Sippy Cups and Whole Milk

Hi, K.! :)

I had this same problem. It's really common. The little babies just need time to adjust to this new thing. People just have to have the patience to be consistent with it. But a lot of us try to rush the child by adding sugary items in with the milk. DON'T DO THIS. Especially not NesQuik. There's just too much sugar in there, especially for a 13 months old baby.

I tried everything - she refused to drink her milk and I was so scared that she would get dehydrated, so I gave her juice instead. What I didn't know is that you're not supposed to give children more than 4oz of juice a day (because of the sugar). Thank God, I found this out just 2-3 weeks after I started giving her bottles of juice to keep her hydrated.

In the end, I found out it was the sippy cup she didn't like. I started her out on the Avent sippy cups. She HATED those. *I* hated those. They leaked like crazy.

Then I tried the NUK sippy cups because the spout was more like a bottle nipple. She liked those better, and they were fine for several weeks, but she still didn't drink nearly as much as she needed, AND they still leaked just a bit.

Finally, I tried the Playtex sippy cups. The ones with the handles built into the lids. They come in green/blue, purple/yellow, pink/lavender, red/blue, etc. You always seem them in the baby section of grocery stores, as well as at baby stores.

My daughter GLOMMED onto these. I highly recommend them. They have a sucking mechanism similar to a bottle and then you can take the clear rubbery thing out so that when they get older, they can drink without sucking and transition to a regular cup. They are great for teething (my daughter loved to chew on them sometimes) and they don't leak.

If you are desperate, however, and must mix something into your child's milk, make it something like 1 oz vanilla-flavored soy milk, added at the very top of the milk. Something like that won't give them a sugar-rush/overload.

But if you don't wanna do that, you may just have to start at 1/3, and after a week or two, go to 1/4 and then after a week or two, phase it out more and more, little by little, until he doesn't even know he's got all milk.

I hope that helps!

1 mom found this helpful

You could try mixing flavoring into his milk in a sippy cup to entice him. You could do something as simple as Hershey's syrup, or look for sugar free, or Nesquick, or Ovaltine. He won't be able to resist the treat, and drinking it will get him used to the milk taste as well as getting his body used to the milk itself. After a week or so, you can start to gradually decrease the amount of flavoring.

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Ok, so we TOTALLY cheated when it came to this phase. My 13 month old would not even consider taking a bottle, let alone a sippy cup, even though we tried for months with my milk, formula, juice, and water, various cups, bottles, etc. - No luck!

When she hit 12 months we tried the whole milk, still not interested. We added a small amount of vanilla flavoring (like the syrup you add to your coffee), just a tiny bit.

She LOVED it, of course because it was sweet and she started taking 3 servings of milk each day and I weaned her from BF. After a few days of this we slowly cut back the vanilla, and she never noticed.

Like I said, we totally cheated (we don't normally give her sugar), but I really wanted to wean her and figured if it was only for a week then it was worth it. :) I know, I am such a bad mom.

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Adding some Ovaltine to the milk is how I got my twins to start drinking it (per the suggestion of my pediatrician). Then over time just add less and less until they are finally drinking it plain. I don't know what all the worry is about having a bit of sugar in their diet if it serves a good purpose. You eventually remove it, but it's honestly not that big of a deal.
Right now I'm trying to get my 13 month old to drink whole milk too. He spits it out almost every time. You can try the straw like others suggested (which I've tried too without any luck). It just takes patience and time. My twins didn't even like the chocolate milk for the first few weeks. Stick with it, offer it at all meals and snacks and eventually they will come around.

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It may be the taste, but sometimes these kids know naturally if somethings is not good for them. He may have an allergy to milk and not want it for that reason.

In some people the congestive nature of milk doesn't work very well for their bodies - I know this one personally. I spent many years w/a variety of problems that could have been eliminated if I avoided milk and wheat - two foods that I react to. One of those problems was recurrent ear infections.

Try other types of milks and drinks in the cup - Soy milk, Rice Milk, Almond milk.
Also, see if he likes milk if you help him hold the cup to sip.

It may be as simple as trusting his body to know what is good for him.
I don't recommend the allergy tests. They are painful.

There are many sources of the nutrients you get from milk, with a little research you can make sure he is getting what he needs, even if he doesn't want the milk.

Warmly,
N. Marie

I like the answer below mine. I have a fourteen month old that used to pound up to 24 oz bottle in one sitting to almost refusing milk in her sippy. She was taking a few sips at lunch / dinner. I think I am going to give the vanilla a try just to get her calcium intake up more.

My daughter still will not drink cow's milk. She self-weaned at 10 months and only drank water until she was 18 months. Then she suddenly started being okay with vanilla soy milk, which is what she still drinks now (at 21 months). Your child may like the sweeter taste of vanilla soy milk as well. For those few months when she wouldn't take anything but water we made sure that she got yogurt everyday, and the doctor said that should take care of her calcium needs. I don't know if you have tried this, but when I weaned my son I would put the warm milk in the sippy cup and then hold him and read to him just like I did when he was nursing. After a few weeks he didn't care about that anymore, but it helped initially.

I just have to say I feel the frustration. My son will drink whole milk now....after mixing formula and whole milk for a while. However he will only drink his milk out of a bottle still at 21 months. I think it's his little comfort. (Also I notice he prefers the slower nipples over the fast flow ones so that may also be a reason for not liking sippys). And I have to say, who am I to take that comfort away from him when he isn't ready. I'd scream if someone took my coffee or wine away from me!
He will however drink water and juice and smoothies out of other cups.
I know eventually this will pass so I try to not let it be an issue. He will not be drinking from a bottle forever and even now when I ask him if he wants milk/bottle he often says no, even at bedtime and naps! So something is shifting without any interference from me.

I would stick with the mixing the formula and milk, slowly adding more milk over time. If he drinks it cold, save yourself the hassle of warming and start with it cold. Once he is drinking the whole milk then try the sippy cups. One change at a time!

And yes I would also try flavouring the milk too as suggested below! Chocolate is irresistable to most.
Good luck

Hello K.-

The milk may be too thick for him to get out of the stopper. Try a spill proof bottle with a straw.

Good Luck!!

R. Magby

I would do one thing at a time. Either lose the bottle or the formula, but let him get used to one before doing the other. How long did you do 1/3 milk before moving up to more? I would give him 3-5 days to get used to each level of mixture before moving up. I did not start using chocolate mix until I switched form whole milk to 2%.

Don't worry if for some reason he won't take milk out of a sippy cup just yet. As long as your wee one is getting calcium/vitamin D from somewhere, he'll be fine. My son completely refused to take a sippy cup until he was 2, but by then, he saw that people were drinking out of a regular cup and what did he want? A regular cup. Just give it some time. :D

My daughter WILL NOT take milk out of a sippy cup. I have no idea what it is. She will drink water out of a sippy cup till the cows come home. I've tried chocolate syrup to no avail. The only thing that will work is to put it in a regular cup and give her a regular straw - she needs help of course. For some reason, she will drink it this way. Totally weird! Control thing maybe?

I think you have to focus on one transition at a time. First going to whole milk in a bottle. You're doing the same thing I did - I would mix formula with milk, using warm water for the formula to make it more room temperature. At first I used only a little milk, then transitioned to more until it was all milk. If she didn't drink much in one day, I wouldn't freak out. She'd eventually get past it and start drinking more. There were times she went several days only drinking a couple ounces of milk. Once she would drink whole milk, I had her drink from a bottle for a while before we switched entirely to a cup. My Ped said we should be off a bottle by 15 months, so if you're starting now, you should be on track. Now she's 17 months and would drink milk all day if I let her - she loves it!

We had a really hard time making this change from bottle to a sippy cup - we let her decided when she was ready to give up the bottle - it took almost a year but then one day she was good to give up the bottle and drink out of sippy cup.

Maybe it's too much too fast. Will he drink whole milk out of a bottle? Will he drink formula out of a sippy cup? Maybe taking away formula AND bottles at the same time is too much for him. Children don't like change... Other than trying to stick with the bottle and whole milk or put his regular formula in a sippy cup, I think you'll probably have to bide your time. Unfortunately there's not a lot you can do to make a child take milk or drink from a sippy cup. He'll do it in his own due time... I remember a time when my son wouldn't take whole milk and when I talked to my pediatrician about it, she wasn't worried as my son ate a lot of yogurt and cheese. Eventually he started drinking more milk....

Hi there: you could try to give him 2% milk instead of whole milk. It still has enough fat but might be more in his taste. It worked for a friend of mine. My daughter doesn't like any milk at all, so I either cheat her and give her milk in oatmeal, etc. or substitute with yogurt and cheese for the nutrients and give her water or diluted juice in her sippy.

I don't really have any advice to help you get him to drink milk from a sippy cup, because I was never successful with it either for my son. But I will tell you that he will drink milk from the sippy cup or another type of container when he is ready. Our son, now 3.5 yo would drink anything but milk from a sippy cup by one, but it took until about the time he was almost three to get him to drink milk from anything other than a bottle! (I know how horrible of me!) His sister who is 13 months younger than him, no problem with any of this at all. I tried to make sure that he got his calcium from lots of other things like cheese and yogurt, so that I could limit the bottles, to 1 or 2 a day. He also had low weight issues, so I needed to make sure he was getting the calories also. I did find that the milk boxes, like the juice boxes, worked pretty good. You will probably want to get one of those plastic holders though for a 13 month old so you don't have milk squirt out if he squeezes the box. Just remember he will transition in his own time, just give him the opportunities he needs to experience alternatives.

I flavored my daughters milk, Just a half teaspoon of Nesquick and her milk was a lot more interesting. It's not really an issue for me, because we brush teeth afterwards anyways (she usually drinks a full sippy cup in the morning) and really, a half teaspoon full of sugar is not the end of the world.
She is two now and I have weaned her off the Nesquick by simply reducing the amount slowly.
Also, she will only drink her milk warm... I would give that a try.

With my son we had to use the straw cups first then the soft, I think they were Nuby, sippy cups. It was only after a very long time of those that he transitioned to milk in them. He was close to 2. I would try the Nuby sippy cups.