Do you want to chat about transitioning to a sippy cup??

[* Paula *]

Fantastic news Suzanne 

[Me.and.my.two.boys]

OK, so I dont have enough time to read the whole thread as my poor dog is sitting at the front door waiting to go out but I just cant drag myself away from the computer!!

My DS is 8 months old and I have been offering water in the sippy cup since 5 months when we started weaning but he will not drink it. He is only having 2 bottles a day, morning and night, 18oz in total but I am worried that he is not getting enough fluids.

I think we are a bit too young to transition his milk feeds from bottle to sippy cup but does anyone have any ideas how I can get him to drink water from a cup. I have 5 different kinds here at home and he would rather bang them off his high chair than drink out of them!!

Please please help, all advice would be appreciated!!

Kelly. xx

[* Paula *]

Huge hugs, I am sorry you are having such a rough time introducing the Sippy.

Does your lo drink water out of a bottle at all?

What does your lo do if you offer the cup with you holding it?

Wondering if you sweeten the water sightly with a bit of fresh juice if that would encourage him to drink out of it?

[Me.and.my.two.boys]

He wont really drink water out of a bottle either. If I hold it when I give it to him, he just spits it out and wont take any either. I was trying to avoid going down the route of giving juice but I think I may need to. I really wont want him to get dehydrated.

Tomorrow I am going to try giving him his milk through a sippy cup and see how he is. Maybe if he gets used to the cup then he will be willing to try other drinks from it.

Il let you know how he gets on. Thanks.

[* Paula *]

Good luck with the milk, keep us posted on how you get on.

I know what you mean about not wanting to give juice, but if he won't take anything out of it, you can just slightly sweeten the water just until he gets used to it, and then when he is drinking from the sippy, you can gradually reduce the juice in the cup.

[*Liz*]

Marking my spot here  .

Having a real nightmare getting DS to drink anything from any sort of cup. He just doesn't want it. I've tried the soft spout nuby, the hard spout tommee tippee, and an open cup. We had some luck with the open cup but then he decided it was a finger bowl  . I also think I flooded him with water so many times and made him splutter that he now doesn't like it, which is fair enough. I also prefer the option of something he can use himself anyway. Oh, I also tried a straw and he just chewed it.

Sometimes he will allow it in his mouth, may even lift it himself (but might chew the bottom or the handle instead) but doesn't tip it. And if I tip it he immediately removes his own hands and flaps them in the air. As soon as water comes out he spits it out. Same with juice, same with milk. He isn't a very sucky baby - so I think part of the battle is just getting him to suck on anything!!

I would have no problems with contninuing bottles, but we are still on 4 a day and minimal solids. If he eats too little I still get a NWing for milk at either 11pm (if he refused the bedtime bottle) or 5am (if it was a problem in the middle of the day). As he approaches being a toddler I want to put him more in control - so he can have finger foods and a sippy of milk. He spoon refuses most of the time as well. He is VERY strong willed!! I am getting into a situation where at 10 mths he is still almost completely reliant on bottles and milk, and if he is strong willed as a baby I'm guessing it is going to be a whole lost worse as a toddler. Its ironic really as it is only the last 6 weeks or so when he has stopped fighting me for bottles, but I'm now wishing he had taken to the solids and not the bottles.

Any suggestions? I've read some of this post and have a few new ideas - and will read more later  .

[* Paula *]

I would pick one sippy cup and stick with it.  I would leave it around in his view with a bit of water / milk or juice in it and let him take the lead on it.  So when he is in his high chair having a meal, leave it there and encourage him.  If he takes a sip or puts it to his mouth, make a big deal of it with lots of cheers clapping etc, and make it a fun game and see if he takes it this way.

This is what I did with my DD as she is very strong willed too.  She eventually took to it when I was not forcing the issue, and has not had a problem drinking water / milk out of it at all.  Milk well that is another story  she still refuses her milk.

[~Emma~]

Same old, same old!

 Cannot for the life of me gete Brodie to drink from a sippy. We are now on 3 bottles a day (from today...cold turkey!) so I am eager to get him to drink more. I have offered it to him every day with every meal since he was 6mos, at first he did ok but now not interested. I have tried juice, milk and water...all a no go. He just wants to bang it and when he does drink some he spits it out.

 Interested to see how Kelly and Liz are getting on too....

 Any tips?

Emma xxx

[~*Nicole*~]

I tried to offer Ava her formula in a sippy in the morning when she woke up because she would usually take a full 8 oz bottle right away. She didn't do well for a few days to a week or so. But I didn't give her the bottle if she didn't take much from the cup, Just went about our routine and did breakfast a bit later etc. Then I let her have her midday and night bottles. When she started taking more from the morning cup b/c she was hungry and she got the hang of it, I switched the other two b/c I knew she could take enough from the cup. But she didn't want to drink from the cups at first. NOW "cup" is her favorite word and what she asks for as soon as she wakes up. She is interested in bottles if she sees another baby with one, but knows it is for littler babies (not that she is that big hehehe or much older than them hehhee).

Her formula intake dropped of course until she got used to the cups. But I think she made up for it in solids temporarily. I also offered cups more often at first so instead of breakfast/lunch/dinner cups with formula I had them at morning (breakfast)/snack/lunch/snack/dinner. To try to make sure she got enough. A lot of formula got wasted during this process but it wasn't too long of a process so all in all I was happy with it.

[~Emma~]

 How old was your LO when you offered milk in the morning sippy?

[hjrmom01]

How did everyone go about getting rid of the bedtime bottle?  H does sippy cups for breakfast and lunch but I'm too chicken to get rid of the bedtime bottle because it's such a cue after bath that it's bedtime.  We do dinner at 5 and then bath at 6:45, bottle at 7:15 and bed at 7:30..so not sure how to go about getting rid of it.

[~*Nicole*~]

hjrmom-I was TERRIFIED to take away the bedtime bottle b/c DD drank it as I put on her PJs and would hear DH coming upstairs and start frantically whining for her bottle b/c it was such a bedtime cue. I just decided to cold turkey alter our routine. One night I gave her a cup downstairs in our living room and let her drink until close to bedtime. Then I brought her up and did everything else the same, sans bottle. Brushed teeth, changed diaper, lotion, got into PJs, and tucked into bed etc. She didn't even act like she noticed the difference! Had she freaked out I would have probably given her a bottle and then tried a gradual approach, but I just decided to try to see if it would bother her first or not. She's been fine since.

Brodiesmummy-I started offering formula in the sippy maybe around 9.5 to 10 months (I forget, but it wasn't too long after her 9 mo check up when the doc. suggested no more bottles when she turned 1 and went to cow's milk--so I started thinking it would take forever, but it wasn't horrible and went faster than I thought) This past week was her first all cow's milk week. She had been transitioning for a couple weeks prior to that (around 11 months or so) and she is turning 1 on the 25th so she's close. Again, I thought it would take longer which is why I started a bit earlier, but it went alright and she seems fine.

[*Liz*]

Hey Emma  Yeah - we won this one about 2 weeks ago actually. All of a sudden he started sucking the wretched thing. He will now have about 1/2 a cup of water a day. He also drinks quite well from an open cup - again he suddenely just started trying to suck and slurp it up rather than messing with it.

I use a tommee tippee first cup (the cheap free flow thing) and a doidy cup. He also wants whatever I am drinking so I have a plastic 'glass' cup and a plastic cup and he has sips of appropriate things out of that.

Actually I think that was the thing that broke it for us - letting him drink my drink as it was fun (he's started trying to 'feed' me soggy toast and messy spoons and bottles as well  . Then giving him his own cups with meals and he eventually got the idea. For AGES and AGES he just chewed the spout and pushed it out his mouth whenever fluid dripped out.

He was basically 11 months before he took anymore that one sip.

He seems to be dropping to 2 bottles now he is having fluids though - but mainly on the days I work. He has never liked milk off anyone but mummy.

I haven't attempted to switch to milk out of a cup yet - and I don't intend to just yet. Jacob remains a very poor eater due to his reflux and I think making sure he gets some milk and nutrition is more important than rushing off the bottle. He sees the feeding team and they are not keen for the transition either until his meals and intake is more regular. I personally don't think there is any hurry to get rid of those last 2 bottles at 12 months - I'm going to follow his lead a bit at first. Some babies are ready at 10ish months and others keep the bedtime bottle until 18 months or so.

[ladyinred]

Hello,

   My 2nd DD Natalee just turned 1 y/o on the 6th, of August. After months of trying out different kinds of sippy cups I have finally found some that Natalee will use, atough very reluctantly. She will drink her step-up formula for a few sips, and then throw it away. Have her meal, and then whine until she gets a bottle. She likes juice in the sippy. Her older sister(3) was off the bottle at 1 y/o. I would like to get her off the bottles soon. Anything pass 18months is considered a prop. She never used the paci, didn't like it. She is drinking 3 to 4 bottles a day, and is eating, eating and eating. At 1 y/o she is 28 inches and 22lbs and 8 oz. Caroline was bigger.

  I give her the sippy cup first, and then when she gets really whiney the bottle. Is she just not ready to give it up yet?

Lizzie

[~Emma~]

 Hey Liz,

 Just wanted to let you know that i've been trying open cup. Not letting him hold it yet though as it'll go EVERYWHERE. Anyways, he is taking sips, coughs and splutters a bit but it was only his 1st time.

 How do I go about teaching him to hold it himself?