The Dreaded Sippy Cup

Updated on September 18, 2007
J.B. asks from Frisco, TX
10 answers

My 13 month daughter refuses to drink milk from a sippy cup. She will drink juice or water from a sippy cup just fine but when it comes to milk, she will not have any part of it. I have bought every cup under the sun including the straw cups and the Nuby cups. She is not interested. Over the weekend, I started only allowing her to drink water from a bottle figuring that she will give in soon enough in order to get some milk. Has anyone else gone thru a similiar battle? How did you cope with it?

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So What Happened?

As always, the "mama's" were right! I took her off the bottle cold turkey. By the end of the first day she was drinking milk out of the sippy cup just fine. Each morning we go thru a mini-battle all over again but each day it is getting a little less dramatic as she adjusts. Thanks to everyone for their advice!

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P.C.

answers from Dallas on

same advice here, you have to give them away to somebody who needs them or officially (so she can see them go) throw them in the trash. Once it is gone, she will know it is gone. It took us 15 minutes (a little lucky maybe here) once the cups were gone. We tried to get her used to drink milk out of the sippy for 5 months! She was cool with water in it but alawys wanted milk in the bottle. But once the bottle was REALLY gone - it was a breeze.

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M.F.

answers from Dallas on

You just have to keep the bottle away. It's not an option. If she knows there's an alternative, and that you'll give in eventually, she'll hold out til you give in. If she'll use a sippy at all, then you've won most of the battle already. Put milk in a sippy in the morning and don't give it to her any other way. If she refuses, don't force it on her or beg her or bribe her. Put it in the fridge and say "Ok, we'll try again later."
As long as she'll drink water, it won't hurt her to go a day or two without milk while you wait for her to come around to your way of thinking :-). I wouldn't offer juice right now either. Just milk or water.
Honestly, the will of a 13-month-old is as strong as you will let it be. Once you get rid of the bottles this will all be behind you in less than 3 days....probably even faster since she's already using a sippy regularly.

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T.N.

answers from Dallas on

With my duaghter, we had to give the bottles to another baby. It made the getting rid of the bottles less stressful. She liked the thought of taking care of a baby, even at that young age. If you know someone with a baby, you can arrange this outing, even if they do not want the bottles, they can throw them away after you leave.

How ever you get rid of them though, the bottles have to go. It's like every one else has told you, if their is no other option, she will make the transition. She will not let herself get dehydrated.

L.A.

answers from Dallas on

My son learned to drink from a regular open faced cup when he was about 8 months old. We would hold it for him and give him little sips. He didn't try the sippy cup until after a year.

Maybe with milk, you can try giving her sips out of a regular cup?

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L.T.

answers from Dallas on

The only way I was able to get rid of the bottle was to throw them all away. She would hold out all day thinking there was a bottle at the end. It took one day. The following morning she took the cup and never looked back.

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N.S.

answers from Dallas on

We went through this with one of our kids too. We just did not give her an option. If she wanted a drink (she wouldn't really drink anything out of a cup) it had to come from a sippy cup. Your daughter won't dehydrate herself. Just put the milk in the cup and give it to her, and she'll probably shove it away for the first several times, but when she realizes a cup is the only option, she'll come around. If she is drinking water and juice you don't have to worry about dehydration. A few days without milk while she protests the change won't affect her health. Good luck!

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A.K.

answers from Dallas on

Throw the bottles away - tell her that a new baby needs them and so you gave them to the new baby. If there is no alternative - then she will drink from the sippy. Right now she knows that you will give in. A few days without milk won't hurt her...when she asks about it tell her that she is a big girl and she has to drink from a sippy now. Perhaps you can go "big girl sippy shopping" with her. Make it special! Best of luck and stay strong!

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T.F.

answers from Dallas on

This was us a year ago!!!! My daughter wanted her milk in her bottle at bed and upon waking up! We easily got her to use the Nuby soft nipple-like bottle but NOTHING else. She would ONLY take the Nuby, nothing else, and we tried it all-nothing worked.

We finally decided to have her quit the milk bottle cold turkey. She actually was getting plenty of calcuim from other sources (she loves cheese, one of her favortie foods, and really likes yogurt and broccoli plus we give her a natural calcium supplement from a health food store), so we weren't too worried for the time being-we figured she would go on a strike for a while and then go back to drinking milk. She now drinks milk from a sippy just fine, not as much milk as she drank before, but still an ample amount. We still give her the supplement and she still loved calcium foods, so we figure we are fine. She actually loves her supplement and asks for it from time to time.

Hope this helped you!

T.

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J.S.

answers from Dallas on

My daughter was the same way when I was trying to ween her from a bottle. I tried EVERYTHING! and the only thing that worked was going cold turkey and taking all the bottles away and only giving her her sippy. It took a few days of crying all the time... but she really forgot about her bottle

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P.B.

answers from Dallas on

It is very easy: just stop giving her anything in the sippy cup other than milk; and don't give her a bottle. She WILL begin to drink the milk from the cup. No problem.

When I was a Professional Nanny for two Doctors, the Mom being a Pediatrician, she mentioned one morning that she wanted her son off of a bottle completely by the time he celebrated his first birthday, he was 11 months at that time. I replied to her, if you want this mornings bottle to be his last then it will be his last. She said to go for it and I never gave him another bottle. I don't get the issues that parents have with bottles, sippy cups, pacifiers, baby sleeping in a crib, etc.

A book by Dr. James Dobson: All of his books are great; This book is titled: Parenting Isn't For Cowards.

About me: I am almost 54 years old, my dh and I have been married over 36 years, we have two adult kids, ages 31 and 28. They and their husbands have blessed us with eight grandchildren (the eighth is still in the "oven," a boy). I have been a childcare provider just about my entire life, beginning with babysitting cousins, neighbors and children from my church at age 12. I worked in a Day Care Center, was a Professional Nanny for many year and ran a Home Daycare Center so that I could stay at home with my children as they were growing up.

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