I need alittle help here. I need some help getting my 17 month old son off the bottle. He refuses to take milk in his sippy cup. So I need some ideas to get him to take milk in his cup. Even if I have choclate milk in there he still wont drink it. My son has been using a sippy cup since he was about 6 months old.
I have finally got my son off bottles about 2-3 months ago. I introduces him to the nuby sippy cups and he loves em.
Try using a straw. My son hated sippy cups but loves drinking from a straw. He only had a bottle for a little while so it may not work but it's worth a try. You can find cups with straws in them at walmart, target, ect. Good luck!
I sounds like it is time for you to get tough. It is time to take the bottles away and not go back to them. Once he realizes that you are not going to give in and give him the bottle, he will drink from the sippy cup. The key is to not give in. As long as you continue to give him that bottle, he will not be open to the bottle.
SAHM of three children ages 8, 3 & 15 months.
J.,
Whe it was time to get rid of the bottles in our house, first I started by giving all milk, water & juice through the day in a sippy cup. My son never really liked plain milk so I would mix 1/3 of vanilla or strawberry milk (still do!). He never cared much for chocolate milk. I would still let him have his bottle before bedtime. After about a month of that, I just warmed up his vanilla milk and handed it to him in a sippy cup. He never really batted an eye. Then I promptly got rid of all of the bottles so there was no turning back. So I guess what I'm saying that if yo do not let him have a bottle at all during the day--just offer sippy's, eventually he will use them. Have you tried a cup & straw? He might like that better than a sippy because it's something new. Good luck.
Taking it away cold turkey always worked best for mine. It may take a few days or weeks before they start using the cup better, but they will! Some like regular sippy cups, some like the ones with straws, etc. But take the bottle away cold turkey at this point.
K. B
mom to 5 including triplets
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HarrisburgPAChat
What worked for us was to wean our daughter off one bottle feeding at a time. We replaced her AM bottle first. Instead of giving her the bottle when she first woke up, we'd replace it with reading a story or some special time, then we gave her milk in a sippy at breakfast. So the timing was different, and she was distracted by the activity and then was hungry and thirsty enough to not care if it was in a sippy. It took a little time, and she was fussy while this was going on, but over a week or so it worked. Then we took away her afternoon bottle and replaced it with a snack, then gave milk in a sippy at dinner. Then we just stopped giving the night time bottle and replaced it with "cleaning up" activities as part of her bedtime routine. I was shocked how she didnt' even miss that one at all! Also, HIDE THE BOTTLES! If he sees them, he'll want them!
Good luck! 17 months is a little late to be weaning off a bottle, but I think the key is to replace it with something the baby likes as a distraction, and change the routine/ritual surrounding the bottle feeding.
Best advice I got was from a nurse at the pediatrician's office: just use the sippy; the bottle is not an option. Your child will learn that if he's thirsty, he has to use the sippy. It worked well & quickly for me.
Does your son drink through a straw? My 15 mo old daughter won't drink milk from her sippy cup either. However, she loves water and drinks that all day long from the sippy. She only gets one bottle in the morning when she first wakes up but I decided this past week to stop the bottle. I bought a new cup that is really neat with a straw in it but it has a flip top so the soft straw folds down then flip top is down. She loves her new cup. It is made by Playtex and I bought mine at CVS but I know they have it at Wal-mart too.
Good luck!
~A.
Hi J.!
I have a 16 month old and threw away all his bottles except one. For the last 4 months he only had one bottle at night before he goes off to sleep. He knows about and does brush his teeth (with help of course) but that bottle after he brushes made no sense. So, I threw it out. Cold turkey. I am lucky though as my son is not a habit formed baby with the nuk or the bottle. It was more or less a comfort thing for me to have him in my arms rocking him right before he goes off to sleep. I tried milk in his sippy and he refused it (but drinks everything else in it) so I still gave him milk in his final bottle. Not anymore. He gets milk with a small amount of Nestle strawbwerry quick. Considering all the snacks that are out there this one is so low in sugar. He also gets cheese, yogurt and other forms of dairy. So my advice, just throw them out. He will adjust and be just fine!
Good luck!
Chris
I am a mom of three and my two older kids were about 15 months when they gave their bottle up. they re okay during the day, but they still liked their nighttime bottle. I did learn a trick to get them away from the bottle. At your son's age I am sure he is on a faster flow nipple. With m kids I went and got a pack of newborn nipples and when they tried to drink out of it they were upset because they could not get much out of it. this convinced them that the bottles were broken!! It is worth the try. i think some bottle companies even make a premie flow nipple. good Luck!!
Hi J.,
Two thoughts that I haven't seen mentioned...
First, does your son understand how the sippy works? It may sound silly, but mine didn't at first - he would tip it up and when nothing came out, he didn't know how to get the milk to come out so he pushed it away. I had to take the valves out and get some milk to drip into his mouth for him to realize that it was in there. Once he got the hang of the sippy, I put the valves back in.
Second, I know some kids who don't like sippys but prefer straw cups. Try your son with a straw instead. Like the sippy, you may have to teach him how to use it the first few times, but once he gets used to it, it is a more similar sucking motion like a bottle and he may prefer it.
Best of luck
Hi J., you didn't mention if he drinks anything else from his sippy cup. Or if you are still giving him formula. Just pick a cup, pack thoes bottles away, and keep offering it to him. As long as he is getting plenty of calsium from other kinds of dairy products like cottage cheese, yogurt, cheeses etc then don't worry about the milk so much now. Some kids just don't like it. My middle one won't drink it on a bet and never has and frankly with as much yogurt etc. that she eats it hasn't hurt her at all. The challange is to keep the sugar down if they don't drink milk! You really need to make sure they drink plenty of water instead of sugar-loaded juices and koolaide. Best wishes!
