Can't Get My 14Mos Old to Drink Milk from a Cup!

Try adding a little chocolate syrup to it! Good luck!

Hi there--

Have you tried the Nuby cups--the ones that look like a cross between a sippy and a bottle? These worked like a charm for my little guy. He wouldn't take a cup at all! He went right from the breast to a cup, and he didn't even want that at first. I read up online and heard about this Nuby cup and he LOVED it! They were a bit hard to find back then, but I now I see them everywhere: Babies R Us, Walmart, even CVS! They're also quite inexpensive. Only downside--watch out, they do leak quite a bit.

Good luck :)
~A., Media, PA

Hi A.,
I had the same problem with my daughter when I got rid of the bottle. I hate to say it, but in my case Jenna has never drank milk since. She is now 10 years old. The doctor told me not to worry. As long as your 14 month old will eat dairy in other forms to get calcium she will be fine. She can eat yogurt, drink pedi-sure, eat cheese, broccoli (has calcium), o.j. with calcium, ice cream, etc. Since my daughter is now 10 she eats 1 Tums a day to get her calcium. People that have had their thyroid removed are told to take Tums everyday to get calcium. Your daughter may be too young for Tums, but at least you know that she will be o.k. if she doesn't drink milk. My other daughter who is 6 will only drink choc. milk and it has to be in a cup w/a straw, she won't drink it without a straw. So another idea is instead of a sippy cup maybe try a cup with a straw. I know tupperward sells cups with lids that don't leak and it has a seal proof hole for the straw. It is nice because they are spill proof. I hope this helped you out. J. D (35 yr. old mom of two girls ages 10 and 6, married for 13yrs.)

When my son was a year he did the same thing, from the time i put milk in a sippy cup he refused it! And I tried all the sippy cups. He too would drink any thing else from them except milk. I tried drinking from one of his sippy cups and it sort of makes the milk bubbly, so I thought maybe that was the problem. I got the Nuby cups, have them all over, I get them at Walmart not very expensive either. And then I started with giving him chocolate milk, but a healthy low fat one, he really liked Skiny Cow. Gradually I began mixing it with white milk and now he drinks it all the time and he is 2 1/2 yrs. Hope that helps, I think the chocolate milk was so yummy he just couldn't refuse. The skinny cow is real rich too, so you can start off mixing it and it was still taste yummy. Hope that helps, Good luck Jennifer

Do yourself a favor and pitch the bottle. Even if she won't drink milk at first from the up she will sooner or later if she has no alternative. If you are worried about her getting enough calcium then give her yogurt and cheeses to make up the difference until she gives in and drinks the milk from a cup. Sometimes you just have to be firm and not give a child a choice. Good luck and best wishes.

A.,
I am new to this site and am not really sure how it works or how to maneuver my way around yet.
I am just like you the mother of a 3 yr old and a 15 month old (both girls), but I much older than you...43!
This is my second marriage...I have two older kids, 22 and 17. You would think I could figure out the bottle dilemma myself by now, but I am in the same exact situation. My 15 month old spits the milk right out of her sippy, but will drink water and juice just fine...she only wants milk in a bottle. Please share any advice or helpful hints.
Thanks!
A.

hi A.. i went through this with my daughter when she turned a year old. i too was worried about her not getting enough milk b/c she refused to drink it from a cup. she was used to the juice in the cup and the milk in the bottle. i just had to put all of the bottles away. that way i wouldnt be tempted just to go give her one. she knew if she fought be enough, that eventually i would put it in a bottle for her. i just put the milk in one of the playtex sippy cups. they have handles and really soft rubbery spout. not a hard plastic one. i just had to hold her in the cradle hold and just keep telling her it was ok and stay calm. she would scream and push it away and i would just keep offering it to her. she wanted the milk... so eventually after a few minutes would just give in. it only took a few days of that, and then she drank fine from the cup. i just had to hold her and keep re assuring her. try to stay calm b/c if you are upset, then she will be too. good luck.

Hi! My husband and I were having the same problem with our 12 month old. The doctors told us to try mixing yogart with her milk in the sippy cup. Our little girl will now drink her milk when we mix banana yogart with it. We've only been doing this a couple of weeks now, so I haven't tried it without the yogart. We'll have to see how that goes...

If he is drinking pedisure in the cup dilute it with milk, just a little at first and keep going until it is all milk, it may take 3-4 weeks, go slow and it will make it easier.

Hi, I had the same issue. I was very persistant on repeatedly giving her a cup weither she would drink it or not. After a couple of weeks she started taking it out of the sippy cups. I also went down to only having one bottle and then told her after a week or two that we had to give it to a baby that did not have a bottle! If you are concerned about her not getting her calcium just make sure you are giving her foods rich in it and vitamins.
Hope you the best!

AAM: I am a 33yr. old SAHM with a 2 1/2yr. old and a 2 1/2 week old girl. Married for 6yrs. to a wonderful husband and father to my girls!

I wouldn't worry. I have two of my babies did that to me. One day it will just click and they will switch on their own. I say that because she drinks everything else from a cup. Sometimes bottles with milk are like a comfort to them.

I can definetly respond in the best way I can. Mu daughter is 25 months and still using the bottle. The story,we had a hospital stay and when she came home she quit drinking milk,she was 15 months at the time. Someone suggested to use the sippy cup(which I should have introduced anyway) She completely rejected milk (I thought) for 6 months. I tried everything from buying different sippy cups to having a nutricionist come to the house and give me ideas of how to get her to add more calcium to her diet. Nothing worked ...now we are 6 months down the road and she would barely drink milk,4 weeks ago her Dad says why dont you put the milk in her bottle and I did and NOW she drinks 32 oz of milk per day! I talked to the pediatrician and he says its fine but to ween her off slowly in the next 3-6 months. I am just thrilled she is drinking milk again and I dont care if the sippy cup enters the picture. I give her a small cup at all meals and she uses a cup very well so if the transition is bottle to cup,so be it! What I learned is not to force the situation because you or others think that your child should be using the sippy cup! I hope that helps you in some way!

We have had this same problem with our 2 year old. The only way he will drink milk is from the little bottle that McDonald's has in their happy meal so we just wash it out everytime and refill with our own milk, or he will drink it off of a spoon from ceral.

This may not work but it helped me get my son to go from drinking formula to milk. Use the pediasure. Start by substituting a little of the pediasure for milk. For example, if you are giving her 8 ounces, make 2 ounces milk and the other 6 pediasure. Do that for a week. If it is working, up the milk so that it is half milk and half pediasure. Do that for several days so she gets used to it. Then up the milk ratio again (6 oz milk, 2 oz pediasure). If that works, then try switching to all milk.

I haven't had this problem exactly but it worked for switchiing my son (now 3) off of formula. He preferred it to milk. It is worth trying.

Good luck.

My son did the same thing. Our doctor told us that by 15 months a bottle is horrible for a child's teeth and that we needed to throw them out by that time. Our son wanted NOTHING to do with the milk in his sippy cup, but it was amazing how as soon as we got rid of the bottles, he started drinking from the cup. We realized we were only enabling him by allowing him to continue to use the bottle when he didn't need it. Hope this helps!

Hi A.,
We went through a similar problem when my daughter turned one. Her pediatrician was a little overbearing, but demanded that we stop using all nipples with her, so no more pacifier (another story, but we managed it) and no more bottle for her milk. She refused the sippy cup until my husband and I both sat down at dinner for a couple of meals and we ALL drank from sippy cups. She looked at us like we were nuts (as would any sane adult), but she kinda shrugged and went along with her coo-coo parents. We stopped using the sippy cups, but she kept on, and never looked back.
Just what worked for us, I wish you success no matter which way you choose to go.

Hey hun, I hate to say this but you have to be firm. A week after my son's 1st B-day, we took the bottles and threw them away. He had no choice but to drink from a sippy.
Be firm, or she'll keep doing it.

Hi, Why don't you try to giver her the milk in a sippy cup with a straw attachment. It might work! i would also just keep trying the milk in a reg. sippy cup.

Both of my boys (now 9 & 7) were HUGE milk drinkers. As soon as they went onto milk, I stopped the bottle. My reason to them, milk is for BIG BOYS and should be in a BIG BOY cup. It worked, and that was all they drank in the sippy. (they weren't juice drinkers). The only problem was that when it was time to get rid of the sippy, my youngest no longer would drink milk. The oldest still loves milk and it is the drink of choice for him. The 7 year old has it with cereal, but drinks juice or water mostly. We just make sure he gets what milk would give him in other ways. I should tell you that he still had a sippy at bed time up until he was 6ish. But only before bed, I guess it was a comfort thing for him. Hope this helps, even a little. After re-reading, I guess I'm trying to say, have a specific cup, they have so many different decorated ones, for milk and only use the "special one" for milk. So, if she wants the "princesses" she will have to have her milk. Good Luck!

HI! My daughter didn't not like taking milk from the cup either She would only take juice and water.SO we did the same things as other moms have responded. Those NUBY sippy cups. They have a soft silicon spout that feels very simalar to a bottles nipple. She started using it right away! I read that milk and Juice should be kept in separate cups.. so babies get to know what they are drinking or they will(can) start to refuse everything in fear of it being milk. So we had done that for a lil but now if you ask her if she wants milk or juice she know that difference so we can now use one kind of cup! I hope this helped at all!!!

Maybe you can try putting CHOCOLATE (or strawberry) milk in there as a special treat. Then say she can have chocolate sometimes but not everytime. Good Luck!