15 months & still won't take his morning milk from a sippy

[clairebear79]

Hi ladies

DS is 15months & I am really struggling to wean him from his morning bottle.  He has 6oz after his breakfast and 8oz just before bed (though lately he's drinking around 7oz).

He drinks water really well from a sippy cup at all other times of day, but no matter how much I try he will not take his milk in a sippy.  when I give him milk in a sippy at breakfast time he will either drink 1oz (at the most) or completely refuse it & then becomes frantic until he gets his bottle.  Sometimes he even refuses to finish his solids b/c he wants his bottle so badly - so I feel this is becoming a bit of a problem.

Should I be worrying about him carrying on with the bottle for the time being?  I am a little worried that the longer he has it the harder it will be to get rid of it.  Is there anything else I could try to encourage him to take it from the sippy?

Any tips/advice welcome.

TIA.xx

[Khalam's Mama]

I would try an open cup. K always did so much better from an open cup he hardly took anything from a sippy.

[Lolly]

If you think it's becoming a problem then I would just stop the morning bottle altogether. If you stick to just offering milk in a sippy, straw or open cup he will get the message that there are no more bottles in the morning. I am sure he will protest for a few days but he will come around to it. You can stick with offering a cup of milk with breakfast and again with a mid morning snack. Don't forget they don't need milk to get their dairy and at this age they only need around 12-14oz, so you can increase the dairy in his food if he decides not to drink as much.

If you decide to go cold turkey make sure you stick to it though, if you give it back it will be harder the next time! He will still have his bedtime bottle so he wil get a good drink of milk at bedtime.

Laura

[Deb_in_oz]

HI

I just want to give you my perspective as someone who has been there. My now-8yo went through the same thing - she was drinking water from a cup fine for ages but would only take her evening milk from a bottle (we had dropped morning milk). I felt pressure to drop the bottle because that is what i kept hearing you "should do"

well we tried sippy cup, open cup - everything and in the end she never took more than 1 oz max. What ended up happening is she stopped drinking milk altogether as the bottle was the only way she wanted it. It has taken 6 + years to get her to drink milk again (and only with a sippa straw - low sugar flavoured milk drink or milkshakes etc)

If your child is 3yo and carries a bottle around - i think that is an issue, but keeping a bottle of mik longer than average because that is what lo prefers is fine - in my opinion. It is better to get the milk / calcium in than to force the issue and lose that. Sure - keep trying cups etc but if you want to leave it for a bit longer with the bottle and just see if he is ready later on than do no stress about using a bottle after 1 yr (which was what i kept hearing about)

If he is still having the morning and bedtime ones i personally would pick one to focus on the cup (probably the morning one as not linked with evening winding down.., when lots of kids may really like that comfort of the bottle) and keep one the bottle. when you find success with a method / cup then switch the 2nd one.