How to get a bottle refusing BF baby to drink from a cup?!

[Flingmoo]

Been trying it recently, he's 4 months old and eagerly grasps the cup handles and even brings the spout into his mouth... But that's what he does to everything he can get his little hands on right now and all he wants to do is lick and gnaw on it like a teether (same issue with bottles).

Last time I tried giving it he must've swallowed about 2ml and the other 148ml was spilt everywhere! (Started using water for practice so I don't waste expressed milk!)

Any tips? Should I just keep persevering and hope he'll eventually just "get it"...?

Have you tried Nuk latex teats on bottles? The shape and softer more skin like feel is apparently good for breastfed babies.

I think other than that you have to perservere, they get used to accepting water reasonably quickly from a free flow spout cup. You can get soft spout versions too that my dd2 preferred for milk. Dd1 took milk from a flexible straw cup from around 8 months, but 4 months is too early for that yet. Ds (9 months) was a resolute bottle refuser and just chewed them until recently, DH giving him a bottle at bedtime when I was out convinced him that it was better than nothing.

My 5 month old former bottle refuser wouldn't drink from a cup either. I have just managed to crack bottles with her though! So, in case you haven't tried already - I used nipple shields during every feed for a couple of days. A faff and a bit messy, but meant that one feed I managed to fool her and slip her the bottle - she drank the whole thing. Next feed - drank from a bottle fine. I was in shock! I then started alternating every feed - breast and bottle as wanted to mix feed, however that hasn't worked as she started refusing bottle again, she would cry for ages before finally accepting it. So sadly for me I have to stop breastfeeding now as she can't/won't seem to do both and I need her to take a bottle as back at work. She is now taking bottles fine.

Good luck OP, it can feel very stressful when they are refusing, I thought we would never get there!

Another vote for Nuk latex teats. Got my EBF DD to start taking a bottle (having refused everything else) then when she outgrew them (they're very soft so her suck "closed" them sometimes) we moved to silicone and she still has them.