United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Did any of your babies hold their own bottles? Kayla tries but it is too big for one hand so she just gives up. She can hold on to her sippy cup with the handles but her bottles don't have handles. Any suggestions?

Ashley
Kayla's Mom, 6 mos., ROBPI

Avent makes handles that go on their bottles. You can also use them to convert the bottle to a sippy sup later. We used them with Joshua before he got enough strength to hold with both hands.

Kate

My son is 8 1/2 but never held his own bottle with two hands but did hold his two handled sippy cup. We weren't ever able to find any two handled bottles for him, but when we were at WaL-Mart the other day, we were walking past a huge display and my husband said " Lok honey, our quest for two handled baby bottles are over" They must have had 100's ofthem and to think I spent months in every store trying to find them whan Brandon was little. I did find some bottles with a hole in the middle, but he never-ever used it properly, he would just stick his unaffected hand in the inside and hold it that way !!!GAYLE

We used the walmart bottles with the handles. Not only did they have handles, the were thinner in the middle. Sippy cups were an issue for us, because once they were filled up even half way they became to heavy to be held by one handle. The wonderful thing about the walmart bottles is that they come with nipples and sippy spouts. (jody loved that)

You will probably aquire quite a collection trying to find what will work for your child, but eventually she will hold her own bottle.

Marlyn mom to Javier 3y/o ROBPI

My son did eventually hold his own bottle.He did it with two hands though not one. He was mostly bre*st fed until he was about 6 months old. I found some that were odd shapes and they did the trick. By the time he was one he could hold any bottle. But of course then we switched to a cup.

My son held his bottle. We used the playtex nursers with the liners. The bottom of the bottle is open and he held onto that part. It was easy to grap there. He eventually used both arms and switched back and forth holding it with his left and then right.

My daughter is almost 12 now but I did manage to find her a bottle at walmart that she could hold. It was a odd shape kind of like the letter o stretched out and so there was a hole in the center and she was able to get her fingers through it. Sippy cups with handles were great for when she was older though, she actually was done with the bottle at 12 months .

Lenni

I just noticed how old your baby is and I wanted to say that I think Jacob was about 7-8 months old before he could really hold it much at all. So maybe she just needs a month or two.

Yeah...i found an evenflow sippy cup that has handles that will use a nipple too!! It has worked really well. She got mad at me when I tried to get her to hold it and let go but its been about a week and she can almost feed herself!! I didnt want to swithch bottles because she was so used to the ones we had but she transitioned fine. Thanks for all the advice!

Ashley
Kayla's Mom, 6 mos., ROBPI

I'm glad it's working a little better with a different bottle. When Jacob was little, every milestone he didn't acheive exactly on time, I wondered if it wasn't a side effect of the injury. It's important to remind yourself that all babies develop at different rates. My friend's baby who has two perfect arms still won't hold his own bottle and he's 11 months old. I think sometimes they want you to hold it for them so they don't do it themselves. Their tricky sometimes....