19 month old and drinking cup despair!!!

[GeppaGip]

My 19mo old DS refuses any drink but milk out of any receptacle but a bottle and I really think it is time he learned to drink from something else but I just cannot nail it. He just will not. I can't give him a drink in public because of this issue and it is driving me to the brink of despair :-( I am worried he isn't getting enough fluids too.

We have tried - sippy cup, sippy cup with valve, plastic glass with big straw, bottle with inbuilt soft straw, straw in an open cup, straight out of a glass. I have a kitchen draw full of abandoned toddler drinking receptacles :-(

Has anyone else had this issue? What did you do? My DS is really stubborn and forcing the issue is making him even more determined to refuse. I have been trying to train him to drink from something else for a year now and I think it might break me if I don't crack it soon. I am actually really upset about it.

Have you tried a doidy cup?

Sports caps? Cups with soft spouts (TT or nuby do them)?

I am more looking for tips on how to teach him to drink from the (many) cups he already has. I am not sure spending my life savings on even more redundant cups to fill up my drawer is the answer although I will look at some of the suggestions. His friends have been fine with sippy cups or straws so I would ideally like to train him to use these.

Okay I shall pop on my thinking cap on

The only way I did it was going cold turkey and only giving dd the option of one of these www.toysrus.co.uk/1/1/3657-mam-trainer-bottle-blue-babies-r-us-cups.html containing water with her meals and then giving her a bottle of milk between feeds to make sure she was getting enough fluids. It was the only one that worked!! I have a drawer of failed cups! Now she drinks water from a normal sippy cup but still has milk from a bottle. I got her to that the same way and eventually she got the message especially when there was no other option. I showed her what to do but it helped for her to see other children drinking from them. She literally went days of refusing then all if a sudden just picked it up and drank from it! She knew what to do just didn't like giving up what she was used to!

www.toysrus.co.uk/1/1/3657-mam-trainer-bottle-blue-babies-r-us-cups.html

When DS1 was 13 months old I decided to stop breastfeeding as I was pregnant again and just felt I had reached the end of the road with it. He was EBF. I didn't want to introduce a bottle as it seemed silly at such a late stage, and he refused to drink out of a sippy cup (or any other cup - like you I invested in several).

Stopping breastfeeding was much easier than I expected, he barely made any fuss at all, but drinking was still a problem. I made sure he had plenty of calcium in his diet (from cheese, yoghurt, milk on cereal etc) as he wasn't drinking milk, and I just waited. He drank hardly anything for a few weeks, then he finally learnt how to drink from an open cup. So I recommend the tough love approach!

Tough love doesn't work with my DS. When I tried to teach him to use a straw I used the kids smoothies and because they are sweet he drunk it no problem. He refuses to drink water out a sippy too, I eventually gave up when he was getting dehydrated last summer and he gets it with a tiny but of squash.

Thank you for the suggestions. I am going to order one more cup and try the tough love, no morning bottle approach. I shall let everyone know how it goes for future mothers of stubborn little boys who are on the brink of losing their marbles.

Oh do let us know, OP.

My 14 mo DD refuses to drink anything but milk out of anything but her bottle - and refuses to hold her bottle herself. She will pick it up and give it to me or DH. I had a minor breakthrough when she necked 4oz of water straight out of her bottle last week, but it seems that was a one off.

Got to break this, I need my hands to do stuff!

Have you tried getting him to help you choose the cup? Then maybe you could convince him to throw the bottles away himself (even if you then retrieve them).
I haven't taken my own advice yet by the way. Dd will drink out of any cup but if she gets her morning or evening milk in anything but her bottle she throws an almighty paddy!

I'm sorry to be the voice of doom, but I tried the tough love approach on DS1, and he simply stopped drinking milk, and continued with other fluids in other bottles only. He has never gone back to drinking milk and is 6 years old now.

19 months is still young what is the point of rushing? Sucking gives babies and toddlers comfort. I would wait until she is ready.

Sorry he not she

My DS refused to drink out of anything but a bottle until 2yrs 3mts when suddenley at 3pm he told me that bottles are for babies I want a cup. Ithrew all remaining bottles away and he never looked back

How frustrating! sounds like the right idea to try and persuade him to drink out of the existing cups rather than buying yet another one.
Could you set a limit and just not offer an alternative? He might be upset at first that things have changed but with lots of cuddles and reassurances I'm sure he could get used to a new way if drinking, and probably even grow to love drinking from a grown up cup