What if lo isn't taking milk from sippy?

[Sabine]

My lo hates milk in his sippy and refuses it with meals.  He always had milk before nap or first thing am or before bed.  I can't seem to change that.  He is 13 months.  He still gets 3 bottles a day...how do you know when to cut back?  His appetite is starting to be affected.  How much milk should he get and when?

Could some of you please post your milk schedules and when you give it ?  I checked the EASY forum but no one seems to write when they give milk.

Sabine

[NikiJ]

Hi Sabine

My little girl is 23mths & is starting to go off her bottle.  But she has had 3 bottles a day for a long time now.  She has 6oz in the morning, 4oz before nap time @ about 1pm and 6oz before bed. 

Tracy's opinion on bottles was that it is ok for them to have the bottle up to the age of 2 & generally about this time they self wean & go off milk.

Have you tried giving him milk in a 4oz bottle so that the bottle is full?  This worked for dd when I was reducing the amount of milk she has.

Niki

[Sabine]

I have tried giving him milk in the 4oz bottle...he will take it.. Just not his sippy.  He loves water from the sippy and gladly has that with his meals.  Just not milk. As an experiment one week I tried giving him his milk an hour after meals (ie. gave breakfast first etc).  He only drank 8oz    I guess I can't win. 

sabine

[Tonya]

I don't know where you are located, but we had GREAT success in moving from a bottle to a sippy by using the Nuby sippy cups!  We got them at Wal-Mart for about a dollar each, and they have soft spouted cups that are similar to bottle nipples.  They also have hard spouted cups, which we recently switched too.

[Sabine]

I have tried them...still no luck.  Do you think he may not be old enough yet?

Sabine

[Tonya]

Many have success at this age.  Mine didn't, but it was because I simply didn't push it.  I had no problem with him having a bottle until he was off of his formula, and that was at 15 months.  When we introduced cow milk, we did it in the Nuby's, and he looked at it funny, took a drink, looked again, and never looked back! 

Switching him to the hard spouts were harder for his milk. 

I'm sure there are others on here with much more experience - I should be having my son drink his milk from a normal cup at this age, and I'm not pushing it yet, as I don't feel he's ready to give up that security, and I don't feel the need to.

There are plenty of benefits of course to switching to a normal cup, like bottle rot on their teeth.

Good luck - it's not fun!  I worried very recently (during the switch to hard spouts) whether he was getting enough calcium, as his milk intake was almost nothing.  It took him a full week, but he soon realized that if he wanted milk, that was the only way to get it.  Maybe stick it out a bit longer and see?

[tylersmommy]

When we transitioned Tyler to the sippy, he wasn't interested in it until the bottles were gone. After we cut the last bottle, there was a period of about 1-2 wks where he still wasn't really drinking from it, so we made up for it with other dairy products. I think once he realized that the bottles were gone and the sippy was the only way he was getting milk, he warmed up to the idea and started drinking.

[Sabine]

thanks ladies...i will try the suggestions and keep you posted.

sabine

[Sabine]

So here is an update...cut out 1 pm bottle and now after teething, roseola and starting to walk we are back on track and down to one nap and much happier.  He is also starting to take milk from a Sippy now but only at lunch but hey that's a start   I haven't done anything different.  Here is our schedule and food intake now...let me know if you think this is enough.

700 wakeup and 8oz milk (still bottle here)
830 breakfast--1/2 waffle, few apple pieces, 1/3 banana and sips water from sippy
1030 snack--baby fromage frais, few apple pieces, mum mum, sips water from sippy
1130-12 nap (usu 2 hours)
200 lunch-- 1 scrambled egg, 1/2 banana, few pieces grilled cheese with milk in sippy 4oz
300 snack--Nutrios
530 supper--3T baby pasta with cheese, 2T veggie and 1-2T meat, 1 baby fruit cup and yoghurt with sips water
730 bottle and bed--asleep until 6 am

Thanks again for all of your help!!
This schedule is working so well for us.

Sabine

[HeatherC]

At 11 months, I started introducing the sippy with dd's formula.  I would offer the sippy first, then put what she didn't finish in the bottle and let her finish.  Over the next month, she began to take enough from the sippy that I quit offering the bottle completely (except for the bedtime bottle which I think we kept until 13 months).  So, from then it was cow's milk in a sippy with each meal and bedtime snack (after bedtime bottle was gone).  It took that full month for her to grow accostomed to the sippy, but persistance worked.  I offer about 4 oz of milk with each meal, and while she doesn't usually get the recommended 16 oz per day, she has other dairy products so I'm not worried.

[exumk]

At 12 months we offered milk in sippy and it was not well recieved until I offered water in one kind of cup, and milk out of another type (Avent).  Somehow this worked and I was able to replace the sippy for the bottle.