Bu-Bye Bottle
Friday, February 28th, 2014From Friday Mom – Erin:
Rory was diagnosed with another ear infection last week. This was his third total and his second one in six weeks. In addition to having to schedule a follow-up appointment to discuss whether we should be considering putting tubes in his ears, or other preventive measures, we were also given strict instructions from his pediatrician to try to get him off of bottles. Apparently there are differing schools of thought, but our pediatrician’s stance is that bottle feeding increases the chance of ear infections (based on the reclined sucking involved).
We’d started weaning Rory from the bottle to the cup at his first birthday, but he came down with a stomach flu shortly thereafter that threw our phased approach to reducing his bottle feeding for a loop. The past two weeks, however, we have been making a much more concerted effort to reducing the overall volume of formula/breastmilk in each bottle and, instead, offer him a sippy cup or straw cup with milk throughout the day (at meal times and snack time). As of this week, we’re down to two ounces of milk/formula per bottle. He’s still not a big whole-milk drinker, but we’ve been making a concerted effort to ensure that he gets around 8-ounces of whole-milk yogurt in addition to his milk to ensure that he is getting enough calcium. He also LOVES cheese, so we try to incorporate that as another way of getting him calcium for his growing bones.
I’ve worried a bit about whether or not Rory is getting enough to eat now that he is moving almost entirely to solid foods and his liquid nourishment has taken a back seat. We’re fortunate in that he seems to be a pretty good eater. And he has started to enjoy feeding himself with a fork and spoon, so mealtime carries a new-found sense of independence, as well. In that respect, I feel confident that he’ll continue to tell us when he wants more to eat. But I know that we are going to face a bit of a struggle as we move away from using bottles in the nap time routine. So far, he’s done alright, but I am a little apprehensive about how he’ll do when the bottle is gone entirely. For now we are taking things one step at a time and hoping it continues to go smoothly. Fingers crossed.