on to no bottles out of her bedroom, she has to stay in her room when drinking one, if she comes out of the bedroom with a bottle tell her bottles can only stay in her bedroom, then take it from her and put it in her room. Repeat as many times as necessary until she sees you really mean it. She can have as many bottles as she likes, as long as she stays in her bedroom with them.
The next step after this is to only allow a bottle at bedtime, it's only allowed to be in the bed and no bottles if she's out of bed, if she wants a bottle she has to go drink it in her crib. When she asks for a bottle at any time during the day, tell her she can have one in her crib, then prepare the bottle and place it in her crib and tell her it's waiting there for her. If she takes it out, remind her of the rule and take it from her and place it back in the crib. Eventually she will probably stop asking for them at random times during the day because she would rather play than go in the crib when she doesn't need to sleep and only ask for them when it is actually bedtime or naptime. Remember to keep offering her the option to drink from a cup anywhere in the house at any time she wants a drink - say "You can have a bottle if you go in your crib but you can drink juice from a cup in the living room if you want to."
Once it's only down to bedtime bottles and she is weaned during the day, start switching her slowly to water in the bottle. Put in her regular favorite drink and dilute it with one tablespoon of plain water. Don't give her anything undiluted in a bottle at any time ever again - let her have her favorite drink plain only in a cup if she wants it. After she is used to drinking that for a while, do the same but this time use two tablespoons of water in the drink in the bottle (while continuing to offer it undiluted in a cup). Continue in this way, slowly, until it's all water in the bottle. At some point, if you are lucky, she may stop wanting the bottle at all since it will be so watery she'll lose interest over time. If you get her down to plain water and she's still attached to the bottle for sleeping time, try reducing to only at night but not for daytime naps, or the other way around, whichever you think will be easier. At this point it's a good idea to try to get her to attach to something else, such as a doll or stuffed animal, to give her security and help her fall asleep at night.
Once you are down to bottles only at night or only at naptime, give her a specific "quit date", such as next shabbos you will have no more bottles. Remind her of this every day until that date comes, then when it comes, have her help you put all of the bottles in the house in a bag and take it outside to the the garbage can. DO NOT KEEP ANY HIDDEN IN THE HOUSE "JUST IN CASE"! You will survive without them, and so will she. For the first few nights you may need to stay with her and help her fall asleep by rocking or whatever calms her. She will probably fall asleep hours later than usual. You might need to repeat a few times a night for a few nights. Keep at it. Do remember that if you give in and give her back her bottle, you will make it many many times more difficult to get rid of it when you try again at a later date. If she asks for a bottle remind her that they are all gone because you threw them away and praise her for being such a big girl that doesn't need a bottle any more. Buying her a new toy to remind her of this milestone she passed is also a great idea, then you can remind her of how she is big enough to go to the store and choose a toy and how much fun she had playing with it. It will probably take about two weeks until she learns to sleep without it, but boy will it be a relief when she does. Good luck if you decide to try this.

Mirel

Tue, May 03 2011, 7:37 pm

what I dont understand is why people have juice in the house PERIOD! I have 6 little ones under 10 yrs. I have not bought a bottle of apple juice since my first was one years old. We drink water, seltzer, milk and I buy one tropicana for shabbos. If you dont have it in the house, they wont ask for it!! Personally, I dont understand why apple juice became a drink for kids. It has zero nujtritional value. STOP BUYING THAT JUICE, and they will forget it ever existed in the house!!

IloveHashem613

Wed, May 04 2011, 3:47 pm

Mirel wrote:

I am totally with you, I don't know why in heaven's name apple juice is the drink of choice for little kids. Its pure sugar and wreaks havoc on babies health and their teeth. Maybe that's why American's are so obese. My daughter doesn't even know what apple juice is and I don't intend to teach her. Why would I introduce her to a drink that's pure sugar and horrible for her? If she never has it, she won't know what it is to want it....