My 9 1/2 Month Old Won't Drink Anything

Try cups, try different sippy cups or regular cups with every meal and snack so he gets used to it. No need to start bottles now.Keep trying all your options for beverages too. He will get used to them.

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Hi E.,

I exclusively breastfed and my babies just hated bottles, hands down. What I did was skipped the sippy too (not good for speech or oral motor development--I'm a pediatric occupational therapist) and went straight to a straw. Next time you're sitting down to a meal together, get a regular drinking straw, dip it into your water and hold your thumb over the top, and offer the other end to your baby. Mine loved opening their mouths so I would drip the water in--like little birds! Soon enough they caught on to how to suck from the straw. Maybe this will help. As long as you are still nursing, you don't really need to worry about his hydration or nutrition. If it is an especially hot day, and if you are giving him supplementary foods, he will also be getting liquids from his foods (have you given him watermelon yet? that's great for keeping up the fluid intake).

No sense trying formula now anyways, and cow's milk is not the be-all and end-all of child nutrition. cow's milk was intended for baby cows, not baby humans--why doesn't anyone ever think of it that way??? (minor rant--why is everyone grossed out by the idea of coming into contact with human milk--the butt of many a sitcome and movie joke--but think nothing of drinking, touching, cooking with the milk of another animal???) okay, rant over. sorry for the hijack.

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You have over two months before going back to work, so I wouldn't panic. Juices and such are not a benefit for your baby. At a year old, his milk is no longer his primary nutrition, food is, and drinks are usually served in a cup with meals, no separate bottle feedings needed. If he is thirsty, he will drink. If you are at work, nursing won't be an option. He will know to drink if he is thirsty enough. A lot of breastfed babies are not interested in a bottle or cup if mom is around. If you want to try cup training, drop him off at your mom's for a couple of hours and let her try it, while you are not around and breastfeeding isn't an option.
Good luck!

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I'd skip the bottle entirely, and go straight to a sippie cup. It's what I did with my two boys - they wouldn't take a bottle, either, and were breastfed til they were 14 months and 12 months. I started without a stopper in the cup, and I started at lunchtime (they aren't too thirsty, or too tired at that point...), and within about two weeks had the stoppers in the cups, and they were on their way.

HTH
L.

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Don't worry. Your little boy doesn't need anything else to drink but your breastmilk! Babies shouldn't even drink water regularly until 12 months, their livers can't process it correctly. I started my daughter on a sippy cup with water just for practice at around 10 months. Your baby is getting everything he needs from you. Personally my daughter has never had juice, she eats plenty of fresh fruit and has never needed it b/c of illness. She's 14 months and drinks milk and water. Best of everything!

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E.-

Maybe this has less to do with what you are tryng to give him and more about the delivery method. Could you try a sippy cup, either the standard tilt kind with a lid that prevents total spillage or the kind with valves like Playtex, or even straws??

I would also start transitioning away from the breast excpet during times when you would really be with him like first thing in the AM, immediately following work and again at bed time.

Lastly, if you are going to do juice, make sure you dilute it. When we started using juice in our house, we went with 75% water/25% juice and are still using a 50/50 mixture. My 2-YO daughter doesn't seem to mind or notice. I've even started drinking the 50/50 mix and I've seen some improvement in my own waste line (not that I was a huge juice drinker before her arrival...) We also go with water alot of times.

Just ask your Mom to monitor the diapers. As long as there are still wet diapers, your little boy is getting enough fluids from other sources so there is no need to panic and as he adjusts to the new schedule/techniques/fluids as he matures, things will work out just fine.

Good Luck.
~C.

I think your issue is actually very common among breastfed babies. I still BF my 16 month old although obviously its not his main form of nutrition. He doesn't drink very much either and always hated the bottle. He took diluted juice in a real cup that I would help him hold at about 9 months. The only issue with that now is if he's done, he will pour it all out. So I let him use his sippy cup when we are out or around the house, especially now that its hot. It works well. Also, it sounds like you are giving him a lot of fruits and veggies, which they themselves have lots of water. Just watch for symptoms of dehydration. This is unlikely to happen as long as you keep offering him different beverages. Oh, milk and formula never worked for us either.
On a different note, I know you didn't ask about it, and I totally respect you being a vegan, but I think its somewhat unrealistic of you to expect your son to be one before he can make an educated choice. Toddlers are NOTORIOUS for being picky eaters and I am not sure how you are going to be able to give him the fats, protein, ect that a young child needs for development. I know, you are a first time mom and you have high hopes (we all do). But I think you need to be a bit more flexible with your child (at least vegetarian?). Good luck.

Hi E.,
Do you plan to pump after going back to work? Will you continue nursing in the morning and evening? I think how you feel about both of those things will help to guide your decisions.
I have a 22 month old daughter who has resisted drinking much out of the bottle since I went back to work (when she was 14 weeks old). I was pumping and providing her with breast milk by bottle during the day and nursing by night. On average, she'd only drink ~4 oz all day by bottle, and make up for it when we nursed. Thankfully, she enjoys fruits (and used to like veggies!), so she was getting fluids elsewhere. Now, she doesn't drink any cow milk (by her choice), still nurses in a.m. and p.m. and only drinks water during the day (loves the straw cups!). The pediatrician reassured me that, since she enjoys other dairy products, she is getting her calcium and vitamin D etc. in a different way. I imagine that it's going to be more challenging for you re. calcium etc. as a vegan, but totally doable. As I'm sure your pediatrician will tell you, their milk requirement takes a back seat to solids after turning one, so hopefully this will all naturally and smoothly fall into place over the next couple of months. Good luck with everything!
J.

Hi E.,
I have mentioned this to a few moms already. I have nursed all 4 of my children, and bottle fed as a suppliment when needed.
With my first child, now 18, I was told to use only a NUK nipple for a pacifier and nipple for any bottle.
With my 2nd, now 16, I had to request the Nuk nipple from the hospital.
My 3rd was a few years later, now 8, and the nurses in the hospital didn't know what I was talking about when I asked for the NUK nipple. Nor did they understand my request for the different nipple when my 4th was born.

It is a different nipple and has different sizes according to age. It is shaped more like your own nipple, and is more comfortable for your baby. It is hard and confusing for your little one to change from one shape to another, by using the regular straight nipple.
go here:
http://www.nuk.de/produkte/mahlzeit/bottles_beakers_and_c...

It will show you the nipples you should have for your little one to bottle feed after or during bf.

Or, at this age, you always have the choice of offering him a cuppy, with a soft straw. I found great ones at walmart, I think they are nubi?, and are pretty cheap.

I bought my little one soy milk, but got vanilla flavored by accident, and she loved it. She's almost 3 now, in October, and is drinking whole milk. In a cuppy (only for nap time, she drinks out of a big cup during the day), the same one I suggested to you, I add about a teaspoon of flavored coffee creamer, then warm it, just enough to take the chill off. She likes caramel, irish cream. I try to get different ones every so often.

Another thing you should really do is talk to your pediatrician about raising your baby as vegan. There are nutrients that your son should have that you may be missing in the diet you are pushing/choosing for him. My personal opinion is not to deprive your baby of what he needs and wait until he is old enough to make his own choice. At this age and for the next year, he should be trying EVERYTHING, not just what you want him to.

Good luck

I hope you've discussed your vegan preference with his pediatrician? He needs nourishment whether it be from a cow or not.

Try out some different sippy cups, he may as well just skip the bottle at this point.

L.

Have you tried a straw cup? Most kids like to drink from them. You can also get juice sip boxes and try that. This is not judgment just concern does your pediatrician know about your decision to raise him vegan. I have to agree with Nikki on this. Babies need nutrients from all of the food groups to grow. I would check with your doctor to make sure it is okay and also if you should be supplementing with vitamins. Also, maybe try to have others give him drinks. If he looks to you for nursing only that may be why he won't take drinks from you. Good luck!!

Try a sippy cup. Or a strawed cup. My son started the sippy at 6 mos. My daughter isn't fond of the sippy but she prefers the strawed cups. Try those instead. I wouldn't introduce more then 6 oz of water a day. It dilutes their electrolytes which isn't a good thing. Small children don't need much water.

Try a cup, straw, or a cup with a straw attached.

I loved the recommendation to let the grandmother introduce the cup to the child since I think that will work better since he is attached to you (forgive the pun).

The sooner he gets accustomed to this change the better but there is not rush because the change in inevitable. Just continue to help him work through this change. Eventually he will learn how to drink other things from a cup we all do.

All babies are born with a sweet tooth to ensure that they like breastmilk. Therefore, they're not going to like soy or milk unless you sweeten it. For now, he should only bet breastmilk, but when he turns one, I would try to sweeten the soymilk with fruit (use the blender to make like a watery shake) - bananas should work well, or you can try adding drops of vanilla extract to you as well. Hopefully he'll like that, and then you can gradually reduce the amount of fruit / extract in it until he is drinking pure soymilk. You can do the same with water too - put in some raspberries or slices of orange to sweeten it up.

As for juice, I would avoid that all together. It is not recommended. Even toddlers are advised to limit their juice intake to one cup a day.

If you can pump he should be fine. If he doesn't like a bottle you can try a little flexible cup. A little water every once in a while is fine too. He really probably doesn't need much of anything else to drink if he is eating well and you can nurse him alot when you get home.

My daughter was like your son. Wouldn't take a bottle and didn't like water very much until she was about a year. My advice is to make it available but not to make a big deal about it. I found when I presented the drink and then did something else she was more likely to try what I gave her. Watching her and talking to her about the drink made it worse. As for what to do when you go back to work, you could pump so that your mother can offer him your milk in a sippy cup to get him used to the idea and then transition him to milk. I agree with previous emailers that you might want to reconsider giving him cow's milk. There is controversy about how much soy is good for young bodies to take. Also, I was given soy milk at a very young age and it REALLY messes with my stomach still to this day. Not everyone can tolerate it.

It took my daughter a full six months before she drank the recommended amount of water and another six months before she would drink cow's milk (i.e., she was 18 months when she finally drank milk). It was a bit stressful because I was so worried about her diet (in general she became a very picky eater once we transitioned to finger foods exclusively). Calcium fortified orange juice is something good to try. Also Vruit or V8 Fusion are good juices mixed with veggies which my daughter adored once she was willing to give them a try. One last idea is to find a really fun looking sippy cup so that he gets excited to drink from his "special" cup. My daughter loves a straw cup made by Playtex.

Good luck. They do figure it out eventually, it can just be painful for the parent until they do.

E.,
I understand your choices of being a vegan but honestly if it meant my son drinking or not I would do whatever humanly possible to get him to drink. If that means giving him formula or cows milk then so be it, he may just have different tastes than you do. As for the soy formula, you taste it and you will see why he doesn't want to drink it, I did, EWWWW THAT WAS NASTY. LOL. Here is a thought, have you ever considered trying Good Start formula? I don't know what is in it but it is what I used with my sons and found it to work wonderful, they loved the taste of it. Even if you only use formula for the added fluid intake and nutrients needed for development, it would be a plus.

One other thing to keep in mind, even though we choose to eat a certain way doesn't mean that our children will follow suit as they grow up. I have a friend who like me is Italian and eats everything from meats to fruits, vegetables, and grains, yet her daughter from day one refused all meats. She is a vegetarian to this day and she is now 14 years old. My friend makes her meals accordingly. Now my son went through a phase where he would not eat anything green when he was a toddler, now at 10 years of age he loves green vegetables. Kids are a challenge at times but they are the greatest gift in the world.

T.

E.,

Try a cup. He won't be perfect, he won't be good at it. But I think he'll get it. Just drink little sips in front of him, give him water, and see what he does. You'll have to do it lots of times. He won't get it first try, or 50th,b ut every day, he'll get it after probably 2-3 weeks.

You can do it! So can he!

Good luck,
M.

Hi there! Firstly, I just want to say that I'm also vegan, and while we aren't planning on raising our son vegan (my husband is veg & eats cheese but no other animal products) it is RARE that I see anyone else on this site talking about veganism. So, I'm just happy to see a like-minded individual.
Anyhow, up until a year the primary source of liquid should be breastmilk or formula. A LOT of people have issues with switching to a bottle, and the best thing you can do is keep trying. You still have time to get your baby to take other liquids, even though it feels like time is short. It's great that he will take water at times, and I'd say to keep going with that. Try different types of cups, too, instead of just a bottle. My son is 7 1/2 months old & loves his sippy cup, although he hardly drinks much from it, he jumps on it every time he sees it. I generally only give him water in it, though on occasion will give the liquid remaining from his fruit that I have cooked. (All of his foods are homemade.)
If you are raising your baby vegan, you will probably want to pump milk and give it to him after he turns one year. If he refuses that even after a year, he will be fine drinking water all day until you return home, at which point you can nurse him. I wouldn't push the soy, as the phytoestrogens can mess with a boy's system if taken in mass quantities. You can also try other types of 'milks' such as rice, or coconut water after a year.
Something else you may want to do is create one day a week now that your mom takes him for 8 hours (or however long you will be at work) and starts to give him his meals and liquids so he starts to get used to it. That can also give you some time to prepare to be away from him and get some of your own time in! If my mom were around me, I'd certainly take advantage!
Anyhow, take heart, he will learn that he has to take his water eventually, and it's not that important for him to drink juice if he's eating fruit. His tastes will change several times over his life, and this is just the first of your battles. Try to remain calm about it all. He will adapt - and so will you!

Just one more suggestion (among many here). I don't know what a vegan diet entails, but fruits and veggies do have water in them, so your child is and will be getting some water. Keep offering a cup of water (I wouldn't put anything other than breastmilk in a bottle--you will be adding an unnecessary step when you take it away). If you nurse past a year, he might also just not drink milk during the day and wait for you to come home. Milk is great for us, but it is more the dairy with the calcium that we need, so he can get that in other foods if he can't get it from milk. I would also avoid juice until he is older, and then cut it with plenty of water.

Hi E.,

I had a similar problem. My daughter was exclusively breast fed and then refused any liquids of any kind from anyone. Trying over and over again and having others offer it didn't work. She was incredibly stuborn. I had to be out of the house for the day occasionally and I worried she was going to get super dehydrated. I think I even posted here for help. Finally I came up with a concoction she would drink. It was plain yogurt, vanilla pediasure and cherry juice. Since you are vegan that won't work for you but maybe you could come up with something that would. It was only temporary and I had no intention of giving it to her for long, just long enough to convince her to take a bottle. Once she started that I just diluted it each time until it was just formula. I hope you have some good luck. It's frustrating.

I must say that everyone have different opinions on how to take care of children. I must say that there is a change of parenting definition, if no one else have heard about it, and it is called, (STAY AT HOME PARENT), because men also can take care of their own children as well as the MOM. I have a 3 ½ year old daughter, and my wife have been deployed for the pass year, so what so you all called me???. (SHAM) now back to the main issue, about raising your 9 ½ month son as a vegetarian is not wise and smart at this time, because kids needs certain proteins that they get from different foods groups to help in their young ages, and to also help the immune system to function to help fight off certain medical or bacteria attack on their immune system. Lynsey L made a very good point and that is to check with you pediatrician first???. And in the long run that might make things a lot different if your kids get sick and his immune system cannot stand up to medication or virus effect, also please do some more research and seek professional advice, they are too precious not to give them the best possible attention and care. But you have the final decision, and hope you make the right one, take care and god bless.

The first few days for my daughter back to work were hard as her daughter (my VERY FIRST grandchild) only nursed but eventually she drank from the bottle and sippy cup which she seemed to prefer. Night time she nursed bunches to catch up, lol. Now at 14 years old it seems not to have hurt her at all of course with my daughters second one she started adding the breast milk in a bottle much younger to get hem used to bottles as like she always says "the nursing was for me a pacifier not just for her"

Hi Elana,
Are you only trying these drinks in a bottle? When I was nursing I'd give my kids a sippy cup w/ water while they were in the high chair eating (the ones w/ handles were great). Maybe you could start off w/ a little breast milk in the cup & add water & slowly introduce other drinks as he gets use to the cup? Im sure all will work out well for you, our son & grandma! good luck

my daughter also had a hard time going from breastfeeding from my breasts to another source. she refused a bottle, so we went straight to a sippy cup. at first she like the born free brand the best since the spout is soft and pliable. we also use to the foogo sippy cup now. i would make sure to get both with handles since that also seemed to help my daughter.
also, try to have someone else give your son the water. talk to your doctor about alternative drinks to see what's best.

My youngest wouldn't drink anything else from a bottle either until he turned 1 and I could give him whole milk. Now he still wants to nurse at night for comfort.

Other than that, you may want to revisit the vegan route with him. I'm not saying completely necessarily but where you might allow one or two things you wouldn't if it were you drinking or eating it. I don't have anything against vegetarians but if your child won't eat or drink enough things, isn't it better to give him SOMETHING than to limit his nutrition any more than children tend to do to themselves? Personally I'd be more concerned about him getting enough nutrition.

I would try a sippy cup or a regular cup instead of a bottle first. Instead of a formula you can try Rice Dream or Soy milk. Both have there drawbacks - Rice Dream does not have enough protein or fat for a baby this age so you'd have to find some food that has enough of both, and I am not sure about the estrogen level in soy milk, especially for a boy. Something to discuss with you pediatrician