We are trying to get my one year old to switch to sippy cups. He refuses to drink milk from a sippy cup but he has been drinking water from a sippy cup for over 2 months. Daycare put milk in his bottle and he drank it fine so I know he doesn't mind the taste of it. Any suggestions?
Get rid of the bottle and use only sippy cups. He will eventually get thirsty and use the sippy cups. Good luck.
Switch him to a regular cup, not a sippy. It can be done at that age. My mom says I was drinking from a cup at a year and my next door neighbor's kids were all trained like that. I didn't push it that fast for my own kids, but by a year and a half they were each drinking from a regular cup. So, this should be doable.
Start by making a big deal about being a big boy and drinking from a grown-up cup like Mommy and Daddy. And start with water in the kitchen to keep spills easy to clean. Establish and enforce the rule that he only drinks from a cup at the table in the kitchen or dining room. Discourage him from wandering around with the cup in his hand.
Only use sippys for drinks when traveling. Sippys are good for long car rides, but not for everyday use.
Drinking from a straw in a regular cup also was very appealing to my kids. You might try that to help get him off the bottle and into a regular cup.
Dont give up. My daughter went throught the same thing. I tried different sippies until she like one and i always put milk in them first. I also got rid of allll bottles for both kiddos by age 1. she had about two weeks of toruble with it but eventually she forgot about the bottle! Now the binky was a whole new story!
I agree with making it a big deal. Make a production out of getting the new cups. Make sure that he realizes that the new cups are just for him. My son didn't do well cold-turkey, but once we started only using the bottles at night, he got the idea and would drink out of the cups without too much of a problem. Just keep working on it and it will finally sink in.
Try heating the milk a little so its not so cold. This seemed to work with our 1 yr old girl.
Put the sippy cup in front of your child at every meal with milk in it. Do not offer a bottle with the meal only offer the sippy. It might take a while but eventually he will start to use it. I agree with the suggestion that you use one with a rubber tip first and then switch later to the ones with plastic tips. He just needs to aclimate to the sippy but do it and don't give up as he gets older it will be harder to get rid of the bottle.
Get rid of all the bottles - tell the daycare to also - make it a big deal that he is a big boy now and can use sippy cups all the time. Get a variety of new ones for him to try out. Just don't get the ones with the straws - they are a waste of money.
Check out the 'Nuk' brand sippy cups, my daughter loved them.
In addition to totally agreeing with Jennifer, maybe try the sippy cups that have a rubberier tip, it's similar to a bottle. Maybe it can be the middle-bridge between bottles and a regular sippy cup. But if you don't do this, then stick with Jennifer's idea. It worked for me and my son.
I had problems with my little guy switching to a cup, also. He would take the cup fine one day, then refuse it completely for the next several days. It was incredibly frustrating. I finally got to the point where enough was enough. Our New Year's resolution was to get him completely off the bottle (he was 14 months at that time). We decided that cold turkey was the best way to go for him, so we just stopped making the bottle an option. There were days where he didn't drink as much as we would have liked, but that only lasted a short time (and kids will be fine for a few days without drinking as much as normal). He eventually realized that he wasn't going to be given a bottle if he refused the cup, so he started taking the cup without a fight. Obviously each kid is different, but since your little boy will take water from a cup, maybe cold turkey with the milk would work for you, too.
Another thing we do is have different types of sippy cups for water and milk. He knows exactly what to expect when he sees what cup it is, and he even asks for them specifically depending on what he wants. Just something else to try. :o)
Good luck!
here are some things to look for with sippy cups:
Characteristics of an Effective Cup
• The cup can be tipped up to get liquid at the bottom without tipping the child's head back.
• The spout on a sipper cup supports good jaw and lip closure. It does not require the child to tip the head back to drink.
• The cup does not shatter or break if the child bites the edge.
• The cup allows the feeder a clear view of the child's mouth.
• The cup provides a mechanism for graded control of the liquid flow for the child whose ability to handle a larger volume of liquid is poor.
• The cup provides a thick or rolled edge for extra stability if the child needs to hold the edge of the cup with the teeth.
• The cup is easy to hold and regulate liquid flow when an adult holds it.
• The cup is colored or decorated when it is used specifically to attract and maintain the child's attention.
• The cup meets the need for success for both the child and parent. Many parents view a reduction in spilling as very important to the success of cup drinking.
Here is a website with additional great info:
http://www.ucsfchildrenshospital.org/education/baby_bottl...
Good luck :)
