advise please on milk

[disneygeek]

I hope you all don't mild a parenting question. I've gotten great help previously on these boards.

My 20 mo old DS will not drink milk from a sippy cup. He takes 2 bottles a day fine but refuses milk any other way emphatically. He drinks juice fine from sippy cup. Won't touch water either. I don't really want to start chocolate milk unless I really have to. Any clever advise on helping him accept milk or is it hopeless?

Thanks so much for your replies.

 

[firecracker]

I would put milk in the sippy cup, put it on the tray at mealtime and tell him, "that's it. if you want something to drink, here it is."

Then if he doesn't drink it, stick it in the fridge until he asks for a drink, then offer it again. He'll get the point. Or take away all juice until he drinks milk from the cup. That won't kill him. Let him drink water and milk only. I've got 5 and 7 year olds and they prefer water to anything else, including pop and juice.

On the other side of the coin, I've never seen an 18 yo college freshman drinking milk out of a sippy cup...so he'll probably outgrow it anyway. But I understand the frustration of a 2 yo still on a bottle so that he gets his milk...

Hope I don't get hammered for these opinions....

 

[Jordan's MOM]

Why don't you try a different type of sippy cup or even a non sippy cup. Buy a really cute cup with a picture of something he likes and present it as a cool new cup (filled with milk of course). Perhaps one of those kid sports bottles that has the straw. I bet he likes the bottle more than the milk and drinks the milk just to get the comfort of the bottle. He does not like the milk well enough to drink it any other way.
Most Drs now say that adding just a bit of chocolate or strawberry flavor to milk is fine. He can also get what he needs though calcium in juices and eating yougert and cheese.He might be a kid that just does not like milk!

Biggest thing is not to get into a power strugle with him. He is almost two. You will not win!! LOL. Just think. This too will pass.

Jordan's mom

 

[crisi]

I have a three and a half year old who still uses a bottle on occation. But since she was about 14 months - only water in the bottle. Milk, juice, etc, come in sippy cups or "big girl" cups.

She is the type of child who has a hard time controlling herself. The bottle preserves my sanity - and I figure she probably won't go to college with it (and if she does, what she does in her own dorm room that isn't determental to her health is her business). Sometimes she "needs" a bottle the way I sometimes "need" chocolate. And it has gotten less and less over the past year - she goes for days without it now.

Stop putting milk in a bottle - water only. Milk in a cup at mealtimes. If you are worried about the amount of dairy, make sure to supplement him with cheese or yogurt or whatever dairy he does eat (my kids both love cheese and yogurt). And make sure you are watering down your juice if that is his main source of liquids. If you aren't currently doing so, you'll need to sneak it - mix your juice with an extra 1/2 can of water next time, and sloooowly work up to 1/2 water 1/2 juice.

 

[catwho]

Most children who eat a well balanced diet don't need milk. None of my kids drink milk. They get calcium, protein, iron, vit. D and K from all kinds of other sources. No anemia. If you child is getting what is needed from other sources than milk, he probably doesn't need the milk.

My kids only drink water when they are thirsty. No soda, juice, kool-aid, tea, milk. That's what dh and I drink. That's what they are used to. Can't help too much with the bottle issue since my kids were breastfed and never had bottles. What would happen though if the bottles just disappeared one day?

 

[disney funseeker]

disneygeek,
my dd was exactly the same. She went from having 5 bottles a day to only 1 cup a day after I took her bottle away. She drinks anything else from a cup but to her milk has to be drunk from a bottle.

Try using a cup with a straw. dd likes the straw idea. Also, it has taken awhile but she eventually got used to having milk in a sippy cup.

 

[Minnie824]

My DD is almost 16 months and we're having the same problem. She drinks water from the cup, but doesn't want any juice, and milk she'll only drink from the bottle. I have about 50 different sippy cups - I tried some with pictures on, straws, just about every kind you can find. I replaced the nipple part of the bottle with a sippy cup type thing and she looked at it and looked at me like I was nuts and handed it back to me. I asked the doctor on our last visit and she said really the only other thing to do was just not give her the bottle, which I'm not really ready to do, because she really cries when we've tried this. Good luck! Let me know what you do for it to work. I think with a second child I'm going to try to start this a lot earlier.

 

[Gillian]

I have also heard from friends that a different milk cup works. And have you tried the milk boxes? I usually get borden at my store. DS likes them, thinks it's special.

We took DS's bottles away when we were on vacation. He was 12 months at the time. It was a new environment, with new cups I got him the blue & green disposable sippy cups, told them they were special big boy cups, and he went for it.

I had previously tried taking away his bottles and only offering milk in cups, but it didn't work very well. If we hadn't gotten lucky on vacation, I would have tried that again, and stuck with it.

I guess we were also lucky with the water/juice thing. I never gave DS juice, so he was happy with water. Now he gets juice sometimes, but is still happy to drink water. Weird kid.

 

[strawberryblonde]

Originally posted by catwho
Most children who eat a well balanced diet don't need milk. None of my kids drink milk. They get calcium, protein, iron, vit. D and K from all kinds of other sources. No anemia. If you child is getting what is needed from other sources than milk, he probably doesn't need the milk.

My kids only drink water when they are thirsty. No soda, juice, kool-aid, tea, milk. That's what dh and I drink. That's what they are used to. Can't help too much with the bottle issue since my kids were breastfed and never had bottles. What would happen though if the bottles just disappeared one day?

I've read a few of your posts and find myself agreeing with you again and again. I'm AL too, wish we could bump into each other

 

[GlennandAnn]

You could buy a really cool Disney cup that comes with a straw that the "big kids" use. That's sort of sippy-like, but a little more "grown up".

Ann

 

[keystone minnie]

Hello,
My daughter wouldn't drink from a sip cup either. I don't remember her age, though I know it was younger than 20 months because our pediatrician insisted on no bottles after a year. Anyway, we tried lots of different cups and finally gave her a drink with a straw (regular cup and straw) -- she loved it and shortly after that switched over to some of the sip cups. There are still sip cups she refuses to drink from. (e.g., ones with handles) Picky toddlers -- go figure!

Good Luck

 

[elemusing]

I had to throw out my bottles to make myself stop giving my DS a bottle. When he saw that I truly had no bottles left and that I couldn't grab one out of the cabinet, he gave in to the sippy cup.