19 Mo. Old Still Refuses Sippy Cup

I posted a similar question a bit ago and the straw top sippy worked for me!

"Why, at 1.5 years old, is it necessary that she be weaned from the bottle ?" another memeber asked.
Answer: The American Pediatric Association recommends weaning an infant from the bottle or breast at age one. There are considerations for what is known as "baby bottle mouth" (tooth decay caused by pooling milk in the mouth), as well as a link to iron deficiency with prolonged (after age one) bottle use.
Just had to address that. There are some great answers here.
Good luck! :)

Keep in mind that no adult is still drinking from a bottle :) Give her time and she may decide when she's ready and just do it then. Some kids are on their own agenda :) My son gave up the bottle at 18 months on his own but refused to drink milk from a sippy cup. He would drink juice and water but refused milk. He refused milk altogether until just recently - and he's almost 2 1/2! My ped said it's ok as long as he eats cheese and yogurt and I found a vitamin supplement with Vit D. I also give him well watered down OJ for kids with Calcium and Vit D and he loves it. Don't worry too much. Just keep offering it and she will eventually get it.

Hi L., First off, pack or throw away the bottles!! If you don't have them/she can't see them she will have to use the sippy. Don't give her a choice...like most people she will stick with what she knows and is comfortable with given the choice. Does she like juice boxes? You can buy cups with straws if she does well with them. I understand that you are worried about dehydration, but she will drink if she is really thirsty and we do get a lot of liquid in the foods we eat. Hang in there, this is just the first of many "battles" that we all go through as parents. LOL wait til your teaching her to drive!! Best wishes.

It is definitely time for the bottle to go! Some bottles like Avent, have the transition nipples. It is a bottle for babies, but you can insert a sippy spout as the child gets older. Have you tried the sippy cups with the straw instead of the spout? Make a big deal about how her sibling is a big kid and drinks from a big kid cup, that she is becoming a big girl and she is ready for a big girl cup of her own. Let her know that the bottles will be moving out soon and follow through. If they are not available, she can't insist. You have done a great job of giving her time and offering the sippy cup. Now make the sippy cup exciting, it's all about presentation. Talk to you pediatrician, they usually have great ideas too.

Why, at 1.5 years old, is it necessary that she be weaned from the bottle ?

yeah, I know, I was more into the accomplishments with my first two children than I was with #'s 3 and 4. But 3 and 4 got the blessing of a busy mom who realized that whether one used a bottle until age 3 just because you "liked it" didn't really matter half so much as having a happy and healthy home. Child #1 became acquainted with the sippy cups that don't spill ?? Well, on her suggestion we tried them, but we found that the younger kids couldn't sip strongly enough to get anything out of them. I tried it once, and it was DIFFICULT. So we pulled the anti-spill mechanism out of the cap, and then it poured out the sippy hole just like an old fashioned sippy cup. And then the kids could use them.

There is nothing sacred about a sippy cup. Your 19 month-old could go right from a bottle to a real cup if you wanted to. When I did that move, I used a glass, that I controlled, because the kids have to learn to use a cup. They tend to try to chew it at first, and a lot of fluid leaks out around the sides until you and the child get coordinated. But it's fun (and can be funny if you treat it right).

Why not offer choices ? We did cups at meal time, and I let the kids have bottles during the day. They didn't spill, it kept the child happy and hydrated, and who was it hurting ? (My mother, who thought I was awful for letting a 3 yr old have a bottle like her baby sibling -- I thought the complaint was WAY more bother than the bottle. And neither child #3 nor #4 went to kindergarten toting a bottle)

But if you really want to get rid of the bottle -- try a sports bottle -- there's no nipple, but it is something you suck. It would make your child appear "older" cuz she/he gave up the nipple ???

I'm with the people who say try a straw cup. We bought 4 different kinds of sippy cups for our 1 year old and finally tried a straw cup. At first, he still wouldn't drink milk from the straw cup, but would drink water. Finally we just put away the bottles, and only offered milk in the straw cup. Within three days, he was drinking everything from the straw. Now he will use a different sippy cup when at "Grammy's" house.

Hi L.!
Have you tried helping her use a regular cup similar to one that you use? I’ve been trying to get my 10 mo old to start practicing with sippy cups and he’s just not into them. So we put his water at mealtimes in a regular small plastic cup and sometimes his formula too. Yes, it’s messy and requires that an adult help the whole time, but he likes it, it gets him off the bottle a few times a day and he drinks really well with them. Plus, it will totally eliminate one whole transition for you--- you would be trying to get her off sippy cups before too long anyway. Give it a try. Good luck.

Let me tell you what i did. I bought two sippy cups that look the same and i used one. My kid was watching me use it often and he wanted to drink from the same cup. So i then took the other one that i had for my kid and gave it to him and he started to drink from that cup. May be you can try this. Sounds silly but worked for me.

I would skip the sippy cup and do small dixie cups, water bottles, and sports bottles.

take the bottle away and keep giving her the sippy cup and don't give in, i did and i had to pay $5,000.00 for braces and yes it was from a bottle. but i learned with the next two i had.
good luck T.

We went right from the bottle to straw cups. We went to a friend's and I forgot her cup so we borrowed a sippy and she threw it. Straws are fun!

She will not give up as long as she knows she will eventually get the bottle. Throw the bottles away.

Get various sippy cup styles and keep offering them to her throughout the day. Leave one within reach on tables etc. Do not make a big deal of it or get frustrated or force it. Act like you don't care at all that she doesn't want it and take it away quickly when she pushes it. She will not dehydrate herself to death. Once she sees they are her only option, she'll happily use them. My son pushed sippy cups away for two whole days and on the morning of day 3 used them like he had never done anything differently. Just Do it!

Sounds like it's time for the cold turkey method! Take all bottles away. Give the cup in the morning after waking with your normal routine. Kids are most thirsty first thing in the morning. If she's thirsty, she'll drink. If she rebels, then she doesn't drink. When she gets thirsty enough she'll start using it. Could take an hour, a day, 3 days or a week. It will not harm her health at all. She's using this as a power struggle, especially at 19 months of age. Bottles are only a tool until they are able to learn to tip it back. As soon as they're old enough to tip their bottle back that's huge tip that they're ready for a cup. Let her use a sippy until about age 2, then offer an open cup at meal time and use sippies just for travel or being outside on the move, which is what sippy cups were originally designed for, not for daily constant use. Children are learning to use open cups so much later now because of the sippy cups, which are not much different from a bottle. You still have to suck to get drinks out of sippies, lol! But again, cold turkey is the way to go since your child is already 19 months old.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

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I worked in a day care awhile back and we had a little girl who was much the same way. We tried the sippy cups with the softer more nipple like tops, we even found shorter wider bottles that had a sippy cup type top, and finally after we thought all oftens were expired she walked up and grabbed a water bottle and started drinking. So we talked to her parents and they had her drink everything from water bottles. About 2 weeks after that she slowly started using regular cups only under supervision of course, but she just didn't need the sippy cup. You can see if that will work with your daughter. I have come to find out that girls between 15 and 28 months are way more independant then boys. I have 2 sons and I was shocked when I started working in the day care and actually saw how different boys and girls actually develop. I hope this helped.

If she won't even take the "Nuby" cups which have a soft spout, similar to a bottle nipple, then I would just totally skip the sippy cup and go right to drinking out of a regular cup. It can be more messy, you'll just have to be careful. My 10 month old even likes drinking from a regular cup.

Hope this helps!

I agree with the no leak straw sippy cups. My son thought it was fun to drink through a straw.

Personally, (and I had a huge bottle fan, too!) I would put what she likes best in the sippy or a cup and the rest of the stuff in the bottle. It might just inspire her to give it a whirl!

Our oldest daughter had a hard time adjusting to the sippy cup too. We went through a lot of different kinds and then one day at daycare, someone's little boy had a sippy cup where the top was sort of like a bottle, like soft rubber that bottles are and we tried that. Before long she got used to them and then we gradually introduced the other ones again and now she'll use any sippy cup we give her. You could also try a straw sippy cup too. They're made by Nuby. I've included a link for you. These aren't the exact ones we had, but basically the same thing. Hope this works for you!

http://nuby.com/NaturalTouch/