Refusing to drink milk from cups

[Sunlover00]

Im trying to wean my LO off bottles and onto cups.. so far I've had zero success and have tried different cups, sippy cups, straw cups and at varying different temperatures. She has no prob drinking cows milk from a bottle but firmly rejects it she can see its milk in a cup. Funnily enough she can drink water from a cup fine.

Does anyone have any great tips on getting getting LOs to accept cups of milk? I even tried giving her a cup of milk in the dark to try and trick her and nope........

[bumpy]

Had the same problem and the end result was he stopped drinking milk so we supplemented with yogurts, cheese and milk in food (mac cheese etc). A year on, if we offer milk or water in a cup / glass he'll happily accept both.

[KatDew]

Same happened with my son. We dropped the bottles and he refused to drink milk for about a year. He will now happily drink it in a cup. I'm trying to drop the bottles with my twins. They're not brilliant about drinking milk from cups but it's not the out right refusal that my son perfected. However one of my twins is fairly titchy and I don't want her to completly stop drinking any milk.

The issues with prolonged bottle use are:

-delayed speech

-dental malocclusion

-increased risk of tooth decay

-an increased chance of ear infections.

Most of these can be minimised by keeping exposure time minimal. The kid who has a bottle of cow's milk that they drink in 10minutes or less whilst sitting up is going to be at very small risk of any of the above.

However if it's formula/follow on milk or juice in the bottle and they have it for prolonged periods of time, ie in the bed/ pushchair and are allowed to walk around with their bottle then the chances of the above are greatly increased.

[Susan]

SunLover what age is your LO - wondering if/when I should start weaning my son of his beloved bottle morning and night - he is nearly 2 and drinks it in about 60 seconds!

[Sunlover00]

thanks both. I'll try uping her calcium in other ways. She's not a big fan of cheese just to make it even more interesting for me!

should I continue offering milk in sippy cups, or should i continue offering milk in cups? I guess i want to aoid going back to sippy cups if she can drink from a cup for water

[Sunlover00]

She's 14 months and i didnt really research when she should be off bottles until HV said i should be getting her off them now. I'm going through so many pints of milk cos Im chucking it down sink all day

[Pickle]

At 14 months if she likes milk I would give her a bottle. Both of my big kids had milk in a bottle before bed till around 2.5/3, and when I stopped the bottles refused it from a cup. Just be sensible about it like another poster has outlined above - after milk brush her teeth before bed. I tend to take HV advice on this sort of thing with a very large pinch of salt!

No delayed speech or tooth decay to report.

[jennyh]

I'm in the same position, mine will be 2 in feb and I half heartedly tried a cup for a while but then just gave up. She has one bottle a day at bedtime so I figure its no big deal really. As long as I clean her teeth. She will drink juice or water or any other liquid from a sippy cup, an older toddler cup, a straw, an adults glass, a beaker etc. frankly I feel the bottle thing is the last of the battles I care about at the moment, not meaning to belittle your worries as I totally understand your efforts. I just feel that coming upto 2 they are trying to assert themselves in so many ways and the tantrums and refusal to put on clothes or wash hair or eat food is taking up my attention!!! The bottle means quiet time at the end of the day! Bad mummy!

[hellosailor]

You're so right Jenny!

Don't have the energy for milk-in-a-sippy-cup-tantrum, she'll can drink it from a bottle until she's 18 if it means bedtimes are relaxing!

[Sunlover00]

Good points! Think I'll just relax and she'll take it from cups when shes ready :o) Shes always been a small baby so milk / food intake has always been on the forefront of my mind.

[sanity girl]

I wouldn't worry about it - she's only 14 months. My daughter carried on having milk from a bottle until she was around 4, then stopped and now drinks milk from a cup at school but not really otherwise. My 2 year old is still an enthusiastic milk from bottle consumer.

[KateW]

I tried offering DD milk from a cup every month or so from when she turned one. Point blank refused it. Then, a week before she turned 2, I gave her breakfast milk in a cup and she drank it without batting an eyelid. I switched her bedtime milk a few days later and, again, no issue. Just keep offering it to her and try not to worry. DD speech is excellent and no issues of tooth decay. She's a good little tooth brusher.

[JBoylen]

We use a straw in a cup for milk, it has been the only successful way.

[jenc]

My little boy has just turned three and has only just switched to a cup for milk at bedtime. He loved his bottle so I didn't push it, like jennyh said it was the least of my worries - he brushes his teeth afterwards and definitely has no speech problems.

[JulieP]

My youngest son loved his milk in his bottle and would drink juice or water from any cup but not milk (he spat it out if we tried it). I tried sippy cups of various sorts, sippy attachments to be used with a bottle but he wasn't having any of it. When he was about 2 1/4 I tried a cow cup. He actually sipped some milk from this, I quickly hid the bottle and he has not looked back since - still loves his milk. The cup is nice but I think what really worked was that his older cousin had the same cup.