Weaning a breastfed baby who won’t drink from cups/bottles

[GingersnapBiscuit]

My daughter has just turned one. She has never accepted a bottle and had a late diagnosed tongue tie snipped at 8 months after she initially struggled to move to solids.

She now eats lots of food and I would love to stop breastfeeding, but she drinks almost nothing from a cup, even water (we’ve tried a few and currently mainly use a tumtum weighted straw cup). I breastfeed her first thing and before bed and she drinks only a few sips of water between those feeds.

Really just looking for reassurance from anyone who’s had similar that when you drop those final feeds they do start drinking something else!!

One of mine gagged on a test, so I had to BF until he was 1. He soon learned to take a sippy cup, and I made sure he got fluid in his foods, like melon and yogurt.

I'd give lots of watery foods e.g. fruits or foods with milk e.g. porridge. Especially when it's not hot, they can get most of their liquid that way. They should drink if they are thirsty.

Mine was like this, also refused all food until 14 months and went to nursery full time so when she was there just had no water or food. She reverse cycled so fed all night to make up for it.

What I realised is that I have a very very fast letdown so she was actually better off with an adult sports bottle not a toddler cup of any kind.

I know this doesn't sound great, but what about using a calpol syringe filled with very diluted squash a few times a day? Then transitioning to a cup or bottle. One of my bf babies skipped a sippy cup and drank straight out of a plastic picnic cup.

Smoothies or milkshakes in a cup with a straw for you. Nothing for her. Let her taste your drink occasionally. Do it daily when she is hungry and thirsty till you have built up a want in her. Then give her a very mean portion of her own.

Separately to weaning, I found at this age with cups you have to just waste money trying loads of different cups/bottle-cup-hybrids until you find the one your dc will happily use.

My dd took forever to take to cups and then would use a tommee tippee sippy cup, so we went and bought loads and it took years to "wean" her off them! She still asks for one at home if she's ill. She won't do straw waterbottles so now she's at school she has camelbak straw bottles with the straw taken out.

With my ds, he won't touch the TT sippy cup (argh, we have about 7) but he'll use a Nuby, I discovered by chance.

Between both kids I think we've tried over 10 brands of bottle/cup. you can borrow or buy second hand till you find a brand they'll use.

This is a good idea but don’t put squash in it! Just water is fine

With my dd I bfed her till she was 2.5 and she's always hated water (both to drink and bathe in) so her main drink is heavily diluted juice. The dentist is always happy with her teeth and she's very slim so it's fine. If we stick strictly to water she gets dehydrated from refusing it.

My ds loves water so much he'd lie down and drink it out of a puddle. But that's why I can't give him a sippy cup, he just gleefully pours it out everywhere. The nuby is spillproof so I recommend trying that if you haven't already.

Personally, I wouldn't wean off BF till you've found a cup they'll reliably drink from. Dehydration can cause constipation which is SO stressful

Both of mine were bottle refusers too. In reality she doesn't really need to take one at this age.

Until id sopped BFing completely both of mine totally refused to drink any Cow's milk and I can't blame them. Why drink that when they can milk and a cuddle from you?

Are you feeding her at night? It might be easiest in the long run to night wean first

DD never took a bottle did better with a free-flow lidded cup like Tommy Tippee or the Munchkin 360 cups, rather than an open cup or bottle.

In summer we made our own little ice pops so if I thought she wasn't drinking enough I gave her one of those.