Won't drink milk from a sippy cup - Help!!

[momtoelise]

Elise started drinking water from a sippy cup around 7 mos when eating her solids.  She's been mostly breastfed, with an occasional bottle of formula.  Now, we've weaned to the point of nursing in the morning & having a bottle of formula before bed.  I'm trying to give her cows milk in the sippy cup for meals, but she won't drink it...    

I started trying the whole cows milk/sippy cup transition about a month ago (when she was still getting a bottle in the afternoon too).  I've tried different types of sippy cups (Nuby, regular ones of different varieties, straw cups) - she'll drink water from any of them, but not milk.  I tried formula in them, to see if it was just an issue with the whole milk, and she wouldn't drink that either - but, when I poured the formula into the bottle, she drank it right up. 

The past week, I've given her only cows milk in the sippy cup at meals (instead of water) to try & aid in the weaning process - at first she'd drink only a couple sips, now she won't drink any from it.  I know she's thirsty though, since I'll offer her water later, out of a different cup, and she drink it up....  I'm worried about her getting enough milk/calcium - since she doesn't eat very long at all (a couple minutes) in the morning when she nurses, & at night, she's only drinking a couple oz of formula.     She does eat yogurt (usually 4 oz/day), but doesn't like cheese so far...

Any ideas on how to get her to drink the milk out of a cup?  Should we drop the bf in the morning and/or bottle at night, to try to force the issue?  Not give her the water to see if she'll cave in & drink it if she's thirsty?  Keep doing what we're doing now & hope she'll just start drinking it??

I'm feeling frustrated & at a loss on this one...  Thanks for reading this lengthy post if you got this far!! 

[teezee]

{{{{{{{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}}}}}} i too am having the same problem and it is soo frusterating..

the one thing that has 'convinced' my lo to take even a few sips up to a few oz (those are good days ) is that i puree fruit and put it in the milk - she tolerates it better although i still get a hand pushing it away and her lips clamped shut - even when i know she is thirsty.

someone had suggested to me to add juice to it - which i did for a day and got the best results with it but it honestly turned my stomach every time she took some...white grape home - yuck!!!

anyway, i hope you get some better suggestions from someone else who has been there and succeeded as i am struggling also...

good luck!

[tylersmommy]

So she won't drink milk or formula from the sippy, but she'll drink water? First, I think you need to make sure milk isn't the issue. It can take some getting used to, especially if she's used to drinking warm formula. When we transitioned Tyler to whole milk, we dropped the bottle shortly thereafter. The first thing we did was replace all of his formula feeds with milk from a bottle. Try to make it the same temperature as what she's been used to...you can work on the temp issue later if you want. Once you've done that, and you know that she'll at least drink milk from a bottle, you can start dropping bottles and/or nursings to go strictly to the sippy. And keep the temp the same as she's been used to for now. We dropped one bottle at a time after he was used to milk and he had a couple of weeks where he just took dainty little sips and didn't get near enough milk. We made it a point to offer the sippy constantly and give lots of dairy to make up for it, and about 2 wks after his very last bottle, he started gulping like a champ. So it definitely took some time!

Another thing you can do since she drinks water is to add a tiny bit of milk to her sippy of water and gradually change the ratio of milk to water until she's drinking all milk. But again, I wouldn't expect her to chug a lot of it until the bottles are totally gone. I really do believe they know that they can hold out for something familiar if it's still offered!

Keep us posted!