Persuading bf baby to drink milk from a cup?

[RitaMorgan]

I wonder if anyone has any tips for me?

DS is 10.5 months and I want to swap his day time breastfeeds for milk in a cup - unfortunately he has other ideas and is refusing all manner of cups, bottles, cow's milk and formula. DP has suggested we give him cocoa instead of plain milk and gradually reduce the amount of cocoa and sugar in it til it's just milk. Do you think this is a good idea? Or is there something else we could use to sweeten/flavour it?

I've been offering milk in a cup in place of his mid-morning breastfeed for over 2 weeks now and he is yet to swallow a mouthful

I will be doing the same after DD hits 1 year and I was told that you should put expressed breast milk in a cup and then gradually increase the amount of non bmilk milk! I know expressing can be a pain but it might just work....

Absolutely do not give cocoa and sugar!!!

Have you tried giving EBM? What does he take water in?

You do know that they need breastmilk or infant formula as their main milk drink until they are a year old, right?

DD used to tip the milk from the cup into her mouth and then spit it out everywhere, but she did accept it eventually.

I would think 2 weeks is a very short time to have been offering milk in a cup and expect him to take a full feed like that. I would say it took several months for DD to do that.

Also, I don't think sweetening milk would help given that it is very very sweet already. Especially breast milk! Well mine was anyway. (Tasted it accidentally once when heating some expressed milk for DD and was astonished, it was like syrup ffs!) If he doesn't like formula, have you tried another brand? DD wouldn't entertain SMA or Hipp, but would drink Cow & Gate.

Have you tried a Doidy cup?

I think you should just not bother trying to give milk in any other way at this stage - if you need to skip a feed, or cut the number of feeds per day, maybe you could try offering food instead - maybe dairy stuff such as cheese, cream cheese on a cracker, yogurt etc and your baby will probably just have more breastmilk the next time it's offered to make up for the missed feed. We found our LO would never take milk any other way than the breast, so when I went out cycling for a few hours she just waited for me to return rather than taking a bottle or cup of expressed milk. Now at 9 months she only has two breastfeeds a day (morning and evening) which I am slightly worried about, just in case she's not getting enough, but the 2 feeds she has take about 30 minutes each, so I'm guessing she's glugging quite a large amount in one go. She doesn't ask for any more breastfeeds though so it's difficult to advise how to drop feeds if they still want them. You could just try offering some food more frequently so that your LO is too full to want any milk in addition.

Until 1 they're not supposed to have cows milk. I didn't give day time feeds at that age, just offered 3 meals and snacks, all with water in a tippy cup. By 10 months DDs could definitely help themselves to a drink from a tippy cup when thirsty. I didn't monitor their liquid intake, but I doubt it was a great deal, but then there is a lot of liquid in different foods e.g. fruit.

He's quite happy drinking water from a sippy cup, but very unimpressed when he realises there is milk in there! Frustratingly he had a bottle of formula a day from 4-8 months no problem but just won't now.

southeastlondonmum - expressing would be my last resort I'm honestly the world's worst expresser, even when I'm been away from ds for 24 hours I've barely managed to pump an oz.

I'm aware cow's milk isn't suitable as a main drink til 12 months, but as this is one drink with 3-4 breastfeeds the rest of the time I'm fine with it. He'll still be having some breastfeeds (morning and bedtime) til 12 months and his diet is very good.

I'm not breastfeeding him til after lunch at the moment, but he is just holding out and having an extra feed in the afternoon. I guess I could just forget milk in the morning entirely and give a food snack, but then I'd have to do the same in the afternoon and was concerned that going from 4-5 feeds a day to 2 would be too little for him?

emsyj - that is exactly what ds does, takes a mouthful and then spits/dribbles it out! I haven't tried a doidy cup but think it is the milk that is the problem as he'll drink water from it.

japhrimel - is there a particular reason not to use cocoa/sugar beyond it being bad for teeth? I had thought the amount of sugar in 100ml cocoa would be less than in a fromage frais.

If you're determined to give him milk, and he's fine with water, just dilute his water with a drop of milk until he has more milk than water eventually. Bringing chocolate and sugar into the mix wouldn't make sense.

You shouldn't really be giving sugar at all and at least not regularly. Baby or plain yoghurt with no added sugar is recommended, not fromage frais at this young!

It's mainly teeth, but also getting them used to very sweet foods and drinks.

Plus cocoa contains caffeine.

WRT cows' milk before 1 - DS is also 10.5m and if I need to go out he gets just plain full fat milk from a cup. Its not his main drink - he has 6+ breastfeeds a day as well - and I am not buying formula just for 2/3 drinks a weeks. Seems daft.

Anyway, he has always loved it so no helpful advice, other than how about trying a drop of natural vanilla essence?

Oh and my DD always hated cows milk but would happily drink goats milk.

I'm probably very un-mumsnet in not being fussed about sugar

I hadn't thought of diluting it with water, I'll give that a go. I'll also see if there's any vanilla essence knocking around in the cupboards - it's a pity he's too young for honey really.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Thanks Queen, think I have heard that goat's milk tastes more like breastmilk than cow's milk does. I'll get some today.