*** Quoting Andy Ball from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***


AB> Hello Carol,

  CS> ...if the kid still likes 'bottles' (many do at that
    > age still and dont worry as it's normal).

AB> She's been off the bottle since she was about eleven months old.  Like
AB> to hurl her cup though :-)  She gets a cup of water just before bed, b
AB> none during the night.

Thats fine then.  I wouldnt advise starting a night bottle in a case like
that. ¨Only swapping to a safe one if still using it.

Charlotte had a night bottle still at 15 months.  I think, about 20 months
was ¨when she was ready to give it up?  Harmless as long as it's just a
little ¨water.

  CS> To speed the teething process, those hard teething
    > crackers sold in boxes in the baby food isle, can help
    > alot.

AB> She eats crackers... I don't know if they're "teething" ones though.

If regular saltines, then no they are not.  Those are too soft to be much
use ¨here.  You'll find these in the baby food isles.  Kinda pricey as I
recall so ¨another parent told us to try a hard toasted bagel and that
worked well though ¨was a bit of minor trouble to cut and toast up hard. 
We used both.  I think ¨she liked the teething crackers just a little bit
better (more firm) but not ¨enough to be an issue.

AB> Thanks for the tips!

No problem!

Oh, you are also at another golden moment now.  2 of them in fact.

Depending on what you have bee feeding her, this is the stage to widen the
diet ¨out quite a bit if you havent.  If you do not, she will become a
'picky eater' ¨but always have some of her 'favorite' there when you
present a new food.  ¨She's apt to be trying to feed herself now if she
hasnt already.  (Kids hit ¨that one at different times, Charlotte was self
feeding by 15 months but slow ¨to talk and she was walking well before this
age).  Dont worry about feeding ¨her foods you donot like.  She will
probably eat just about anything at this ¨age.  One of Charlotte's
favorites was steamed Bok Choy but I think we started ¨that a little later
as she needed teeth to handle it.

The other golden moment is if you havent started potty training, now is the
¨time.  Be easy about it with her and she'll catch on.  Get a little kid
potty ¨and put it in the bathroom and have your wife 'demo' a few times but
don't make ¨it a big issue.  Kids vary *wildly* on this one.  Girls
normally potty train ¨much earlier than boys.  My guess is something in the
design factor relates ¨there ;-).  At the start, she'll run to the potty
just *after* she pees.  Thats ¨normal too .

In our case, with the cats, Charlotte got a little confused at this stage
and ¨tried to use the cat litter which as you can imagine, didnt amuse the
cats much ¨but they only gave us long suffering glances then stood there
until we changed ¨the litterbox .  Then again, what do you expect
when the kid's first word ¨was 'cat'?  I swear, she pointed right at Face
and said it clear as a bell one ¨day.  (Had a cat named 'Face').  Charlotte
was such a late talker, we were a ¨bit worried but it came out fine in the
end.

So, whats your daughter up to?  Dont worry if she's behind on some things. 
¨Perfectly normal.  They are *all* behind at some things and ahead at
others.
                                       xxcarol

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