Previously EBF baby 13mths will now only drink formula in a bottle - help!

[beanlet]

I have in the past week just fully weaned my son from the breast - I went away from him for a week, and I have very little milk left, and he's not interested in the breast any more.

He has never much liked other drinks - it's always been hard to get him to drink water or juice. When I have been at work or away overnight, he has been given expressed BM in a bottle by DH or nursery staff. We have previously had a bit of limited success with getting him to drink other liquids from a cup.

But now, he will not drink anything other than formula (!) from a bottle. He will scream and scream when he is thirsty, but if we try to give him any other drink or anything from a cup, he will shake his head and keep screaming until he gets formula in a bottle, which he downs in one.

I have absolutely nothing against formula, but he doesn't need it at 13.5 months, and was BF before so it's really a bit bizarre that that's all he will drink. I'm also not at all keen on the additional calories he will be consuming if all the liquid he gets is as formula.

Can anyone advise on how we can get him drinking milk, water or juice - at this stage we're quite happy to stick with the bottle if it will get liquid into him. I was thinking about slowly replacing formula with milk, but again, I don't want him drinking milk for ALL his drinks (I know he is supposed to still be drinking quite a bit of milk at this age).

anyone?

what type of cups are you using?

My youngest is 1yo and I have just got her to start drinking out of an open plastic cup (which involves me feeding her) - dilute squash. That is the first time she has drunk anything that was not formula out of a bottle. She will not drink anything out of a sippy cup and she won't drink anything but formula out of a bottle.

Ds was the same - we tried every sippy cup on the market and never would. We eventually got him onto dilute fruit juice in a bottle but he then wouldn't come off them. Again the only thing we got him to do was drink out of an open cup with help (so you'd think I would have thought of it earlier with dd - I blame sleep deprivation ).

The main problem with both of mine is the cups that were free flow they liked to tip upside and play. If you put them in their mouths they wouldn't expect the liquid and would choke. With the non drip ones they didn't realise there was liquid in them and so it never occurred to them to suck them Surprisingly they are reasonably bright in other ways

hi at 12 m my dd wouldn't change to whole milk. Although BF, we swopped to formula around 6 months and then tried at 12M to move straight to whole milk which she wouldn't touch! For the next week we made up a milk up mix! Day one - two formula 80 / 20 whole milk day two - four 70/30 - day 5 - 6 60/40 etc etc. Hope that helps!

My DD never got the hang of sippy cups. We introduced doidy cups at about 6mo and she got on better with those. Have you tried open cups instead of sippy ones?

I just googled doidy cup as I have always wondered what they were. Am wondering what the advantage is over cheap plastic picnic tumbler though? The doidy cups were £3.99 on Amazon

Thanks for suggestions. He won't do a sippy cup - just chews the nozzle like a teething ring. Weirdly he has been OK until now with an adult glass - he likes to see what he's drinking. But right now it's bottle and formula or nothing. He has a doidy cup, and will occasionally drink the odd sip from it, but then he gets over-enthusiastic and throws the contents all over himself and everything else. We're not keen.

Sigh. Babies are weird.

The slow replacement with milk sounds like a good idea - think we'll definitely try that.

Armadillo - forgot to say - our experience of sippy cups is EXACTLY the same as yours. Either he tips the contents all over himself and the floor with fast flow, or with slow flow he can't work out how to suck the contents out. He too is pretty smart.

My DS does pretty well with one of his sister's dolly teacups. It won't take much but he can hold it properly in one hand and of course when he does forget what he's doing the mess is less than with a big cup. He's 8m. I think you may have to put up with dampness for a bit. I wouldn't bother with juice, FWIW - it's so sugary that giving them a taste for it really is making a rod for your own back (and I use that phrase pretty much never!).