Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The Great Bottle Debate

We ALL know babies aren't supposed to have bottles after a year.

Well . . . . . .

Regardless of my knowledge of this, my babies still have bottles. The pediatrician told us at their 15 month appointment to ditch the bottles ASAP. They are now almost 17 months old and we have a nighty night bottle every night. Sometimes they have daytime bottles too if the mood is befitting of one.

My first issue in the bottle war is that I don't really see the difference between a bottle and a sippie cup.

024

As you see, they have rubber tops and plastic bottoms. Same thing. What is the big deal? It's not that they can't use sippy cups, they just don't prefer it. They can use sippy cups, straw cups, regular cups and regular cups with big people straws (their second preference).

People say it will rot their teeth if they have it in bed. So they don't have it in bed. End of issue.

People say "well, what will it be like if they need a bottle for bed until they're teenagers? Won't that be embarassing?" I mean, I guess if they go to a sleepover and they get made fun of then yeah, it will be embarassing. I'm sure they will learn about peer pressure long before then. Also, I'm 27 and sometimes I need a bottle before bed. My bottles just look different, like these:


023


(not all at once mind you)

The main issue is ME. I don't give a flying rats behind what you have read in a book that your friend told you that you absolutely must read in order to parent a child, even though people have been parenting without baby books for the last bazillion years. Peer pressure just doesn't do anything for me. You can annoy me, make fun of me and talk about it amongst yourselves and STILL I do not care.


Because a bottle of soy milk before bed makes my babies happy. And when babies are happy, mama is happy. Mama also sleeps when babies sleep and babies sleep well after a nice cold one of soy. When they don't want it anymore or if I decide to get really mean or if something is drastically affecting their health, we won't do it. I'm the boss in this house. I decide what happens.

So there.


013


12 comments:

  1. My oldest is 4 and she had a sippy cup of milk everynight as she went to sleep till about 6ish months ago and I only made her stop because I got tired of cleaning them out of my bed. Week old milk is nasty! She never had a bottle but like you I don't see a big diff in it or sippy so next time just say yeah they are off the bottle ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. SO THERE AND AMEN IS RIGHT!!!! Hey guess what, my 3.5 year old has bottles all the time. eeek!! how bad is THAT? I just don't care. He drinks a ton of water out of sippy cups and regular cups, that if he really wants a bottle of soy milk? I give it to him. Those stupid rules don't faze me. Like the pacifier thing? Gunner gave them up, but Colt WORSHIPS them. I will NOT take it away til he starts kindergarten, if it takes that long. I mean, wtf? he enjoys it! and who is it hurting????

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can't stand the "rules" and the books and the "they say" stuff. Do what works for you. Mommy knows best.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The comment of "What if they need it while teenagers?" makes me laugh because wouldn't a teenager using a sippy cup also be embarrassing? Some people...

    ReplyDelete
  5. We moved when the twins were 15 months and I didn't take the bottles away before because I wanted the comfort. I think it was about 18 months when they totally ended. I completely agree that sucking out of a sippy cup is just like sucking out of a bottle.
    Carl started speech therapy at 26 months old. He was also tested for OT, but didn't meet those requirements. Both of those therapists told me that open top cups use the same muscles needed for speech production. So, at exactly 27 months old, we ditched the sippy cups altogether and went to open top cups exclusively.
    As for pacifiers and thumb sucking... they say by kindergarten it will become socially unacceptable for the child - but your pediatric dentist is going to want them to get away from it sooner. Gretchen sucks her thumb - and it has affected her teeth. They were more relaxed when it was just baby teeth, but the twins started losing teeth at age 4 (one yr before kindergarten) and now that adult teeth are in the mix (age 5), the thumb is a main priority. I was able to toss Carl's pacifier at about 2.5. He didn't care at all. I wish Gretchen had liked the pacifier better so I could just have taken that away.

    ReplyDelete
  6. For the life of me I cannot get my child to drink milk out of a sippy cup. I really don't care either. Plus, you're at least down to one bottle a day. How can I teach my child to use a straw?! It does not seem to be instinctual to her but so many other kids do it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jill... have you tried playing with them first? Maybe if you can get her to blow out of it, then she'll soon realize she could suck up into it. Take some cotton balls or feathers and blow them around on the table for some cause & effect.

    Or, you could always go the mother-of-the-year route and let her sip your soda out of a straw! Or maybe chocolate or strawberry milk. That might be super motivating. (Gretchen's favorite "recipe" is Purple Milk. Mix strawberry and chocolate powders in one glass!

    They just started kindergarten and I bought Thermos drink containers (Funtainers, I think)- they have straws but are MUCH easier to clean than any sippy cup I ever put milk into!! And, if they do not finish their milk at lunch, it comes home still cold! Plus, they hold 12 oz instead of the 8 oz (for 50 cents) that milk is if they buy it at school.

    (Gretchen will drink anything - loves soda, but is only allowed the occassion sip. Carl won't drink anything but white milk or water.)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Eh, we uit right around a year, but mainly because Mom was sick of cleaning bottles. My brother still gives his 2 year old a bottle at night. So fraction' what! Keep these babies happy!

    ReplyDelete
  9. You know I was totally scoping out your blog pictures to see O&E's fingernails......LOL!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Bottle vs. Sippy Cup? Who cares! Do what works best for O&E!

    The pacifier is the one thing I can argue a bit with (although not having kids makes this much easier). My sister was attached to her pacifier for WAY too long and had 4 years of braces to show for it. Her teeth were atrocious. I never took to the pacifier, and have had a braces-free life :)

    ~B from tCC

    ReplyDelete
  11. My son had a bottle until past 17 months. He's 25 months now and you know what? He's okay. His teeth are there & he can sleep without one. He was ready... I wasn't. But that's not the point. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm with you. I think babies wean themselves (off nursing, off pacis, off bottles) when they're ready. Why make it harder on them or yourself?! The pediatrician went on and on about how Davie needed to start eating ONLY from a spoon. We still let her eat her rice, baby food or oatmeal from her feeder bottle if she wanted to. And now, all of the sudden, she doesn't care for the bottle and she wants a spoon, all on her own. It was painless! Why make it stressful and painful, you know?

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by! Sorry, no anonymous comments, if you can't put your name on it it's just no fun!