When do I...?

[amellis2]

1) offer orange juice? I haven't yet.

2) turn their car seats around. They are 16 months and 20-ish pounds each (I know the AAP recommends 2 years, but does weight have any bearing in that decision?)

3) stop offering a bottle at bedtime? It's our routine now. They take a cup for everything except a small bottle at nap time and small one at bedtime.

[mrsjenrn]

It's 12 months AND 20 lbs, so I would leave them rear facing. Zoe is 26 lbs and still RF. I don't want to turn her till she is at least 30 lbs. She is content sitting that way, so I am going to leave her RF.

The bottle....I think that's up to the parents, but the sooner the better bc it could get harder to take it away later. I know that drs usually want them off the bottle at age 1.

[tashaandsage]

After one year acidic foods are okay, like citrus & tomatoes. Keep in mind OJ has more sugar than offering orange slices, but since your girls are vegan, giving them citrus juice with iron rich meals aids in absorbing iron. You probably already know that, but I just recently remembered it and started buying more OJ for that reason.

My pedi told me that while the recommendation is 2 now, if at around 20 months Maisy became very unhappy with rear facing, she was okay with her being turned around early, but if she was fine with it, keep her till 2. She never mentioned weight restrictions though. I think as long as they are in a convertible, weight isn't a factor for rear facing, but not totally sure.

I don't have any bottle advice.

[etteyam]

DD1 is almost 3 yrs old and we haven't offered her juice yet. Like Tasha said, it's mostly sugar so we don't see any health benefits at this point. As for carseats, AAP recommends 2 years but with DD1, we did it at 18 months and we just did the switch with DD2 a month ago. As far as bottle goes, I think they only don't want you to give a bottle at bedtime due to likelihood of developing cavities. We're still doing this with DD2 but plan on switching up her bedtime routine a little bit soon. We'll give her the bottle before bath then brush her teeth. Right now we do bath/brush teeth first then bottle while reading books.

[amellis2]

We've given them juice (way watered down apple juice and way watered down green juices - like the Naked juices). I just haven;t done OJ. I will try it for breakfast later this week and see how it goes. I'm sure between that and their 2nd favorite brekkie ever (farina/cream of wheat) and the multivitamin, I'm good on the iron front.

So, maybe if I brush teeth after bottle? Or should I switch to a cup at bed time? I think I am considered more on the milk before bed part vs the bottle part. They aren't terrible attached to their bottles. They took cups just fine (except for the shaking. ohgodpleasestopshakingthecup. Stop. Shaking. The. Cup. STOPSHAKINGTHECUP.) so I feel like I can get rid of the bottles and they'd be fine.

I'm comfortable for them to be RF through 2 years or 30lbs, so they can hang out and check out the back seat for just a little while longer.

Thank you!!