2 Yr Old Won't Drink Milk in Anything but a Bottle

I say don't sweat the small stuff! Kids grow up so fast...let her have the bottle with milk! She will eventually grow out of it. I think doctors and experts freak us out about some things that are so trivial. I went back and forth with taking my son's pacifier away and finally my dad asked, "Have you ever seen someone walk down the aisle with a paci?" He was right they are only small babies/kids once!! As long as she is brushing her teeth after the night bottle I think you are in the clear!! Hope this helps and good luck!

My children were the same way. Something about the taste of milk coming through a rubber nipple. FOr my granddaughter, I found a cup that had different tops, one being a rubber nipple that you could exchange with a rubber spout. That seem to work pretty good. I would even try to take the nipple off of a bottle and have them drink from the bottle to show them that it was the same but it just has to be something about the taste from a nipple. I always took my children off the bottle between 1 year and 18mos (when I started potty training) to cut down on going to the bathroom so much.

Don't stress too much about this. Its not like she is about to enter kindergarten with a bottle :-) Alot of kids give up bottles before they are 12 months old and others still have them at 3 years old. Remember its a battle of the wills...and I'm sure you've heard "pick your battles". You might have to determine why she wants milk...meaning is she thirsty, hungry or does is represent comfort. Many children have milk allergies and there are many ways to get around providing enough calcium without having milk. If you are mainly worried about calcium intake, check out this website for non dairy calcium sources.

http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/nutrition/calcium_non_dair...

Try not sweating this one. Give her the bottle,she will out grow this thing she has going with the bottle. It is very natural for her not to want to give up the sucking motion. She isnt ready yet so do not make issue.

Everyone needs liquids, you can live without food. I had the same problem with my boys but I decided to get them involved even the youngest at the time he was about 2 1/2 I told them there were some babies that needed bottles they had none they were very poor and very sad. We needed to clean the bottles and mail them so they could drink the had just been born...the boys love stories and they did just that right after I took them to the store and let them pick out what they wanted to drink out of and it couldn't be a bottle because all bottles in Ga needed to be mailed to these other babies. They picked out their own cups and I never had a problem with it again. Now the super nanny also does a story and she has the child mail the bottles into the mailbox at their house and she has the child also pick out a special cup then the next day when the child wakes up they find feathers by the mail box from the bottle fairy and a special gift for giving the bottles to her in the mail. They say sometimes it's easier when the child can take part in the process on their level maybe even find a book that shows fairies like tinkerbell and tell her a story to get her involved so she will be willing instead of against this process. Best wishes i hope you can find something to help her with this and so that she will drink. She sure needs some liquids so she doesn't get dehydrated.

Everything in its time. My son didn't stop taking a bottle till he a little over three. Each child develops at their own rate and each child needs different levels of comfort. The bottle is more than just a way to get a drink it represents comfort. If you really want to try and switch your child right now then try a soda bottle or sports bottle. My son never used a sippy cup. He just wouldn't use one. Finally I asked why, he didn't like the taste of the plastic. To this day he refuses to drink out of plastic cups. The point is it may honestly be that your child may have a different reason for refusing a sippy cup. Try different types of containers.

Hello! I had the exact same problem with my son. My pedicatrician is an older, very wise man who has been doing this a long time. He said it was more important to get the milk in the child than to worry about the bottle. He told me to just let my son have it out of the bottle, that it was really no big deal. I just only gave it to him at home, mostly in the mornings and always at night. That way you don't hear the critizism that your child it still taking a bottle. I myself starting not liking milk after the bottle and did not get enough calcium and I had three broken bones before I was 12. In reality a 2 year old is still a baby, just let her have the bottle a little longer. She has the rest of her life to be a grown up.
Just wanted to add in response to Sharie G- YES you can do harm when they don't drink for a couple of days! My son does not like to eat or drink and we quit worrying about it one weekend and didn't force him to like we normally did. He became limp and unresponsive and we ended up in Scottish Rite for dehydration. He had to have 8 hours of IV fluids. This was all because of not drinking for a couple of days.

I know this will be an unpopular response but I lived in a French speaking island when I children were little. Both drank from a bottle until they were 4 years old. They also drank from sippy cups and small glasses but took their bottles when we traveled, which was often or when they were in the mood for comfort.

In some European countries, children nurse until they are five year old and bottles are not frowned upon. The idea is that it gives them security and at the same time self-confidence. My family was horrified. Even strangers on planes and in airports verbally attacked me.

My sons are grown now and had no dental problem or insecurities EVER. I sat a date with mine and told them stories about the day when they graduate from the bottle and pass it to a little baby. We built up excitement and on the day assigned, I made a big deal of it with a ceremony. They gave me their bottles and we talked about the babies that would get to grow up to be big one day. We celebrated before they could start missing the bottles and then drove the bag of bottles to a mission. Neither ever cried for them after that and that was the end of it.

Kids grow up fast. Just like adults they like their rituals. As adults we have our comfort food and things we do when we feel insecure. We have that choice. Yet we take away blankets, favorite toys and bottles when little ones are still drawing comfort from them. They grow out of these things when they are no longer needed. Believe me; my sons did things ahead of many of their American counterparts, bottles or no. Kids grow up way too fast and only have one shot at childhood. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Good luck.

Why does she HAVE to have milk? My daughter was allergic to it, so after the first 18 months of soy she got her vitamins in other forms.

I believe as long as she is getting fluids she is fine.

WOW, you have a lot of advice here! I agree that the child will grow out of it. I did get my daughter off a pacifier with the fairy story taking them to the babies and then the fairy gave her a gift. We really talked about it leading upto the day the fairy came!

I am so glad to hear all the moms saying that milk is TOTALLY not only NOT necessary, but very harmful to your child!!!! If you do choose to continue with milk, please check out the video on my site www.PassionParent.com look at the blog and "Their Health" Scroll down to the second post about "What you don't know about milk may be killing your child" ( http://netwebmarketer.com/parenting/wordpress/2008/08/28/... )

My daughter LOVES Almond Breeze almond milk (and the chocolate milk is heavenly!!!) I really enjoy the almond milk, but we even try to limit that as well. My daughter fortunately is a child that will drink water throughout the day. There are fruits and vegies that contain alot of fluids as well.

Would love to hear what you think and how the transition goes!

Here's to being a Passion Parent!
C. Hiebel
www.PassionParent.com

My goodness you have tried everything, I have to admire you for that, but I hope as she grows you will make a stand and stick to it. Your little one has way too much control over you and just standing firm makes you a better mom because they learn to trust your judgment. If you allow your child to make all the decisions, what do they need you for. They are mom, dad, and grandma all rolled into one and they also think they know the finances better than you and where to go on vacation and what everyone should eat, etc. As you see I have gotten pretty silly and on a roll with this, but this does happen all the time and these poor little ones grow up with tons of pressure feeling they have to make the decisions because you let them. They won't listen to no or even hear you at all. Their physical health goes down, they get stressed, OCD and what all. Stop this now and take a stand on this issue and stick to it! I'm being firm with you and all others out there reading this. Too many children in this age of time are having their way and now we all have to pay the price. Be the parent!
I wish you the best with your baby, throw the bottle away as she is watching or with her help and never look back or just let her keep it until YOU decide it is time to get rid of it.
I have a 2yr. old grandson right now and he uses a sippy cup and loves it. It would not be the end of the world if he still had the bottle for a time. BUT..does he really need it? Nope. He adjusted just fine.

"Children raised in a vegan home are perfectly healthy and get enough calcium." This was advice from a pediatrician after we moved because my son was drinking "too much milk". If you are giving her a multi-vitamin I would take away the bottle. Offer her milk every few days and she'll probably come around. If not, she'll be just fine!

I wouldn't be giving her cow's milk. It's not beneficial and 'doesn't do the body good' at all. It's very mucus forming and if taking in large amounts like kids do, they get colds more often, sore throats, ear infections...

She'll get calcium from so many other better sources. I would look at this as an advantage to get her off of cow's milk.

My son was like this too and he is a happy well adjusted almost 16 year old now. One day after somone teased him about being too old for a bottle he finally just said he was done with a bottle. I know of one child who is now an adult who took a bottle to bed for years. Not sure why this is and I'm sure they psych's would have something to say about it, but know that your child is not the first now will be the last to do this.

We use the Sip-Ahh flavored straws, they come in banana, strawberry, chocolate, and cookies'n'cream. You can find them with the chocolate milk mix at Bi-Lo. They only have three grams of sugar and they get to watch the flavor beads disapear as they drink the milk.

I think it is a control issue with the 2 year old. I would just let her drink the milk out of the bottle. If you don't resist she will most likely decided in a couple of months on her own that she does not want to drink from the bottle. If you make an issue out of it she will also make it an issue too.

R.

Have her gather all the bottles for the babies that need them and get rid of them. Offer her nothing but sippy cups or straw cups. If you don't have the bottles in the hosue, you'll be less tempted to give in to her. She will get over it and will start drinking out of the cups. Also, don't offer her anything else at the times you give her milk to drink. If you want her to have milk at breakfast, give her milk and nothing else. She also can't have anything else till she drinks all of her milk. She won't do any harm to herself by refusing to drink for a few days if she decides to go on strike. I'd do the switch now for your 1yr old as well. Otherwise you'll end up in the same situation now with the 2yr old.

Sorry if I sound harsh, but there is no reson a 2yr old is allowed to malipulate her parents over and bottle. And as parents, we need to stop being so afraid to hurt our children's feelings over something so silly.

Good luck!
S.

My son did the same thing. Finally, I put away all of his glass bottles but one when he was asleep. The next time he wanted milk, I told him that all of his bottles had gotten broken and that this was his last one. That as long as he wanted to be a baby and drink from his bottle, that he had better take care of it because I wasn't going to buy him any more. That once that one got broken he had to be a big boy and drink out of a glass like big boys do.

He took his bottle, looked at it, looked at me, and then threw it against the kitchen wall!

After I picked my jaw up off of the floor, I gave him a sippy cup and never had another problem.

Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She'll grow out of it....in the meantime, let her have milk in a bottle just not when she's lying in bed ready to go to sleep.(Decay to the teeth) What does the pediatrician say? I have 2 grown boys and I used to worry so much about them when they were babies...they are very resilient!! She'll eventually want to drink out of a cup just like her friends do:)

Good luck!
P.

My youngest daughter had a problem w/ the switch from bottle to cup only as far as milk was concerned. She just refused it out of a cup. Our family is big milk drinkers so I just decided to give her a sippy in the morning of milk and not give her anything else to drink til she finshed it. It took a long time everyday, but she finally figured out I wasn't giving in. Now she drinks it fast so she can have some "waterjuice". I still give it to her now and make her drink it for dinner. I do agree w/ everyone else as far not panicing if she doesn't drink it. I know many other kids that just don't like it either. Kids find a way to get the vitamins they need through cheese and yogurt and other things. It all depends on how much you want to force the issue. We are all diferent in our beliefs of what is best but the great thing is that we are here for each other. Discuss w/ your pediatrician and decide what works best for you. Good luck!

I would not worry so much about her getting milk! If you do some research on milk, you will find that a cow makes milk to fatten a calf! Once that job is done ... After a few months... The calf doesn't drink milk at all! Actually a older calf can be harmed if OT continues drinking milk! As you said she gets the calcium from other sources! As long as she is drinking water and other good juices I would not be concerned at all!

There is no reason she needs to be drinking milk. She gets calcium from other sources, so at this age, milk isn't a necessity. Does she eat yogurt? My 2 year old LOVES it, but has never been a milk drinker. He has had maybe 2 cups of actual milk in the past year and a half, and he's a very healthy, strong boy. Make sure she drinks lots of water and other healthy beverages (be careful about loading up on too much juice). If she really really wants milk, then sooner or later she'll take it in a cup. I never drank milk as a kid either -hated it -but I ate cheese and other calcium rich foods. I've always been very healthy and have made it (knock on wood) 38 years being a rough tomboy without ever breaking a bone -and I've had some REALLY hard falls!

For calcium, try yogurt squirts.It's yogurt in a push up;similar to a freeze pop design. My 2 yr old loves it!

I too have two daughters ages 4 and 2. My now 4 year old was the same way at 2. She refused to drink milk from a cup. She drank water, juice from the cup, but not the milk. I think kids just associate milk with the bottle, since this is how it is given to them from birth in most cases unless you breast fed. I had to withold the bottle from her. She did not drink milk from a cup up to a few months later. She was very stubborn. Hopefully yours won't be as stubborn. Besides that I am sure she is getting calcium from other foods, so I would not stress the milk issue. Eventually she will come around. Keep offering it to her in the cup. Try throwing the bottle away in front of her. That also worked for me with me second child. She was the same way refusing to drink milk from her cup. But once I told her the bottle was in the garbage all she has is her cup about 2 days later she gave up and drank milk from her cup, Good luck.

My youngest is almost 16 months old now, and finally about 3 weeks ago, she was finally rid of the bottle. I had the same problem as you, and after trying EVERYTHING unsuccessfully, I was a bit frustrated. My 2 year old stopped taking the bottle at 12 months, but I couldn't figure out how to wean my 1 year old. What finally worked for me was a $10 sippy cup made by Born Free that I purchased at Burlington Coat Factory. It mimicks a bottle yet is actually a sippy cup. It has the same flow, she doesn't have to pull as hard as she would have to on a regular sippy. I offered it to her for the first time during a nap I when I knew she was tired, and she hasn't gone to a bottle since. I have been slowly introducing different sippy cups that we already had, and she has not had a problem making the transition. Finally, a relief! I hope that you find a solution that works for you. It certainly gets more difficult as they grow older and more attached!