Weening a Child from a Bottle to a Sippy Cup
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Ok, I'm giving a shout out for some help. Mamas out there, could you please let me know how you weened your kid from a bottle to a cup?
THE PROBLEM
Hadley will drink water or juice out of a glass and/or a sippy cup, but only during her meals. She usually drinks less than four ounces a day total. Since her 12 month check-up, she has 3 bottles (20 oz.) of milk per day (now supplemented with Pediasure). But she is so attached to her bottle, that she will only drink milk out of it.
For the past 3 months, every week, I have tried to get her to drink milk out of a cup. However, she refuses, fights it, and will not drink the milk at all. So I pour it in a bottle and she downs the whole thing. Can you say total manipulation?
THE ISSUE
Because she is underweight, she needs her whole milk and supplement. If she weighed enough, I would toss all the bottles and see who had the stronger will. (Me, me, pick me please.)
Other than all out warfare, does anyone have any ideas? I'm having visions of her going into first grade with her bottle attached to her backpack. Ok, not really, but sometimes worst-case-scenarios do sneak into my head.
By AllBeehive Tuesday, January 27, 2009
11 Comments:
hide all the bottles, offer milk to her in a sippy cup first, every time. if she refuses, wait an hour before dumping it into a bottle, without her seeing.--so the caving in is less noticeable. hope it works!
Other thought is to just toss the bottles, after a day or so, she'll begrudgingly take the sippy cup (not that that time will be pleasant at your house).
Third option is to offer thin milkshakes (mmmmm) out of the sippy cup. 200% fat variety. she's a sharp cookie, she'll catch on quickly, it's just more fun to push mommy's buttons!
best tip yet: try not to want her to drink it. my kids always know when i want them to eat or drink something, and they LOVE to do the opposite. we've found totally ignoring them (not yelling at them to eat their dinner!!) actually gets them to eat more. ah, parenting is fun! :) hang in there! drink some wine yourself!
I'm having the same problem. She'll drink water out of the cup, but not milk. I'm going to keep offering it gently on a weekly basis until 15 months. At that point (about 6 weeks from now) I'm going to try the all out warfare approach.
Here's one other thing I tried (that didn't work for me but worked for 2 friends of mine). Get a different kind of sippy cup... something VERY DIFFERENT and cool and exciting for milk only. We tried a sippy cup that has a straw, and some cartoonish things and she clearly prefers the flashy sippy cup over the boring old one she was used to drinking from.
One last thing that didn't work: We tried giving her non-sippy cups (just regular plastic small cups) in the bath tub since she's pretty uncoordinated.
Good luck, and whatever ends up working for you... please do post it so I can try it too!
It is possible that she will give up the bottle when she is ready to do so without trauma. mom
We only allowed the bottle while in the high chair. She got sippy cups (spill proof kind) when she sat in the "big girl chair", when she wanted something to drink during activities or while on outings. She quickly decided she was a "big girl" and no longer wanted the bottle. We also bought nipples for the bottle that were very difficult to get a good "flow" ... so she had to really work to drink from the bottle.
I understand the struggle. I also had visions of her bottle following along to school. Not to mention the whole switching from pull-ups at night to real panties.... the switch came by accident when we were on Holiday,apparently we ran out of pull-ups, Gramma didnt realize she was suppose to use one and put her to bed ...without and guess what?no accidents. I think she held out on me on purpose!
Good luck! your daughter is certainly a cutie!
Don't worry...all things pass in time...even when you think there is not a light at the end of the tunnel...I've been there many times and it seems like it will never end, then you look back and can't even remember there was a problem.
While pediatricians might tell you that you should get rid of the bottle between 12 and 18 months, my kids did the same thing with their milk so I let them keep the bottle until they were a little older. Somewhere between 18 and 24months we threw all the bottles away while they were asleep at night (no temptation to break out the bottle if they are really gone) and told them that the bottle fairy took their bottles to another baby. It worked perfectly.
maybe I'm way out there, but I agree with mom.:) Hadley is only one years old. Cut her some slack. She probably just likes the suckling feeling. We all end up with braces in the long run anyways. right?
Thanks for all the great advice. I'm going to try it all.
I know I'm a bit late here, but when I was transitioning my son to the cup, I found that the Nuby cups were very helpful. The one I had for him was much like a bottle with a nipple-like spout. I can't seem to find that one on their website today (my son is now 3), but others on the site might provide a smoother transition for your baby. Hope that helps!
http://www.nuby.platformtwo.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=26&Itemid=43&lang=en
Actually, this link is better from the Nuby site...it shows items in their BPA free line and I found the one I used for my son...the Sport Sipper...
http://www.nuby.platformtwo.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=65&Itemid=92&lang=en
Moltomom,
Thanks for the great links. Those are super fun and fancy looking cups. I've purchased a couple more fun ones to entice her and will add these to the list.
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