Parents today are busy people and feeding your toddler from a bottle is a habit many do not think much about but before you continue, do take note of a study done by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). It states that there is a connection between prolonged baby bottle usage and early childhood obesity in a longitudinal study of 6,750 children.
In the study conducted by the AAP, they found that 22% of the children sampled had continued to use baby bottles regularly after 24 months, and a quarter of these children became obese by the age of five-and-a-half.
To prevent this, the AAP recommends all parents to start weaning their kids before they are 18 months old. The ideal period to start weaning is between 12 to 14 months old, and to break the habit of giving the kids a bottle of milk before bed.
The bottle before bed habit being an issue as when you start transitioning your toddlers to solid food, the baby bottle becomes an excess calorie intake. This is because the toddlers will crave for the milk from the baby bottle out to habit.
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To break the habit of your toddler’s before bed milk cravings, here are 4 recommended tips:
Tip #1: Transition from baby bottle to a cup
Your toddler might be resistant to the idea of exchanging their baby bottle for a cup. So to ease them into this change, give them a sense of ownership and take them shopping for their own cup and better yet, let them design or decorate their cup too. In addition, let them know how proud you are that they are now all grown up by the transition from bottle to cup.
Tip #2: Have a regulated schedule
To wean them off the bottle, reduce the number of times they get the bottle a day. Maybe even to specific times or places. In addition, when they yearn for the bottle, give them a cup of milk instead.
Tip #3: Engaging them
Preoccupy your child by playing with them. Tobbles Neo, meant for kids aged 0 to 2 years-old, provides a tactile experience for your toddlers so that they can stack, balance, and spin the uniquely shaped toys.
The idea behind this is with the bottles out of sight, the child will not be constantly reminded of the bottle and, hopefully, get used to it not being used at all. In the times they do, another trick is to offer an alternative like a cup or other appealing food options.
