Genuine dislike or just stubborn??

[loulounz]

Trying to get my 20mth dd to give up bottle/formula. Decided to go cold turkey and have been trying to give her cows milk in cup for 3 days now. She takes a sip and throws it away shaking her head saying 'no like'.

Will she take it eventually or how will I know if she genuinely doesn't like it? I don't like milk myself! What alternative could I try if she flatly refuses? How long should I keep trying?

Have tried different cups/teats, even cup with straw but she just blows bubbles!!!! and then throws it all over the floor.

Help..........................

[LucyJu]

One solution I've heard for this sort of thing is to start mixing cows milk with formula. The first day, you replace 1 oz of formula with cows milk, a couple of days later replace 2 oz ... until the baby is drinking nothing but cows milk a couple of weeks down the line. Don't know if its a bit much for baby to change the milk and the feeding method at the same time, so either concentrate on introducing a cup and when that's ok, start changing the milk or do it the other way round. And perhaps, if at all practical, let dd help choose a "big girl's cup" and make it seem like something really special and a bit of a treat. No direct experience of this myself as I breastfed my dd, but it seemed to work for a friend of mine. Hth.

[LucyJu]

Oh , I meant to add that it doesn't matter that much if she turns out simply not to like milk. She can still get calcium etc from things like cheese and yoghurt. My dd at 18 months would only ever drink 2-3oz of cows milk per day and she's absolutely fine.

[kiskidee]

lots of other foods also have calcium like beans of all sorts, tofu, spinach, raisins, orange, broccoli, dates, oatmeal. in some cultures (chinese, japanese, american indians), the only time humans drink milk is when breast feeding.