Why wont my son hold the bottle/beaker?

[mckenzie]

My ten month old son makes no attempt whatsoever to hold his bottle or beaker when being given milk or water. He also completely refuses to drink milk from a beaker of any sort (I have about 9 different ones in my cupboard now). I try holding his hands up to the side of the bottle but he just pulls them away and keeps them by his side. He uses his hands/arms all the time to play with his toys etc and also feeds himself sandwiches, fruit and vegetable pieces so I dont think there can be anything wrong with him physically. Should I be too worrried at this age, might it just happen a bit later? He has about 6 teeth now and I'm worried that him still using a teat twice a day to have his milk might be harming his teeth.

Any thoughts/recommendations gratefully received.

My son did not attempt to hold his cup until around 12 mos. I tried also to get him to grasp the cup but he would just let go. He did not hold his bottle till late too. Way past when most babies I know were holding theirs. What I did is just give him his food at each meal with his cup. To try and practice. After getting so thirsty. he just started trying to drink. Dont worry one of these days when you least expect it youll see him holding his cup.

I don't have any suggestions about holding the beaker but I was desperate when my DS was 9 months to get him off a bottle (drinking from a soft spout rather than the teat, didn't seem to mind this change) and on to an Anyway-up Cup and found that the first few times if I dipped the spout into fromage frais or pureed apple he would suck on it and start to get the milk. This gave him the idea and I only had to do it a couple of times. I don't think the Anyway-up Cup is particularly recommended anymore but this may help for other non-leak type cups when the baby does not realise they have to suck hard to get the milk.

My 11month ds was exactly the same until 2 weeks or so back! Could feed himself food etc but refused to hold his bottle (although this was a relatively new introduction as he was bf until recently). Also preferred to get me to feed him his water from his beaker. Then I started to lie him down in a beanchair thing where he was sort of propt up and he started to hold the bottle - with no problems. I think the angle helped as he was not tilting his head back so far as when he was sitting up. I have also found that smaller / lighter beakers are easier for him to manage - anything too heavy and he just drops it.

Also we just had a talk by the Dentist at ds nursery recently and she said that while drinking from a bottle can cause teeth decay - it was only in extreme cases where the child was contstantly sucking from a bottle of juice, well into their second year and also put to bed while sucking on it. A couple of bottles of milk a day would cause no problems.

I wouldn't worry though, they all do everything in their own time

Thanks guys for your ideas and tips, it's much appreciated and has put my mind at rest that it's not something I need to worry too much about at this age. And I shall try the fromage frais idea - fingers crossed.