Swapping milk in bottle for milk in beaker - help

[littleduck]

DD is nearly 16 months. She currently has 2 milk feeds a day from a bottle , first thing and bedtime, and takes water the rest of the time from a little spouted beaker.

I have read that it is best to introduce milk in a beaker ideally at 12 months and no later than 15 months, so have tried offering her milk in the beaker but attempts to far have been strongly resisted. DD is pretty strong willed and I don't want to force her, but if she refuses the beaker altogether she will end up having far less milk each day than she should.

anyone got any thoughts/ideas/tips/anything that worked for you?

As I say she will happily take water from the beaker so it's not the beaker itself that is the problem. She just likes her bottles and doesn't want to give them up!

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I just stopped doing them for ds at about 12mo. He still has a bed bottle as I didn't think he was ready forthat to go yet.

I just gave him milk in beaker with breakfast. Simple as that.

Don't stress about how much milk as you can always top up with dairy products during the day.

Dd will probably realise pretty quick day time bottles are gone and that's just how it is.

Not sure when I'll get rid of bed bottle but that's another story!

MrsF - thanks for your message, unfortunately can't top DD up with dairy products as she is dairy allergic and is on a special formula, which tastes disgusting and doesn't mix well with food.

As we are down to 2 milk feeds already it doesn't leave a lot of room for maneouvre if I introduce the beaker and she refuses :(

my DD is 3 and still takes her morning and bedtime milk in her bottle! When she was little she refused all cups and beakers and so I just carried on with the bottle and slowly got her to take juice and water from a beaker with a soft spout by Nuby. I stuck to the bottle for milk though as it makes her happy and I dont see any issue with it and it hasn't stopped her drinking everything else from a big cup. I wouldn't stress about it.

I just started using the tommee tipee rubbery spout beakers, introduced them at breakfast feed, then when saw dcs were using them ok started using them at bedtime feed. had a mexican standoff for about a week where they didn't drink much buut when they realised they weren't getting the bottle they used them! interestingly, ds who i thught was a greedy boy tanking a full bottle f milk on a night only drinks a small amount of milk from the tomme tipee nd still sleeps 'properly', so think he would have drunks a gallon from t eh bottlem,, it just seemed to be comfort feeding for him. hth's

Thanks for your advice.

Tried offering DD milk from her beaker this morning. Oh dear. As soon as she saw it was the beaker rather than the bottle she threw a full-on wobbly. I ignored her and left her with the beaker and she got curious about it and took a few sips. The howls redoubled and she refused any more. Tried to get her to take some mroe sips sitting on my knee but this upset her even more.

So the net result if that she has had less than 1/2 oz milk this morning, is clearly thirsty but is a stubborn little so and so and won't drink unless she gets her bottle. I can't give in now as she will then think she can get whatever she wants by throwing massive wobbly.

I don't think this is going to be the best of mornings :(

Help........

Neither of mine drink much milk at all, sometimes about an inch of milk in a beaker at bedtime. It isn't strictly neccessary as long as they are getting fluids and some source of calcium etc.

They have it on cereal, plus yogurts/cheese etc. Can you try her with an open beaker with a straw? Mine drank really well like that especially smoothies

possibly break the golden rule and put some tasty tasty squash in the beaker so to get to the lovely juice dd has to use thebeaker? Once squash is involved or apple juice mine would drink from a pond

Good luck, littleduck, perseverance and all that...

She will drink water from the beaker no problem at all. So it's not that she won't accept the beaker - she clearly will. It's just that she won't drink milk from it as she is used to having milk from a bottle.

I think the teat on the bottle is maybe like a comfort for her. Mind you, we had the mother of all battles to get her from breast to bottle in the first place, when I was going back to work and needed to get her to accept a bottle so they could feed her in the day at nursery.

Unfortunately as she is dairy allergic the formula milk is her main source of calcium - it is a special fortified formula. She will eat soya yogurt but would need to eat a barrel of it to get the daily calcium she needs.

Perserverance, as you say. She was so upset not to have the bottle, it broke my heart. She now thinks Mummy is very very horrid :(

Ah, yes, my son is easily pleased so he was after a while happy to get milk from anywhere, but the volumes differed because ghe did seem to be using the teat of the bottle for comforting rather than him needed the amount of milk he was consuming (there have been exploded nappies on a morning because of teh wee due to all the milk he drank!) so, can you pass the task of dishing out the beaker to dp for the weekend?

and if your heart is breaking, just give her a bottle and watch the sobbing and tears stop in a nano second, then you will know it isn't the end of the world upset, just 'where the hel is my bottle?' upset!

DP out at work today. He has less patience than I do so I fear the task is falling to me.

Was thinking I would keep the bedtime bottle until she will take the morning bottle but knowing DD she will be a stubborn little sausage and just hold out for the evening bottle rather than ever take a morning beaker. So wondering if I should just give up the bottle altogether......

oooh, i'm liking the bull by the horns approach! Why not? if half measures aren't working and your dd is working out to wait til bedtime then go for it.

as i mentioned, it was no more than a weeks ridiculus mexican standoff where dcs and i sat staring the beaker like'that's your milk' 'yeah, really?' 'yeah, really' really now?' 'absolutely' etc etc (all done visa eye conact and imagined conversations of course!

god luck and go for it, no more bottles and sterilsers and the what not, bliss!

Try a different beaker for the milk to the one you use for water. So that she knows what is in it before she drinkks from it.
It may be that the water comes in that beaker, so nothing else should

Just to say thanks for all the support. I have managed to persuade her to take milk from one of those Nuby anti-spill beakers with a soft silicone type spout. She glugs away quite happily at that.

I know that it's still pretty similar to a bottle in terms of texture and that HV's advise you to use free flowing spouts but, hey, it's s step forward. We can try something with a harder free flowing spout in a few weeks. We know she can do free flowing spouts for water so she will get there in her own good time, no doubt!