13 Month Old Won't Drink Milk from Cup

Updated on March 02, 2009
K.P. asks from Manchester, NH
13 answers

HI, My 13 month old daughter will not drink milk from a sippy cup. She will drink water from a sippy cup, and has been for many months, but she refuses to drink milk or any other beverage for that matter (juice) from her cup. Any suggestions? We are trying to get her to drink milk from the cup during the day and continue milk from the bottle at night and in the a.m. for a while.

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M.R.

answers from Burlington on

Unfortunately you just have to keep at it. Dont give in or she'll know that she can still get the bottle especially if you still give it to her at night. You have to be consistent and she may scream for awhile but she'll catch on quickly. I went through that with my son and it only took a couple of days before he knew he wasnt going to get the bottle. After those couple of days, we threw the bottles away and he never even asked for them.

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A.M.

answers from Boston on

I am dealing with the same thing and my son is 17 months old! Baby two is coming in August and I really want him off the bottle a good couple of months before his little brother/sister arrives. I think someone else mentioned these, but the Nuby sippy cups with the soft spout are great!!! We just tried them for the first time last night and my son loved it. He had one before bed and one first thing this morning. (Those were the 2 bottles I thought we'd have the hardest time getting rid of) They are very similar to bottles, he didn't even seem to care (and he's really attached to the bottle!). He actually calls them his bubba (fine with me :) ) We told him, "Yes, this is your new big boy bubba". Hope this helps. Good luck.

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J.M.

answers from Boston on

Just give her water in the sippy cup and have her get her calcium from other food sources (cheese, yogurt, etc). There's no reason she should have to drink milk all day long, especially if she's still having two bottles of it per day. 16 oz of milk is plenty. Not worth stressing over.

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H.J.

answers from Boston on

Have you tried the sippy cups with the straws in them? My son is very much like your daughter and we are still doing bottles with milk in the am and pm but during the day he uses the sippys with straws. I have found that the Playtex brand do not spill and I think it was the Nuby brand spilled everything out if the cup turned over. They are marked for age 2+ but my son is 13 months and does well with them. Good luck.

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M.B.

answers from Hartford on

Honestly, if she can drink from the cup you should just make her drink from the cup. I'd completely take the bottles away. If you are giving it to her occasionally in the bottle then she knows she can just wait and have it in the bottle. However, if she never is going to get the bottle then she'll have no choice, but to take it from the cup. And honestly it's bad for their teeth to have a bottle at bed time (unless you are brushing them). Still, 13 months is definitely old enough to be completely off of the bottle, especially given that she can drink from a cup.

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C.M.

answers from Boston on

AT this point if the only way you're going to get the milk in is from the bottle, than give it to her. She is still a a baby. My daughter (28 mos) is the same, but only with the milk. She prefers the milk in the bottle and will drink anything else from the cup. It is not harmful to let them have some comfort and if that is it, then what can you do.
Revisit the cup in a couple months and see what happens and if she is still not ready than wait a couple more months.
If you don't believe me, then ask your pediatrician.

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K.S.

answers from Boston on

Hi there! A few suggestions .. . . some kids distinguish milk cups from water cups (and juice, etc.). So, you may have to find a different sippy cup for milk or juice. However, your daughter may be onto you, so you may have to distinguish it further by using a straw cup for milk and/or juice (I have found the Nuby ones or the Munchkin sipster (Dora is the theme on it; as well as one with Diego, I believe) to be the ones that work best for my daughter. Now, my daughter doesn't distinguish cups by liquid, so she drinks everything out of her straw cups.

Hope this helps!!

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R.K.

answers from Springfield on

take away the bottles and she will eventually drink from the cup. my son was hooked on the those soft top sippy cups that leak everywhere and I couldn't stand it so I took them away and gave him a hard top sippy and he was mad but as soon as he realized he wasn't going to get the other he drank from it so do the same w/ the bottles if you have keep a bottle for night but I wouldn't continue that much longer they generally recomend you have them off a bottle by 14 months so you don't cause bottle rot at such a young age you don't want dental problems starting already.

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J.M.

answers from Boston on

My son will not drink cold milk from a cup so I warm it. I would try different flavors of Juicy Juice, maybe another flavor will get her more interested in a cup.

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T.Y.

answers from Boston on

Frustrating I know, but be patient. You are (unknowingly) sending mixed signals with cup and bottle. When you get them drinking from a cup, you should take the opportunity and eliminate the bottles. Watch the sippy cups though. Some of the sippy cups are soft-tipped and mimic the bottle sensation for the child, then they have problems going onto a "big" girl/boy cup. I'm a mom of two and have many daycare children that I have taught to drink from cups. You just need to have patience and keep a routine. Play it up by saying your a big girl, etc... She'll eventually be fine with it. She will play off of your responses too. If she refuses do not come to her with a bottle. Also, some of the sippy cups are very hard to get the liquid through. Try one without a plug. I do not use plugged cups anymore. My children and daycare children are only allowed to drink at the table, not walk around with them (always been my rule). No sippy cups in the car, as I have found even the "NO leak" cups, leak. Good luck to you and your daughter.

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C.M.

answers from Boston on

I am not trying to criticize you , but your first mistake was ever putting juice in a bottle. Most pedi's will tell you to never give juice in a bottle because its so bad for their teeth. My daughter had a hard time drinking from sippy cups at first but I still never gave her juice in a bottle. I had tried the straw cups when she was younger. She very rarely drank juice. When her first birthday came it was my goal to eliminate the bottle, so I started to mix milk and formula. I started with a higher portion of formula and less milk, then every few days the ratio would begin to change until it was all milk. By the time it was all milk, it was in a cup only. My rule was that formula in bottles, milk in cups. So she never got to have milk in a bottle. It went smoothly. No fuss over it and by 13 months, she was off the bottle completely. At bedtime, she got a sippy of water. My suggestion is to do something to the milk in her bottle to make it taste yucky, like really water it down or add lemon juice, ect. And the same time you offer her the yucky milk bottle, offer her a sippy cup of milk that tastes good. Keep it up and don't give in even if she cries or fusses. She is 13 months and she will adapt quickly. You want to do it now while she is younger, because as she gets older, the habit of bottles gets even more difficult to break.

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D.P.

answers from Boston on

I purchased 'special' sippy cups that are used for milk only. During the day and at bedtime (this got my 18 mo old off the bottle completely). Nuby has a good sippy cup with a rubber 'nipple' like a bottle kinda, I called it her new buba. Good luck !

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C.W.

answers from Boston on

I agree with the others about the soft tipped cups. For me it was worth it to have the other cups that could potentially leave a mess than all of the struggles I had to deal with on the soft tipped cups with her. As far as getting her to drink juice from the cup you might want to try watering it don at least at first. I do this anyway as the regular juice can be too sweet.

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