Help!

[jamjar84]

My 7 month old baby has been mostly breast fed and we’ve been trying to get him to drink from a bottle for about a month without much success, at most 2oz. With his age now, we’ve moved onto trying with a cup, but nope, he’ll drink water from a cup but as soon as he knows it’s milk he refuses.

I’ve posted before about this, but now really worried as I’m returning to work in a month, and I don’t want to end up reverse cycling, or he’ll not take in enough milk.

What can I do to get him to drink from a cup??

I can imagine he won’t want to take the cup when you’re right there. It’s like offering green beans when there’s chocolate and cake on the table too. Can you pop out for a while you’re partner/someone else who can help tries to offer the cup with milk?

My daughter wasn't interested in milk from a sippy cup but she gobbled down an entire cup of milk if it was in a straw cup. Tommee tippy do a good straw cup for that age

My partner and my mum has been offering it to him and I get out the way but sadly not much luck. He’ll take a few sips from a cup then as soon as he knows it’s milk he won’t take anymore. So weird, he’ll take water very keenly. Tommee tippee sippy cup and the Nuby soft spout he takes to it well (water). Will give the straw cup a go, thanks thingymaboob.

The straw thing worked for us a little, enough for me to be able to leave them. Also, what temperature is the milk?

If you have a DH/DP, I'd arrange a morning this weekend when they take them our first a few hours, something like swimming or the park and the library. You'll have a break and they can have some milk and solids away from you

Keep offering the cup.

How's weaning going in general? One of the great things about breastfeeding is that baby controls the amount of milk they take. Once they are eating 3 meals a day they can have solids and water in the day and just breastfeed when with you. It might mean those feeds are longer as they take more but they will get all they need.

At 7 months, he really doesn't need much milk during the day if weaning is going well. By 8 months or so, one of mine refused milk in the day from a cup and I went back to work. He had a big breastfeed when he woke up, another when I got in from work and a final one at bedtime. You can give cows milk in foods during the day for calcium / nutrients (porridge for breakfast / custard or yogurt for pudding etc). Mine just had a silly cup of water for liquid in the daytime.

Just read that he'll take 2 floz! This is really, really good.

A BF baby only takes an average of 1floz an hour at this age, so 2 floz every couple of hours is a great start.

He'll eventually realise that he needs to drink more but it will take time for him to adjust.

Pick one feed, maybe the first one if your DP/DH is home and get them to give him a cup of milk instead of a BF. Leave it a week then swap another feed for the cup.

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