18-month-olds won't drink milk from a cup

Food & Eating Diet & Nutrition
1

My 18-month-old twins were getting milk from nursing in the mornings and evenings, and drinking milk from bottles at daycare a couple times a day. Our pediatrician has recommended for a couple months that we get them off bottles, but we hadn't gotten around to it. Then we learned that the bottles we'd been using since their birth have BPA, and that gave us the kick we needed.

They've been drinking water from sippy cups with spouts for a year now, and from straw cups for six months. So we know they know how to use these. We tried milk in both types of cups, but they won't drink it. They take a sip, and that's it. The daycare providers say they really aren't drinking any milk at all now. I thought it would take a few days and they'd catch on, but it's been a week, and there's no progress.

We feed them cheese and yogurt, and they still nurse a little, so I know they are getting some calcium. But I think it would be good if they would drink some milk! We don't want to backslide into bottles, but we don't know how to get them to drink from the cups. Any advice??

2

Have you tried the Nuby cups? These seem to be very successful. Also, they may not want sippy cups at all. My daughter (also 18 months) likes to drink from a regular cup. I bought the small dixie-style cups and she drinks from those. It requires some help, but now that she has the hang of it she does much better. Our daycare also uses them for lunch, and seeing the other kids use them provides some positive peer pressure.

3

Hi Alleen,
Dont feel bad my 2 year old still takes a bottle twice a day because she wont drink milk in her sippy cup either...Im not sure why this happens...I do know though that I had a very hard time finding a sippy cup that she would drink from too...I got the nubby ones from Walmart and she hated them....gagged like there was no tomorrow....the only kind she will use is the Gerber ones...they change color depending on the liquid inside....(one color for hot and one for cold)I talked to her pedi about this and told him that I was concerned she wasnt getting enough milk during the day, even though she loves her cheese and yogurt and stuff....he said she should be getting at least 32oz of milk a day which I know if I stopped her bottle she definitely would not....so for now she still gets a bottle...once in the morning and once before bed...and if she is cranky during the day her sitter gives her one also...she will ask for it when she is not feeling well or over tired....I feel that when she is ready to be done with the bottle she will just refuse it....I would rather have her get some form of milk than nothing at all....Hope this helps!!
Meg :)

4

Try a regular glass with a straw. No baby cups. Try warming the milk and putting it in a sippy cup. Try flavoring the milk, with chocolate, cinnamon and honey, strawberry. Make smoothies and add yogurt. Make it fun, make it a special treat and perhaps they will take to it.

5

My son still never took milk from a cup, and still does not drink milk. The only way we can get a little milk in him is to give it over cold cereal in the A.M. I would think in terms of nutrients, rather than whether or not they are drinking milk. At 18 months, calcium needs are about 500 mg a day (They are more as a baby, because babies grow faster than toddlers, pound for pound) Don't give your girls calcium supplements without your doctors advice, you could stress their kidneys. But getting calcium is easy...A single slice of bordan's american cheese has about 400 mg. A child size serving of broccoli is about 50 mg. Yogurt is really a good source, and there are some pastas that are fortified with calcium. Give them dry cheerios as a snack, they are also calcium fortified. We used to buy soy chick un nuggets (in the tofu section of your local grocery store.) They taste like chicken nuggets, have a pleasent texture, and have 400 mg of calcium per serving. Also, try soy milk. They may like the creamy texture, especially the chocolate ones.

6

My daughter (who is now nearly 23), was never a big milk drinker either, but this worked with her. We found curly straws, the big ones that are like roller coasters, and only allowed her to use it with milk. She loved them. Have you tried flavored milk? Add pureed strawberries, raspberries, etc. not flavored crystals-too much sugar.

7

My almost 3 year old also will not do milk from a cup- will everything other kind of liquid, just not milk. So we have bottle rules in our house, he can have one a day and he has to sit and drink it then the bottle is done. And for what its worth, Milk is not the end all be all, it is loaded with hormones, antibiotics and other who knows whats- I think that our culture places way too much emphasis on milk consumption. My advice is to just keep serving it-

8

My 21 month old still drinks her milk from a bottle. She gets three bottles a day. Once when she wakes up in the morning, once when she gets up from her nap and once before she goes to bed at night. It's the only way she'll drink milk but she drinks everything else from sippy or straw cups. She's only going to be a baby once and it's not doing any harm to her teeth so we'll work on weaning her off of it later. I don't see why letting them have their bottles for a little longer would hurt them. Just see if you can find bottles that don't have BPA. We use the Ventair bottles and our daughter loves them!

9

Hi Alleen,
When I tried to get my darlin whom is now 20 off the bottle. We went shopping and she picked out her own cool big girl cup. She could only have it if she would drink all her milk and juice out of it. She was so happy to have her own big girl cup that she picked out and paid for all by herself.
It worked for me. I hope it works for you.
Debs

10

Have you tried flavored milk? I used to use Ovaltine since it have some more vitamins & minerals than Quik or Hershey's. I read that the little bit of sugar they were getting was out weighed by the benefits of the calcium & vit.D. My girls didn't really drink juice at that age so I figured it was OK, the little bit of sugar wouldn't hurt & at least they were drinking their milk!

11

I have this same problem! But, my 18 month son won't even drink from a sippy cup or a straw. He gets a lot of liquid from fruit, and he eats yogurt. But, he won't drink water or juice...I'd love to know whast to do, and I sympathize with you!

Kim

12

Hi -

I can relate to your experiences above as I have recently gone through something similar with my 18 month old daughter.

When she hit a year, I thought the MD recommendation was to stop the bottle. However, my pediatrician, said that
was not the case & basically to wean her at our convenience.

It was more a case of how long do we, the parents, want to deal with the bottle, rather than a strict timeline to get her off the bottle.

That being said, I tried occasionally to introduce the sippy cup, but with lackluster results. I realized that I
needed to be more consistent & patient to get somewhere.

About 6 weeks ago or so, I came across a bunch of things on BPA, which I found terribly upsetting. I don't know why I wasn't better versed on the issue before, but I'm not superwoman. So, after berating myself, I made a very consistent effort daily to offer the cup & she got the hang of it after a few days. Now she's a pro.

At the same time, I trashed all of the Avent bottles, & bought two Born Free ones that I used occasionally.

she drinks mostly apple juice which I dilute a little b/c I don't want her to be all sugared up & occasionally I'm giving her just water which is going well.

The most difficult was getting her to drink milk out of the cup, b/c they associate milk with the bottle. But, after a few tries she sucked it down.

I think the bottles are now permanently retired, for now.

My daughter eats about 3 baby yogurts a day, so I know she's covered on the calcium.

Sounds like your kids are getting similar nutrition.

As far as the calcium question, I would talk to your pediatrician about that. Mine has said that they don't need the milk after a year.

Perhaps in small amounts, but my understanding is that it is not a necessary food group.

hope this helps.

SK

13

My son was the same way - once we weaned him from the bottle and nursing he was through with milk! He even began recognizing how it looked in his sippy cup so he wouldn't even take a sip. He was also a huge cheese, yogurt and broccoli eater so I wasn't too worried about calcium but I wanted him to drink some milk. Friends suggested chocolate milk but I just couldn't do it! Instead I bought Ovaltine and would put just a smig of it in and he would drink it then. Now he's just over 2 and likes plain milk. We never gave him juice in a bottle, just milk. I think he associated the taste of milk with his bottle and it just didn't belong in a cup in his mind. Good luck!

14

Alleen,
I went through this type of situation with my 4 1/2 year old, he was not breat fed though, he would only drink from his bottle morning, noon and night. He was a big milk drinker but only out of a bottle. Here is what worked for us, we took all of the bottle out of the cupboard and hid them and told our son that they were all gone and if he wanted a drink he was going to have to drink from a cup. we had some very cranky mornigs during this transition but it he fianlly gave in. we would have his cup ready in the morning before he got whiny and when he would ask for his bottle we would tell him that the bottles were gone and show him the empty shelf but he could have his cup and we would hand the cup to him. we also bought cup that had cool desings on them or characters, it may also help to take them to the store and let them pick out their own new milk cups!

hope this helps and good luck!

15

I had a very similar problem with my son. For about 2 months it was very difficult to get him to drink milk from a bottle, Even getting him to drink only 1 ounce took so much effort.

I finally discovered that the nipple was slightly torn. I replaced it with a new nipple and he immediately went back to drinking 7-8 ounces at a time, no problem.

Check the bottle's nipple, in my case it was an easy fix!