Hello.
My son is 15 months old and will not take a sippy cup. We have tried every cup under the sun and he still wont take it. Im a working mother so he has to take a bottle. That is the only thing he will take and im afraid that it will start to mess up his teeth. Is there any tricks or anything I can try to get him to take one? Im still breastfeeding and want to wean him and I know that the chances of that happening will be greater if he will take a sippy cup. Any suggestions will be appreciated!
The only thing I can tell you is that if you just eliminate the bottle all together and only offer a sippy cup he will take it eventually. You may have a couple of rough days but the reason he wont take it is cause he knows that if he continues to refuse he will get his way and have a bottle. Just my 2 cents good luck.
Hello Michaela,
have you tried a straw cup? keep trying! Good luck! ~Carmen~
Hello Michaela!
I understand your frustration. Went thru that with my son. Sometimes still do! He is 19months old. I agree, remove all bottles! Its the only way. I thought it was mean to do that to my precious baby. But I was not helping him. He cant stay little forever. Just offer the sippy cup. Leave it next to him or near him. Let him know that its his cup. Applaud him when he does hold it or drink from it. Straw is pretty good idea too. I weaned my son by giving him 1 feeding from bottle and 1 feeding from breast. Then I would give him 2 bottle feeding and 1 from the breast. And so on. Took me 5 days to wean him.
I was soooo happy when that happened. No great trick. Just being consistent. Dont back down! LOL. His sippy cup is here to stay. He will take to it. It will happen!
Your doing great!
Cold Turkey - Get rid of all the bottles and stick to your guns. Good Luck!!
I put only water in the bottle and the other choice in the sippy....it did not take long and the sippy was no issue....the only difference is we did this much sooner than 15 months, so he may push harder but stick firm.....
Highly recommend "Happiest Toddler on the Block" DVD....may help with communicating to him about this.....
We went through this one... My daughter refused all cups/bottles for nearly 2 months and we were in "eating therapy" with a speech therapist... There was no physical reason why she'd refuse them! Anyhow, we started off using something similar to this Honey Bear: http://www.talktools.net/s.nl/it.A/id.771/.f And then when she'd accept fluids with me squeezing that, we advanced to a variety of fabulous cups that are inexpensive and at Target. They're made by The First Years and are in the "Take & Toss" line. There's the cups with the plastic straws, the spill proof sippys, and the flip top lid cups. All are cheap and EASY to wash. Feel free to message me if you need/want more info. Good luck!
My youngest never liked a sippy but uses the straw cups really well. Also, by about 13 months my oldest was able to drink from a regular cup. It's messy to teach but possible if that would help solve the problem (I am embarrased to say I haven't worked as much with my youngest so we still do lots of straw cups.) Good luck!
I wouldn't worry too much. Do you see any adults still using bottles? They will all do it when they are ready. I think people try to rush kids into all these milestones just because of what other people think. In many places in the world bottles are used well beyond what we do here.
If you are really concerned.....try a really soft top like NUBI to transition him.
I'm a speech pathologist who pecializes in feeding difficulties. Still being on a bottle at 15 months qualifies as a difficulty.
We have a recommended program we follow. If you send me a fax number, I can fax you the information.
About his teeth: Sippy cups/bottles ruining teeth is a myth. Just think of how many years people have to wear braces to get their teeth to move. And what force and pain goes into moving them. The cumulative amount of time a child drinks per day amounts to minutes. And they aren't exerting pressure on their teeth while they do in; not in any amount that will move their teeth.
The problem with bottles and sippy cups being used too long is primarily the social stigma, and secondly, there is the lack or correct motor development in the mouth. The way babies transition to baby, to table food over time build up the muscles needed for correct speech production and moving on to eating a wider variety of food.
My major concern for kids who haven't weaned is that they very frequently become the significantly picky eaters we see in the clinic...kids who will eat only one thing..or only a hand full of things. If your child is still drinking breast milk, you must make sure he isn't drinking so much that he is limiting other foods. Brest milk can be a supplemental drink at this point, but doesn't have the required nutritional content for a child of his age.
So..having never seen him an dnot knowing any of the nutritional aspects going on...after we assess the muscles of the mouth adn determine the problem isnt in his mouth, there are a few cups we try first...
Rubermaid makes what they call a "juice box" You find it with Rubermaid items and not with sippy cups. It is a short, rectangular bottle with a hard plastic "straw" that flips up and down. This is a great cup to work with first. When you first introduce it, you can sqweeze it a bit to make the juice come out the top so he can taste and understand how it works.
A second option that works well is simply taking the valve out of the sippy cup you already have. This will defeat the purpose of the no-spill option because without the valve, if the cup is dropped, it will spill. But it teaches kids HOW to drink out of this type of cup. And after a while, you just pop the valve back into the cup.
Also, you CAN and should start him on a "real" cup. I'd only do this with small amounts of water while you're outside playing! It will be messy!
Drinking from the breast at birth is instinctive. After a while, kids learn how to suck/swallow/breath and the reflex goes away and it becomes a learned behavior. All other eating/feeding experiences are learned. Kids have to be taught to eat. And transitioning to a sippy cup (although NOT essential development wise...I'm a mom, so I know its essential SANITY wise for moms who are tired of cleaning juice off the floor!)is a learned behavior. So you just need to teach him how to do it.
We find we typically only see the kids/moms in our clinic who are at their wits end with feeding issues. But assisting with all these baby steps along the way is what a feeding therapist can do as well...keeping you out of crisis mode in the future!
Oh, and a small amount of coughing is to be expected. The first few times your child tries a big cup, or a sippy cup with no valve. He should learn that taking too much makes him choke so he'll adjust the amount he takes for next time until he's a pro. If he doesn't "learn" to adjust the amount he takes in and continues to choke, then you may want to consider a feeding assessment to make sure all muscles in his mouth are developing correctly. You'll need to make sure the speech therapist you see specializes in feeding therapy.
Good luck!
I'm editing my initial response by adding this after reading the other replies. Almost always, it can work by just removing the bottle all together. It causes stress, though. And if there is a motoric issues at all...it wont work. If he cant physically handle the cup or doesn't have the learned skills necessary to use the cup, he wont be able to take the sippy cup, even if he wants to! So then you've created an even bigger problem. Like i said, this almost always works and moms who do it certainly aren't wrong. But if you do take steps to train him on the next level of eating, which is transitioning from sucking to drinking and controlling larger amounts of liquid, you have taught the skill and eliminated the need for it to be stressful for either of you.
My son went straight to a straw. Seemed to be easier for him, plus that's how mommy drinks her water!
Michaele,
my son did not want to drink out of the sippy cup either but he loved the straw cups from the get go and also the sigg thermo bottles that we take everywhere. Don't worry about it - it's not like they need to drink out of the sippy cup. Just another thing you have to get them off of:-)
4 months later he now even drinks out of sippy cups which we discovered on "accident"....
Good luck!
Have you tried a straw top cup? My last child (16 mo now) didn't like sippy cups but does great with a straw top cup. Another idea-this is what I did with my first 2 was use a tupperware trainer cup (where there is no valve) so that when they tilt it up, something drips into their mouth. then move to the sippy cup, sometimes it's hard for them to know how to suck the sippy cup
Have you tried the "born free" brand. I have a friend whose son wouldn't use any sippy cups but did great with the born free cups. I think whole foods stores sell them or they used to but you can order them off of amazon. They have several different ones - the trainer cup is the first step and has a soft nipple like spout. And the handles can be taken off which worked for my friend because her son thought anything with a handle was a cup. She just left the handle off and he drank from the born free. Eventually they moved to the cup with the harder spout and now he is drinking out of any cup. And they don't leak.
Our son was still 16 months old, taking the bottle. Then one day I dropped him off at the babysitter and forgot to leave a bottle in his bag. The babysitter happened to have a sippy cup on hand, and IN ONE DAY he learned to use the sippy cup out of necessity!!!!! It was absolutely amazing. He was really sloppy with it at first- but it took about a week before he was drinking it like a champ. So overall, it was a hard day on him, he got pretty thirsty, BUT in the long run it was totally worth it. If kids are thirsty enough, they will drink from a sippy cup. It may sound cruel but it's really not. You may be surprised that he will figure out the sippy cup when he is motivated by thirst.
Have you tried a straw cup? My friend's daughter refused sippy cups, but LOVED straws. Target has cute animal shaped cups with straws.
Have you tried one of the toddler cups with a straw? Target has them. Maybe the novelty of drinking from a straw might be an attraction for him. They're washable and pretty good about keeping liquid in.
I'm thinking he won't take the sippy cup because he knows he can have the bottle. If the bottle were to disappear ... who knows what he might be willing to try! :)
Good luck. I know it's so hard to watch our babies go through hard times. But you're right to worry about his teeth and the "long term" over the "right now." Just remember that the right thing is rarely the easy thing ... no mattter HOW old your baby is!
Try the Nuby cups. The top is silicone like bottle nipples. This worked for mine when we transitioned from the bottle at 12 months.
have you tried one with a straw?