8 month old fully breastfed baby will not take milk from cup, what can i do?

[RMW2]

hiya i am wanting to wean my baby off the boob as she will be going to nursery in july, for the last month i have tried cups, bottles and baby drinking cups all at different times of the day etc but she will only take about 50 ml of milk and then goes crazy looking and searching for the boob so i always give in and breastfeed. how do i wean her onto a cup everyone says to do it gradually but she is just not improving and is very determined to have boob not a cup, starting to think that i should just go for it and just stop and take a few days craziness would welcome any advice thanks

[ArtichokeTagine]

I don't know the answer but if you find one let me know. My DD is the same. Except that I would be pleased with 50ml - she won't take any milk at all. To make it worse I start work in 2 weeks so she will be milkless as nursery all day.

I had a similar thread to this a few weeks back and a few people did say their babies always refused bottles and cups and then started nursery and realised they had no choice so took milk there. Some said that even once their babies would drink from a bottle/cup at nursery they still wouldn't when at home!

[NormaStanleyFletcher]

I was in this position at Easter. DD has only very occasionally taken any kind of bottle. I had the closer to nature ones from tommy-tippee but she refused them after the first time as well.

I went back to work and on the first day she ate virtually nothing at all. But was quite happy, and just fed for england when we got home. She has taken little bits of milk on and off since then.

I have found the NUK bottles to be the best for her, and she has even taken those at home now (from her dad and her big bro who is 18). Won't really take them from me though, as she can smell the nork

[EllieKthePA]

have you tried getting someone else to offer her the milk? with ds1 he refused to take a bottle/cup from me as he could smell the milk on me, but would take it from my gran, so he was fine when he went to nursery as i wasn't there!

[thedogsbollox]

I went back to work at 8months with my DD and she wouldn't take ebm from a cup but would take water. So she drank water from the cup during the day - a huge breastfeed in the morning, a huge one when I got home around 5.45pm and another big feed before bed at 8ish. I did express but used all of the milk I expressed to make food for her as she is allergic to dairy. So rice pudding, mash pots, weetabix etc was all made with ebm.

She thrived on it and is now a soon to be 9yo speicimen of health and happiness

[colditz]

try it in a mug like a cup of tea. Ds2 used to gollop anything that was in a mug. You hold it, of course.

[RMW2]

grandma and dad both have tried to feed her from a bottle etc but get the same reaction, she is boob obsessed! not sure about just leaving it until shes goes to nursery as would feel happier if i knew she was taking milk ok whilst i was not there, also i think half the problem is that she uses it as comfort and we both rely on the boob to calm down any situation probably made a rod for my own back by demand feeding all this time!

[fishie]

it is quite a long time away, i wouldn't worry about it yet. by 10 months she shoudl be fine with milk morning and evening. are you going back full or part time?

[RMW2]

i am going back part time 3 days a week, when should i start to drop day time feeds? she is probably having at least 5 a day still and 3 solid meals

[fishie]

i went back three days when ds was 13m, but i should think the same goes for 10m. didn't drop any feeds beforehand, just did a big morning feed in bed, then when i got back again and another before bed. carried on as normal on non-working days. i think being apart from each other it is all enough of a change and it is a very nice way to reconnect after a day apart.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

I would stop trying with bottles, as ideally they should be off them by a year anyway, so no point going through the hard work to get her to take one only to have to swap it for a cup a couple of months later.

I had the same problem with my dd, but didn't have the pressure of going back to work. Eventually she started drinking water out of the playtex cup (had tried masses of others first, but this was the only winner for us). She occasionally has milk out of it too, but she's nearly 15 months now and still bf twice a day, which is all the milk she normally has (she's milk intolerant so rice milk is our only suitable other option).

Agree that you should prob leave it for a month before you try again - a lot can happen in a month.

Also, what milk are you using? Formula or EBM? That might make a difference to her.