Stubborn 21 month DD won't drink milk from a beaker - should I be worried?

[Corky]

This is probably a common problem, but she will quite happily drink juice from a beaker, but as soon as she even sees milk in a beaker she runs a mile. If I fool her and she tastes it she spits it out!!

I've tried to go cold turkey and she has refused milk for a week. And she is also a very fussy eater and I can't always get her to eat yoghurts and cheese.

Should I be concerned about trying to take the bottles away? I have another baby on the way which is due in February and wondered if I can't b/f (couldn't with DD) and the baby is bottlefed then is this likely to cause a problem if she's not off bottles by then?

Has anyone else had this problem that has sorted itself out?

we use a different beaker for juice/squash and milk...no matter how clean the juice beaker is (eeven if you sterilise it) it still smell and tastes of juice. i tried drinking miklk out of it...its horrible. we had much more success with a seperate milk beaker, also bought one which a different shape/colour from juice beaker so he knows which is which.

baby2 was having some bottle from about 3 weeks old and at this stage ds came around to the idea that bottles were for babies and beakers were for big boys. he was 22 mths at the time.

How often does she have her bottle? We only have one at bedtime, and DS is the same. He only ever has water in his beaker, so it can't be the smell of the juice. I think it is because his bedtime bottle is a whole lot more than just some milk. It is a warm and loving cuddly time when he gets to feel super secure. So I can understand why a big boys cup is not what he wants then. I don't worry because we clean his teeth right after, and I figure he won't still be doing it when he's 14!

But I can understand your worry about baby2. I guess it could go either way - either your dd gets jealous and always wants a bottle when baby has one, or she rejects the bottle because that's clearly a baby thing. Or if the bottle is just one special routine like it is to DS she might not even associate the baby's bottles with her bottle. You know your daughter best! Good luck.

sorry, that second sentence makes it sound like Mummy & Daddy having their bedtime bottle. Not what I meant! I mean DS has a bedtime bottle and his attitude towards the bottle/cup issue is the same as your dd's!

Have tried using all sorts of different beakers, so now have a cupboard full and these still don't work! She has 2 bottles a day and I do brush her teeth after the one at nightime.

It just frustrates me about how stubborn they can be!!

yeah, the stubborness frustrates me too. But I'm sure I have things I'm stubborn about which seem perfectly reasonable to me!

My DS1 is 2 and a half and still drinks his milk out of a bottle (although an Avent one with a spout) He is perfectly happy to drink his water out of any cup or beaker and has just started on a big boys cup (ordinary cup to you and me). He will not drink his milk out of anything but the bloody Avent green spout though. I had to throw some out the other day because they were so chewed but he kicked up such a fuss that I had to buy some more. I assume he won't still be using it when he goes to school so I'm just playing along with him. I did get very anxious about it when he was much younger but now I'm not bothered. I wouldn't worry too much about it Corky - they are plenty of worse things!

I've even tried the green avent spout and she refuses this too! I think I'm going to end up leaving it again for a few months and try again then - only thing I can do I think!

My son who has just turned three still insists on a bottle of milk going to bed even though he will happily drink milk/juice/water from a variety of beakers during the day. I am so knackered from getting up with the baby during the night that I haven't had the energy to tackle this yet, though I know it's not good for his teeth. His older sister never really took to bottles so I didn't have this problem before. She had the old style Avent soft spouts and I think I hid them when she was a year and a bit and she went cold turkey no problem. However I know I myself had a bottle going to bed until I was nearly four! I seem to remember that my Mum set a deadline (perhaps my fourth birthday?) and spent some time preparing me to give it up on a certain date.

my son wont drink milk at all,not since he was 8 months old, hasnt had a bottle since he was 6 months, i think i done really well

This happened to a friend of mine and she just resigned herself to it - it must be better to give bottles of milk than no milk at all. The FSA recommends two-thirds of a pint per day for children under 3.

same with my dd1, in the end she had bottles til 3.5 years and then we stopped them for good, since then, a year ago, she drinks very little milk but I am not really bothered now she's older.

Had very similar situation with ds1. Managed to finally wean him off any bottles fully at about 22 months. Then when ds2 born, ds1 regressed and wanted bottles again. I decided to go with the flow and give him one when he asked, but continued to offer him drinks in cups. After a few weeks he got bored with the bottles and decided he liked being a "big boy" with a cup again.

I did the same as Tommy regarding the milk/bottle thing. DD would not accept milk from anything opther than a bottle at all. We tried all sorts of cups and beakers to no avail. In the end we simply switched the tbottle teat to a spout - also used Avent. Got the soft spout and removed the non spill valve thing, and used that. Problem solved IMO.

can she use a straw? A little bendy one like you get on small juice cartons, we used this to get dd off bottles and now she happily cups and beakers and straws her fluids!