14-Month-old Wants Milk in Bottle Only.

Hi, J.,

I learned too late with my first that if you start them with water or juice in the sippy cup, it is very hard to get them to take milk from the sippy cup after. It is better to start them with milk and nothing else in the sippy cup until they've gotten the hang of it.

One way to trick them into taking milk from the sippy cup is to start by adding a little milk to the water everytime and slowly increasing the ratio of milk to water over a couple of weeks.

You might also try to forgo the sippy with milk for now and see if you can introduce milk in a cup with straw rather than sippy. As I recall, this was the method that worked for my first child (though it's amazing how quickly we forget these things). The straw took a little while to learn, but she got it eventually. And milk only until she was taking it without problem.

I remember this being a frustrating little hurdle, but you'll succeed!
Good luck!

H. S

Whether milk is drank out of a bottle or a cup makes no difference as to whether it causes tooth rot or not.

Bottle tooth rot occurs when the bottle in held for extended periods of time in the mouth, like all night. Saliva naturally cleans the mouth and can't do it's job if milk is continually dripping onto the teeth. I don't really have issues with bottles even for older kids.

I have very weak enamel and have always had bad teeth. It may run in your family to have weak enamel too. Your son is old enough to go to a Pediatric Dentist and get his teeth cleaned and X-Rayed. The Dentist may be able to do some preventive treatments to strengthen his enamel too.

A Pediatric dentist is a specialist in baby and children's teeth. You can usually find them through your insurance book or a local dentist referral agency. We found ours through the state, the kids have Sooner Care, which is state insurance, Medicaid, for low income families. They were able to give me the names of about 10 that were within a hundred miles.

I would just take away the bottle. He might be upset for a while, but he'll soon realize if he wants the milk, he needs to drink it out of the cup.

If you want to give him other sources of calcium, cheese and yogurt are a good option.

My daughter is 21 months and still gets a bottle at bedtime. I brush her teeth immediately after to avoid the "baby bottle mouth" concern. She will drink milk out of a sippy during the day, but she enjoys her bedtime bottle, so I see no reason to take it away from her. Baby bottle mouth occurs when the milk sits against the teeth for a long time (like if they go to sleep with a bottle). My daughter's teeth are fine at this point.

Have you tried various types of sippy cups? My daugther started with the Nuby cups because they were most like a bottle. It took a while before she transitioned to the hard spout sippy cups. Maybe a different type of sippy cup would help? Also, if you go cold turkey with him, as long as he is getting some other diary (cheese, yogurt, etc.), he'll be fine without milk for a couple of days. Just give him the cup with milk and if he doesn't drink it too bad- try again at the next meal. He'll eventually learn. Good luck!

A bottle is just a tool to use to drink before a child can hold a cup on their own. Once they're able to hold a cup and tip it back to drink, the bottle goes bye-bye. Go cold turkey and take it away. Trying to wean it away is just tortue for both of you, drawn out. Just take it away and offer a cup of milk with each meal, starting with breakfast. He will fuss for a while but when he's thirsty, he will drink. And do not give any other liquid until he works his way up to the 3 cups of milk a day. Once he used to drinking the milk, go ahead and add other liquids. May take a day, may take a couple weeks. You're the mom. You're the one in charge. Don't let the child dictate what should be done.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

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Hi J.,
My son drank from the bottle longer than most. At night it was very soothing to have the milk. He usually sucked on the bottle for a few seconds and he would fall asleep.I think it went on until close to 3 yrs. I never told the pediatrician. Finally we went cold turkey. he had a bad few days but then gave it up. But he was 3.At age 2 we went cold turkey for all day bottles.But the night was the hardest.Fortunatly it did not effect his teeth.
If you do not want to go cold turkey then as long as his teeth are checked, go alittle while longer.

My friend breast fed her child . The mom has a history of bad teeth and the child at 2 years had tooth rot. the fronts had to pulled out. Needless to say she stopped breast feeding .If you think your son has inherited weaker teeth then you may need to stop the bottle..

Good luck,
L.

The day my daughter turned one (she is 14 months old as well) I asked a similar question. She would take a sippy cup at daycare, but it turned out she was not taking milk at all. Daycare decided not to mention this to me until I asked about it. So she was holding out all day to get a bottle at night! I thought it was odd that she would drink so much milk at night. So I just made her go cold turkey. She pretty much didn't drink milk all that day and the next morning she kind of snubbed it. She realized if she wanted some milk she better drink it out of the cup! I think since your son CAN drink out of the cup then there is no reason why he can't drink his milk out of there too. It's really tough but like most people told me, they will not go more than a day or two without milk. Just make sure you give him his calcium another way while he is without milk! Good luck!

He won't get bottle rot if you aren't giving him the bottle in bed or letting him carry it around in his mouth all day. When the sugars from the milk sit on the teeth constantly that's when the problems come in.

Have you tried giving him the milk warm in the sippy? That seemed to help my little ones when they were first getting milk. Also, you could add just a touch of Ovaltine to sweeten the deal so to speak.

I can't help on the bottle weaning issue. Mine never really had a bottle enough to be attached to it and I started my daughter trying the sippy when she was 6 months old (of course she didn't get it for a couple of months).

You put the milk in a cup, put it down & walk away!!! end of story!! My son refused to drink milk for 3 days b/c we switch him off the nuby cup & gave him a hard plastic (he was off the bottle @ 8 mnths). He didn't die, didnt lose weight but once he figured out that mama wasn't given in he finally accepted it! Same thing with my daughter she wouldn't take the milk cup from me but if i put it down & walked away she would grab it up and start to drink it! it was the best advice i ever got.. just do it, they'll adjust.. babies are adjustable and flexible.. it's what YOU want to put up w/! If you give in, then obvioulsy you're not ready to end the bottle issue. They'll survive :) Good Luck