Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

Hi everyone,

Went to the pediatrician the other day and this was the findings:
DD is 15 months old
Height - 80th percentile
Weight - 20th percentile (oh no!)

Part of the issue is that she is constantly moving, everyone (including other parents) who see her comment that she is non-stop, so she is burning calories like crazy.

In addition to the food she eats, she drinks milk (8oz) twice a day from a bottle (after she wakes up and before bed at night).
She loves drinking the milk, she drinks it herself and finishes the bottle in a few minutes.

She drinks water from a cup and or a cup with a straw throughout the day, but not much. Just a little here and there.
She only uses a bottle for the milk.

The problem is, the pediatrician recommends taking her off the bottle. He said that as she gets older it will be harder and harder to change her habits, and its better to get her used to drinking from a cup. (she is already stubbon with things)
It makes sense what he says, but my concern is that her weight is already low, and that she won't drink enough milk from a cup.
We tried giving her milk from a cup this morning and she took two sips and she was done.

Thoughts?

Thank you everyone

Re: Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

Ideally, you would drop the bottle and that would force her to drink out of a cup or eat more food throughout the day. My advice would be to slowly eliminate one bottle at a time and also consistently put milk/water in a cup and encourage her to drink out of that as mush as possible. My sister did this with my niece and by 20-21 months she was no longer taking any bottles.

Did her weight percentile drop a lot? If she has consistently been around the 20th percentile, I would not be too concerned.

My DS is 16 months and is still being BF. At this point, I know weaning him will be very challenging...

Re: Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

How about giving her the milk in a sippy cup? That's what we did for DD and the transition was seamless.

Re: Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

Her weight is not low. 50th percentile is the average, not the ideal. Anything between 5th an 95th percentile are equally normal! I've spent most of my life in the 10th percentile and I am completely normal looking and healthy lol. As long as the percentiles aren't dropping, I would not be worried about weight at all. I understand where you are coming from bc I had a child in the 5th percentile and I worried about this constantly even though my ped told me not too. He was right. My son is 3 now and totally healthy.

Message edited 9/11/2015 12:48:47 PM.

Re: Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

Re: Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

Re: Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

i would keep trying with the cup. if she is thirsty enough and realizes it is milk, she should start to drink it. if shes having trouble with the cup, try another one, and help her get comfortable with it.

Re: Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

I'd give it a little longer on the bottle. We just transitioned DS2 at 21 months. We would offer him sippy and straw cup all the time starting at about 14 months. Finally he started taking more from it and then one day we just put all the bottles away and he never looked back. Sometimes I feel like doctors rush you for no reason.

Re: Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

I'd stick with the bottle personally. My ped had said that their milk intake drops an average of 50% once you take away the bottle, and he sees no issue with waiting until closer to 2.

Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

My son just turned 16 months and we weaned him from the bottle over the past 2 months. I started with a new sippy cup that required the sucking like a bottle. I started giving him the cup during the day but a bottle at night. This past week we tried the cup at night and he transitioned seamlessly. He still calls it a bottle but that doesn't bother me. He drinks water from other straw cups during the day. Good luck!

Re: Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

My daughter was and always has been between the 1-3%ile for weight. She was done with the bottle by 12 mos. IMO, 20%ile isn't really that low - it's a good time to transition her to milk from a cup, or incorporate yogurt, cheese, etc.

Re: Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

I'd stick to the bottle, especially if you're worried about her weight. Milk has the calories and nourishment that's important for your 15 month old.

Also, 15 months is still so young! She won't go to college drinking from a bottle.

And I disagree that it'll be harder to take the bottle away later. I tried taking the bottle away from my son maybe around 18 months and he wasn't having it. He wouldn't drink any milk from a cup - and he's really skinny, too - so we stuck to a bottle at wake up and bedtime. I took the bottle away from him 2 weeks before his 2nd birthday and it was super easy. He began drinking milk from a cup by then.

Do it when your child is ready, not when your ped is ready.

Re: Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

I would drop a bottle to transition and just put the milk in a cup. The 20th percentile is not that low at all so I wouldn't be worried about milk intake. You can always just give her calcium and fats from food.

Re: Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

We had this issue with our girls. They were (still are) 5th percentile for weight. At 22 mo I tried giving them milk in a sippy too and they refused. (also 8 oz 2x/day). I heard to try grading it with water. Add more milk to the water each day. (grosses me out lol). But they both had colds for a few days and weren't really drinking the milk bottles anyway so I replaced them with a snack at night and they never missed it. Trouble is, they don't drink milk (they will be 3 next mo). But they eat a lot of other dairy so Im not concerned. Ped said to try smoothies which they will drink but they also will eat less food bc that fills them up.

Try grading the milk or try the nuk active cup. Everyone swears by that one for milk. but if not, she's not really that underweight. Was the ped concerned? They were never concerned until my one DD fell off her own curve below 4th %.

Message edited 9/12/2015 8:36:14 PM.

Re: Dropping bottle - Yes/No?

My ds was always around or under 5% for weight, so we had the same decision to make. I tried giving him a sippy cup at bed and he would throw it at me. It wasn't worth the battle. We kept him on the bottle until almost 3 and once he was old enough to kind of understand, we took the bottle away and transitioned to a sippy cup. In full disclosure, he now at 5 still takes a cup of whole milk to bed. He's a very little eater so I'm happy to get the extra calories in him each day.