my daughter is too chunky what all can i do?

Aileen - posted on 12/06/2010

The best advice I can give you. My son was off bottles at 10 months, but reduce at a time, its like for example you take a cigarette off a smoker straight away they would throw a hissy fit, same for a child, reduce the amount of milk, so if she is getting an 80z bottle cut it to 4 oz, and get a sippie cup with diluted juice, my son hates plain water with a passion, then cut it to 3 0z and so on, it will be tough, but both you and your husband needs to be strong as you will never get past this stage or she will become clever and realise if mummy says No daddy will say yes. try it, it wont just take a day or a night, could take a couple of weeks. Stay strong, all mothers go through something really tough. Good luck.

Christine - posted on 12/05/2010

I would say you definitely need to stop the night time bottles. It is reccommended that children stop using the bottle at 12 months. She should be drinking out of a cup and even then,children are only supposed to have a certain amount of milk per day because too much milk will interfere with vitamin absorption in the body (your daughter's pediatrician can tell you how much she should be drinking). She is old enough to not need anything to eat or drink during the night, so she is just waking up out of habit, not necessity. She will likely cry the first night or two that you decide not to give it to her, but that is just because some children dont like change- especially if she's been doing the same thing the first two years of her life. By the third or fourth day she will be over it. By your husband giving in, he is helping himself and hurting her. The only person benifiting from her drinking the bottles in the middle of the night is him- because he wont have to hear her cry. You should give him the facts and tell him how important it is to get rid of this bad habit. I wish you good luck! I'm sure she's going to grow into a beautiful little girl.

Michelyn - posted on 12/04/2010

wow super lots of spelling errors. Sorry. Might need to head to bed myself as I appear to be overtired.

Michelyn - posted on 12/04/2010

Maye try swaping one of the nigth bottles with water? It likely may be just a habit for her rather than a need.
My husband and I were just discussing tonight about weigth problems with children and he mention how his aunt woud put her daughter on every fad diet imaginable. It created a yo yo cycle for her and now she is over 300lbs:( Very sad. We just agreed that we would provide as healthy and nutricios meals/ snacks as we could and stay active as a family. It is really the best we can do. Likely your daughter will sprout upwards in now time and the weight issue will leave your mond entirely.

Minni - posted on 12/04/2010

if only my husband would back me up on that

Minni - posted on 12/04/2010

well i tried just 2 bottles of water last night and she threw a fit and then her father got up and made her milk bottles he says she's to little to take off the bottle he said i potty traind her to little and she was almost 2 then he still see's her as an infant i think

Julianne - posted on 12/03/2010

she is old enough to not need anything at night. give her a bottle before bed and then nothing. if she is up at night let her put herself back to sleep without food. pediatricians say that at 20 lbs a child stomach and body are ready to make it through the night.

Hayley - posted on 12/03/2010

Get rid of the bottles and move to a sippy cup. The liquid in bottles comes out so quickly its easy for them to over drink and that's drinking a ton of calories. Even though you're giving her skim milk, it's still calories and they do count. I suggest, like Nichole did with switching to water and keeping up on the healthy foods. Try to make her more active. Just because it's a nasty day outside doesn't mean you can't play. For my daughter, I found one awesome way to get in exercise is to let her do it with me. We move out the funriture in the living room and put on some on demand exercise shows and go to town. Sure sometimes she follows my lead and does them right but most of the time she just jumps around and dances. I highly reccomend the bollywood dance series it's so much fun and my daughter' just lvoes it. It doesn't matter what's she's doing though, as long as she's moving and grooving it should help with with her activity levels. Also, I'd highly suggest talking to your doctor about what you can do to help. Have them mentioned concern over their weight? My daughter is almost 3 years old and she's under 30 lbs. Our doctor said she's underweight but we're not worried she eats a lot of healthy food and she's extremely active so she's a healthy kid. Seriously though, the best advice we could all give you is talk to your doctor about it because they would ultimately know the best course of action for your child.

Nichole - posted on 12/02/2010

I don't really have advice. I just wanted to encourage you. If you are feeding her healthy foods & helping her get exercise, you are doing great! I'd work on breaking the night time bottles. If you aren't ready to bottle wean (I no everybody has there own beliefs about when to do it)....try water in them if she wakes in the night. My son is 14 months. He wears a 4t in most clothing. He's 30 pounds & 33 inches tall. So I understand the concerns of having a chunky kid. But I really think if you feed them right, and help keep them active they will outgrow it. I was chunkier than my son when I was a baby/toddler, but by the time I started school I was average. Then I hit puberty & my metabolism has been CRAZY HIGH, lol, I struggle to maintain wieght now. If you have anymore questions feel free to message me.