Here is the long of it. My son started accepting a bottle at 3 months, weened from the breast to the bottle at 8 months.
He just turned one. He can drink from any type of cup (sippy, grown up, straw, sport....). Putting him to sleep does not require a bottle. I give him a bottle before bed but he stays totally awake for it and will then go into his crib and sooth himself to sleep (I wish I could say how I did this, but it was really all him). So, I don't see much reason for him to take a bottle.
When I have given him his milk in a sippy cup he gets hysterical. Completely inconsolable. He can understand a lot of what I say, and I tell him milk is in it. I know he is capable of understanding that. I guess I don't find it that big of a deal, OK so he still drinks from a bottle. But buying bottle liners is a bit annoying and I have 26 left. Most annoying is when he is done with his bottle in the car he likes to turn it upside down and watch all the milk drip all over his leg and seat. Not giving him his milk in the car is not really an option. That would cause too much insanity for anyone to deal with.
So any miracle ideas on how to get him to drink milk from a sippy cup. Like I said, he can drink out of a sippy cup very well. Milk in it upsets him.
Just stop giving him the bottle. He'll get over it sooner than you think!
Also my kids HATE car rides and scream usually unless they are asleep. I've learned to tune it out or talk to them so they don't do it. I've also learned I can't give my kids everything they want just because
Have you tried the sippy's with silicone tops? When my daughter was transitioning, she couldn't get anything out of the sippys b/c the tops were to hard and she didn't know how to suck from it. We bought those and she never had any problems. Buy the spill proof or drip proof, whatever they are called.
Hope that helps him
Get rid of the bottles they are like pacifiers that is why he likes it. Maybe he could pick out "special" sippy and put stickers on it and make a big deal about his special night time cup he Only gets at night
This may not be very popular, but is it really a big deal to take him off the bottle? Other that turning it upside down, is there another problem? Sorry, it just seems that sometimes as parents we are in a rush to make our children grow up. But, if you really want, try diluting the milk in the bottle slowly. Yet still offering him milk in his cup.
What if you put water in the bottle and milk in the cup? If all you started putting in the bottle was water, he might starting taking the cup by default. The there is always "rich chocolaty ovaltine." That in the cup with the milk might change his mind.
By the way, if you don't get this done in the next month you won't lose all your "good mommy tokens". Every child is different. You do what works best for you and for him. You are the only mommy, so you get the only vote.
How about WATER in the sippy cup and work on transitioning. On top of that....if he likes to watch it drip out.....water won't be a problem for you.
DO NOT make a big deal out of it. That can make it worse. DO remind him that big boys drink from sippy cups without making him feel like a failure.
bargain for one sip, two sips, etc. as part of the transitioning. If he does two sips, he can have the bottle, etc. At some point, he's going to realize it's NOT worth all the hassle going back and forth, especially if you "conveniently" don't have the bottle visible or readily accessible.
if you put the milk in the sippy and dont give in to the bottle he will eventually tae it. It didnt take us long to bottle break our kids. We didnt give them a choice. They Dr said tha was the easiest way to do it. If he wont drink milk give juice. He will take the sippy with milk if he wants the milk bad enough, it is not being bad parent if you wait them out. Let me know if it works for you.
Have him throw a bottle in the trash and make sure that the rest of the bottles are gone so he doesn't see any of them. When he throws it in the trash, then tell him that now all the bottles are gone and he is a big boy. Consistency is the key factor. He may still get upset, but make sure that you don't give in and give him back the bottle. Give him only the choice of milk in his sippy cup and when he is really thirsty, he will finally go and drink the milk in the cup. If you have a good trash man, he could hand the bottle to him. That is what my son did and we had no problems after that.
This is very similiar to what my daughter did and I can tell you that I just decided one day that it just wasn't that important that she drink milk from a cup. She took milk from a bottle until she was 2 1/2. She was the same way with wanting milk in a bottle in the car and then having a bottle before bed, not falling to sleep with it. So fight your battles but don't go insane doing it. Good luck.
I am a SAHM with a 3 year old princess, Peyton, and a wife to a wonderful husband for 14 years.
S.,
Since your son is only a year old, that is still young. But if it's what you really desire for your son, two suggestions
for you.
This one is harsh, but it did work for my oldest daughter when she was 2. She was hooked on the pacifier, a smart little girl. I simply cut off the nipple part and showed it to her and told her it was broke and the store didnt have any more. It took only 2 days of her asking for it and she was fine. I kept the broken pacifier and showed her each time she asked for it. and ta da she was over it.
The other suggestion is put the bottle with milk in it along with a sippy cup empty in front of him. Then slowly pour some of the milk into the sippy cup and tell him "Sippy cups turn" and offer it to him to drink. Then offer him the bottle to drink, saying "bottles turn" and let him drink from it. Alternate and see what happens. It was sorta a game to my second oldest daughter and she loved it and ended up drinking from a sippy cup totally within a week. Of course these are only suggestions, they could or could not work. If they dont, hope you find something that does, or wait till he is a little older.
Gramma of 3. and mother of 3 adult daughters.
Good luck !
S.
Hi S.. I love some of the suggestions you've received (offering bottle and sippy at the same time; diluting the milk in the bottle with water). They sound like they might work.
My oldest was a bottle baby. She loved it in a way that you'd think that's what hung the moon and stars at night. She was very reluctant to give it up. I wasn't in a rush to make her either. I was tricked into thinking that she had given it up herself by someone who watched her over a weekend when she was 2 years old. When she got home with me, I just didn't offer it to her at all. She was miserable (and anyone within her vicinity) for about 5 days when I was informed that she had not in fact given up her bottle. By this time she had begun to settle a bit. The unfortunate thing is that she now doesn't like milk much at all when once (in her bottle) she loved it. I'm always in search of other things I can replace the vitamins and nutrients that she would get from milk.
I guess what I'd say is however you do it try to make it something that isn't traumatic for him or you. One thing you could do in the car in the meantime is to put some towels down around his car seat to catch the milk drips. That's what I did.
Good luck.
My first son (now 7 1/2) was a bottle lover. He just gave up milk for a while after the bottle went bye bye. Then I found little boxes of chocolate milk (they look like juice boxes) and he loved them. I now have 2 other little boys (my youngest is 2) and they like to drink milk out of these special cups from the Disney store. They have a fat straw in them and they come with a lid and they are super cute. Maybe your little guy is expecting juice in the sippy cup and when he gets milk, it ticks him off. Have you also changed the type of milk? If he doesn't like the taste of the milk, maybe a little ovaltine would help.
well the dripping all over the seat and legs was enough for me my chldren did that as well.. you could try getting a small pitcher child size and you pour the milk in the pitcher and will your help let hime pour it in a sippy and see if that works...works for me..they make there own cereal never used to eat it with milk on for me but since they do it they do..good luck J.
Give him both the bottle and the sippy cup at the same time. Let him begin to learn that the milk comes from both sources. When you are out of liners, stop giving him the bottles.
My friend suggested this technique with me. When my son was about 9 months, he started taking water in sippies so I thought, okay now let's try milk. He was having no part of it. I waited til just before 12 months, started putting both bottle and cup out there, then one day just took away the bottle for good. He didn't fight it one bit.
Two weeks later (because I was on spring break and wanted to wean the bedtime bottle during a time when I did not have to work in case night time was hellish), we stopped the bedtime bottle cold turkey. We treated the bedtime routine like we treated the nap routine (he never got a bottle before the nap). He goes down awake but drowsy and falls asleep without incident. We continue to thank our lucky stars.
Have you tried slowly adding water to the milk given in the bottle? Eventually getting to the point it is milk only in the cup and water only in the bottle? I had this issue with my son, but he went on a 'strike' for days with NO milk...I was stressing and ped said eventually he would rather have the milk and wham sure enough one day he drank from the cup with the milk in it. Hope you find something that works.
Consistency is probably your best bet. He will throw a few fits before he realizes that, if he wants the milk, he will drink it in the cup. It's a battle of the wills. Will you give in and give him what he wants, or will he just learn to accept that mommy knows best? Sounds like a very bright toddler! You are very blessed to have such an independent little guy. Juggling his independence and your guidance are essential. Be blessed!
...patience is the key. After your 26 liners are gone, don't give him another bottle, even if it means staying around the house a little longer until he adjusts to avoid tantrums in public. Use tough love.
Nana
I had the same problem with my daughter. She did great with a sippie of water, but if I put milk in it, she would throw it across the room! On a Thursday morning, I talked to her and told her that beginning on Saturday morning, she would only get her milk in a sippie cup. I explained that she was a big girl and really good at drinking out of a sippie. I reminded her on her last bottle on Friday, that would be the last bottle and she would have her milk in a sippie the next day. We woke up Saturday morning, I handed her a sippie of milk and she drank it! I think that talking to her and preparing her for it ahead of time really helped her so she was not surprised at what was going to happen. That incident made me realize just how much such a young child (12 months!) can understand. They just can't talk back...yet!!
Good luck and let me know if this helps!
Have you tried changing the top on the bottle to more a sippy cup type of top? So you still have the bottle on the bottom but there is no longer a nipple just the sippy cup portion to drink out of?
I used Avent bottles and even though I didn't use this method I saw that it was available. Maybe this will allow him to still feel he is drinking out of a bottle but it transitions him a little easier.
K.
hi S.-
milk at night is really bad for your kids teeth anyway. water in the cup before bed from now on. ysterics- yep they do that, infact the more times you give in , the more they do it. Resign yourself to the fact that he may scream like crazy for 3-5 nights. stay tough let him drink a regular cup of milk before bed and a sippy cup of water in teh crib. if your son is one who needs to know in advance tell him starting friday.. and count down the days till the new program and then just stick to your guns it'll be a few rough nights but once you get past those 3-5 nights everything will be copesetic again. and you won;t have to worry about cavities!
R.U.N.
have you thought of putting milk in a regular cup? My daughter just got off the bottle and she will drink milk out of a sippy but water she will only drink out of a regular cup with no lid. How do they know the difference!lol! try that good luck
Hi there, you've got a lot of post already so I'm not sure if this has been suggested yet. Our son (15 months) started using his sippy's around 10 months. We had the avent bottles so you could take out the nipple and put in a sippy attachment. He didn't even flinch, just went right along with it. After a few months doing that we tried a few other sippy cups but he only just wanted the bottle disguised as a sippy.
I found the take and toss cups and sippy lids (The First Years brand you get 5 or 6 cups/lids for around $4) and he loved them. So now we've got about 12 of the cups (minus a few lids that he chewed through the spout during teething) and he is learning to drink without the lid on. They also make some that are sealed really tight with a little straw just the right size that goes into a tiny hole in the lid. Luca started on those last month and now whenever we go anywhere he points to straws. He'll still use the sippy but feels like a big boy with the straw.
He loves to turn his cup upside down to see what happens and we've only had them leak once and that was because he'd used his teeth to pry the lid up a tad. You could try a cup like that with the straw for the car, make him feel like a big boy. We've never done a bottle in the car so I'm not sure how that will work for you but it's worth a shot!
Sorry about the late response, but maybe you could try letting him pour the milk into the sippy cup. I know that sounds like a mess waiting to happen, but it may work. My boys got a kick out of being able to do "big kid" things, and it helped get rid of a lot of "baby" habits.
You just have to keep giving him the sippy cup. I know it is hard to deal with the tantrums, but don't give in to him and don't give up! I really think that you should stop giving him a bottle at bedtime! (Start weening him from that last feeding) I really thing that will help a lot. He is a year old and I am sure he gets enough milk through out the day, so just ween him off of the last "bottle feeding". Maybe you could just uping the time of the last feeding and putting less and less milk in bottle until he eventually goes down easily without the bottle. Just don't give up, he will eventually switch completely over. Good luck!
My youngest was the same way. My husband just took his bottles one day and threw them in the trash. Our son was hysterical as well over not having his bottle for about a week then he got over it. It takes time but you need to get him off the bottle. Try puting milk in a regular cup so he can see that it is milk. Put juice or water in his sipper cup and see how he does with that. He needs to get off the bottle before it does any damage to his teeth. Being on the bottle too long can cause cavities and buck teeth in young children. It can also cause tooth rot. Good luck!
D.
I am 31 and have been married going on 12 yrs. this Nov.. My husband and I have 3 boys ages 10,7 and 4.
He'd just have to be upset!! He won't hold a grudge, he's one! You would rather have a mess to clean up in your car or on him than have him do without it??!! What's wrong with this picture? Who's the parent?you or him? At an early age he's got you where he wants you-you give in.
R.
I feel your pain and completely understand the frustration. I had the same problem with my first child. I finally, just threw all of the bottles away, so there was no other choice. It took a few days of crying and tantrums, but she finally began to forget about it. I do have to say, once they turn one, the sooner the better. I left my first daughter on hers a little to long, and she had to have both of her top two front teeth pulled at two years old. I learned my lesson with my next two. A week before both of them turned 1, I threw all of the bottles away, and never had a problem with either of them. Good luck!
you said in one sentence that he does drink from a sippy but then you said he throws a fit if you put milk in a sippy.
If he can drink milk from a sippy but just throws a fit about it, milk is a heavier substance than water so it does take make sucking effort with a sippy of milk rather than water.
Slight chance he may have a motor sensory issue with the sucking, but I would think that would apply to all liquids that you would put in the sippy.
S., sometimes getting our little ones to make a change is very hard. Here is what you have to do, stick to your guns. You keep on and when he pitches a fit, the trick is to not give in. The battle could last a week, but once it's done, it's done. He will be okay if a week goes by and he doesn't have much milk. Just stick to your guns girl!
