Help! Our wonderful 15 month old son finally got approval from our pediatrician to switch from formula to regular milk. Because his weight has been low, she had recommended that we hold off. The transition has occured with no problems, but my son will not drink milk out of a sippy cup. He has been drinking water out of a sippy cup for six months now with no problem, and he drinks several cups of water a day from his sippy cup. Our Dr. suggested that we put water in the bottle and milk in his sippy cup, so that if he wants milk, he has to drink it out of the sippy cup. Well...when he has both, he only wants the bottle. He does need the calories, so I don't want to elimate his milk. We even tried adding the Carnation Instant Breakfast per our pediatrician's suggestion to give him the extra sweet taste, but he didn't buy it. Any suggestions would really be appreciated.
I am no expert but with 7 grandsons I have learned a few tricks, try putting his milk in a sippy with it own straw, it kind of tricks them in to having fun when they drink. It worked for me so I hope it works for you.
My daughter wouldn't take milk from a sippy cup either ntil I bought the Take & Toss cups (which I re-use), I'm not sure if it had something to do with the flow of the milk. she drank water from other sippy cups but not milk. I also mixed it with Horizon's Strawberry milk (no dye & no high fructose corn syrup!) I did a VERY small amount of the strawberry milk (at most 1 strawberry milk to 2 regular milk). I avoided chocolate milk because although very small, there is still caffeine in it. and that was something I wanted to sue as a treat when she got older.
The other thing you might try is giving him milk (or strawberry milk) in a regular plastic cup. Make it a big deal, take him to the store to pick out his own cup & really put on a show "OOOOH! Look at your big boy cup! I'm so proud of you. etc, etc". It might make him really proud of himself & want to drink it again. Then transition to a sippy if you even want to. At 15 months, they can hold a regular cup.
Good luck!
When we switched my son at 12 months to milk (from breastfeeding), he wouldn't drink it out of a sippy cup. Juice or water he took just fine out of a sippy, but not milk. I tried only offering it to him out of the sippy, but he wouldn't drink it. I had ppl tell me to give him chocolate milk, but I didn't want him to only drink chocolate milk, so I didn't try that. Chocolate milk is a special treat he gets, not an every day thing. I finally just decided I would rather he get the milk than not, so he drank milk from the bottle until he was about 16 months. I continued to offer him milk in the sippy, and he eventually just started drinking it that way. I guess he just had to do it on his own time.
He will eventually. I know you worry about calories, but there are plenty of other things to give him to keep his weight up until he gives in and drinks milk from a sippy. My friend's daughter was born at 26 weeks and she had the same issue, but eventually her daugher gave in. My friend tried several cups until she tried the right one. If you keep giving the bottle, he'll wait for you to give in. They are smart cookies. I second the toss n go! Easy milk flow.
My youngest has eating issues and at about 13 months or so we started the cup...he liked the ones with a straw the best but we just kept trying different ones, different temps etc and eventually he picked one up and started drinking...it took time and patience but they will eventually. Good luck!
We just started giving ours a sippy cup fully of milk only at each meal and in b/w meals (water). If a bottle was provided it was maybe a snack or before bed. Before we knew it they were drinking exclusively from a sippy cup and we eliminated the night time feeding about 2 weeks into transition. However, we got rid of the bottle around one year with both of ours. So I am not sure if it will work with a 15 month old; it may take longer, may go faster. Good luck!
My sister had the same problem with her son. Her pediatrician said to put chocolate in the milk. Not ideal, but he said chocolate milk is better than no milk. I believe Hershey's makes a sugar free syrup.
Try a different type of sippy cup, maybe one with a straw type opening. My 13mo boy has been drinking from a straw type sippy since he was about 11mo and he prefers that to a regular sippy. Good Luck!
I would suggest taking the bottle away completely, and don't look back. It may seem difficult at first, but just remember these transitions are really harder on you than on your child. He will struggle at first to make sure that bottle's not coming back and to see if he can control whether you'll bring it back out for him, but once he realizes the bottle is gone for good, I'm sure the transition will go great. Good luck! Hope this helps!
They have a training sippy cup, which actually has a bottle nipple, then after a week or so you can change to a soft spout, then to the regular harder spout.
I would try this. When my sons were younger, you used to be able to purchase a spout that actually fit on the platex type bottles.
Hope this helps... this way you can transition the nipple for him. I would not jeopardize him losing weight because he will not take the sippy cup. You can keep putting milk in his bottle, and then give him juice and water in the cup. Offer him milk in the cup (my middle son, the morning bottle was the hardest to change to a cup) but if he just will not take it, then give in a bottle.
Eventually he will take it from the cup as well. At 2 my youngest son only got water in his bottle (he had some health issues in which he had to maintain weight as well, so I let him keep his bottle longer)... then by 2-1/2 he only had one bottle left and then he lost it and was fine with just a cup.
