weaning 10 month old bottle/beaker refusenik

[Jadedcynic]

I'm going back to work next week and have been trying to persuade my DS to take his post nap milk (Which I lovingly expressed and froze in readiness), from a cup or, in extremis, bottle. He happily drinks water from a cup, but is refusing point blank to take milk, be it EBM or formula. He won't even take it from a bottle.....

He has a bfeed in the morning and before bed, and has 3 solid meals a day, has plenty of yoghurt etc, so should i just retire gracefully from the fray, or should i carry on propping up the cup industry by more panic buying of slightly different cups.

No help here, but really interested in responses! My seven month old is EBF, though has made an enthusiastic start to solids, but we have never been able to get him to take a bottle. Should I just give up on bottle, and try for a cup? Have offered him a beaker with water every day for the last week, no interest at all. Slightly worried he will get dehydrated wheni am back at work, as I will only be able to feed him morning and evening on those days. Few months off yet... How long did it take people to get them to use cups? Is seven months too young? Sorry for hijack!

Jadedcynic your DS is 10mo so I wouldn't worry about milk during the day at all. You said he's happy to drink water from a cup so you know the problem isn't he couldn't figure out how to use one. FWIW, I went back to work at 7mo, and DD started going off milk during the day from 8mo. She's younger than your DS and has only solids (3 meals and 1 snack) and water during the day. She looks happy when I pick her up so she definitely isn't starving. BTW my DD is also a spoon refuser and self feeds. I'm sure if yours will let people spoonfeed him, he'll be able to take in even more solids.

Ams25 I think by this time you should just give up on a bottle, and concentrate on just offering a cup every meal. You'll need to wean them off bottles by a year anyway. And don't worry about you returning to work. By the time you are, I'm sure he would be able to up his solids intake if he's hungry.

BTW, I still bf DD in my off days. I'm working FT so only the weekends. But I'm able to give a mid morning and mid afternoon bf with no problem. I can't obviously see how much milk she got, but she doesn't fuss on the breast so I assume she is getting what she wants.

I had similar issues with DS2 and spent a lot of money on various different bottles and cups in the hope of getting him to take milk from anything other than me. In the end we had most success with beakers with a soft silicone spout like this:
www.tommeetippee.co.uk/product/trainer/
and these basic free-flow beakers:
www.tommeetippee.co.uk/product/first_cup_4_months/

The beaker with the soft spout worked best for getting him to take milk to start with (although it was rather messy!) - I assume because the feel of it was a bit more like breast feeding (he absolutely hated all bottles that we tried, and there were a lot!) He still loves those cups now but I rarely let him have them due to the mess he tries to make (he likes to put his finger in the spout, turn them upsidedown, shake and throw them...)

DS2 was just over 9 months when I returned to work (2 days a week) and for the first month he hardly drank any milk or water during the day so was desperate for a feed when I picked him up. We couldn't work out why as by that stage he was happily drinking lots of water from the standard beaker at home. Fortunately he'd taken to solids (BLW) well and was eating lots so I wasn't too concerned. I did stop expressing milk for him though as it was too much of a faff for him to then reject the milk!

My advice is definitely to stop panic buying new cups and stick with the one he likes for water. It takes babies a while to get the hang of cups and most people I know have had a bit of a panic about it - just persist and they'll get there eventually.

My DS2 is now 13 months and usually has a 200ml beaker of cows' milk with breakfast plus one in the afternoon and as much water as he feels like drinking during the day (which varies hugely!) from the free-flow beaker. Just wondering when I can persuade him that he'd like cows' milk at bedtime too...

Ignoring I have the same cups DD mainly puts her finger in the spout, blows raspberries and plays percussions with them.

OneLittleBabyGirl It's obviously a design flaw with the cup! I also occasionally give DS1 milk in them as, while he "mastered" the use of open cups a couple of years ago (he's 4), he's rather clumsy and I hate having to mop up spilt milk (particularly when it's spilt on the sofa ). He also likes to put his finger in the spout!

Onelittlebabygirl, thanks for helpful responses. I'm interested that you still BF at weekends, any leakage issues at work? The shame. ....