Toddler will only drink milk from a bottle

[CobaltRose96]

Hi all.

DD was one last week and for the past few weeks we’ve been trying to wean her off the bottle. She’ll now happily drink water from a cup or beaker, but still flatly refuses to drink milk from anything but a bottle. She will cry if offered it in a cup, until we give her a bottle.

Any tips on how to get her drinking milk out of a cup? Is it just a matter of continuing to offer it?

Thanks

Are you still giving formula? We switched to cows milk & cup at the same time so it was obvious it was a different drink.

I think you just have to persevere with it.

@Burgerandchipvan, no, she’s totally off formula now. Thank you!

We didn't take our ds off of bottles until he was 2,, although we did switch to cows milk at 1 and he only had a bottle at night and in the morning!

He switched quite easily at that point.

She’s only just 1, give it time. If you cut it down to one bottle at bedtime and she brushes her teeth afterwards then it’s fine. In the morning I’d be inclined to give her cereal with milk, or porridge and water in a sippy cup to break the habit. But it’ll come in time, most people don’t manage to make an immediate change as soon as they turn 1, if she’s having water from a cup then that’s really good.

Try a soft tipped sippy cup
A soft straw bottle or straw sip cup
I progressed from Avent bottles to the age ranged sip cups and drink bottles.. we still get requests for a sip cup which is ok less milk spots and splatters on the carpet I figure

How often does she have milk? If you make it morning and night (gradually if need be) then I wouldn’t stress about the bottles and then in due course drop morning and eventually drop evening. It doesn’t have to stop immediately.

Agree with only giving her a bottle at bedtime and then brushing her teeth before bed.

I found the Nuk sippy cups a great crossover to cups.
But it may be a bit soon for your little one.

My dirty secret is that my 17mo is still on a bedtime bottle. We introduced milk in his sippy cup for his 3pm bottle first (we weren't fussed if he didn't drink it), then the breakfast bottle. He drinks really well from his cup, but it will take him quite a long time to just drink 4oz.

The next challenge is to remove the nighttime bottle, but I honestly can't imagine how that's going to work, he still has 9oz most nights. The sippy cup only holds 6!

Have you tried a few different types of cup? Or maybe watering down the milk and then gradually introducing more? Mine really clicked with the cup when he went to nursery and saw the other children using it.

How about a special cup that's only used for milk? My DS has one cup for water and another for milk, so he can easily tell which is which. They're both 360 cups, but different colours/patterns.

We started by giving him a cup of milk with his breakfast. Then tried to swap his bedtime bottle for the cup but he wasn't having any of it. What worked for us was giving him a cup of milk after dinner and while playing before going upstairs to bed. It broke the association with bedtime, although it took a while for him to drink much of it.

Depends how tough you want to be, I just refused to give my DS a bottle after about 10 months, he could perfectly well manage with a cup.
It’s up to you to decide how important it is, some parents really don’t like to give bottles so I just chucked them out. We never gave ‘bedtime’ milk either, he had a drink with a meal. Most children, on a balanced diet, really don’t need that much milk.
He’s a strapping 19 year old now, so clearly didn’t do any long term harm.