refuses sippy cups

Rebecca - posted on 12/16/2009

Avent makes a sippy cup that has a soft spout. It's flat and bends. We first gave it to our sona t 8 motnhs so he could get used to it. Try finding one of these. I know a few women who has used them on their children and it worked for them as well. A friend of mine actually trer out the bottles in front of her son and said no more baby cups...she gt them out later to save for the next baby but he never went back to using the bottle. We changed our son over cold turkey. He did fine at 1 year and at 2 he tries to use the regular cups...with some success sometimes:) I do recall that our son prefered cups with starws before he really took to the sippy. We had one starw cup that he loved. Try a straw if he doens't like a sippy. I have heard of some kids prefer these before sippy's.

Good luck:)

Nora - posted on 12/16/2009

Funny, I have the sippy cup with the nipple top and both soft and hard top sippy cups. He refuses all of them...today, I gave him a regular soft top sippy cup with milk. He picked it right up and drank. Like a light switch was turned on!

Jen - posted on 12/16/2009

Just to add something I forgot to mention about the WalMart cups, they come with two types of lids. One has a bottle nipple, then they "graduate" to the soft sippy cup style lid. They are fabulous.

Jen - posted on 12/16/2009

I had a daughter who refused traditional sippy cups. I found some great ones at WalMart that have a silicone top. They feel like a bottle, but help them transition to a cup. As for the formula thing, I would try using whole milk. It would be the closest thing to formula that I can think of.

Mattie - posted on 12/16/2009

Straws are often good for kids who aren't gung ho about the sippy cups. Also, if he won't drink regular milk you can put carnation instant breakfast in there and it makes it more of a treat. Also those Horizon Milk Juice Boxes were always a hit with my son

Jemma - posted on 12/15/2009

Both my children (aged 3 1/2 and 18 months) refused sippy cups for milk but took water or any other liquid in it. Joe waned himself off the bottle at around 2 but would always drink water during the day in a sippy cup. Amelia is becoming the same. She will drink water throughout the day. We just have it avaliable to her to use whenever she wants and has a bottle in the morning. Am not too worried about the bottle. She will wean herself off it when she wants to.
Joe took a while to get used to the cup but we just kept on offering it to him and he just decided one day that he liked it!!!

Helen - posted on 12/15/2009

My son was like this 2. He refused plain water and juices so we give him flavoured waters as the sugar content is less than juice. He loves it!
Plus he's only just started to use a sippy cup at 15 months. We use a free flow one to encourage him. The only downside is when he thinks its funny to tip it on the carpet. We give him flavoured water in his sippy and milk in bottles at the moment. I also give my son toddler formula and cow's milk - just alternate each bottle (morning milk = formula, next = cows). Our next step is to use sippy cups for all milk apart from bedtime cow's milk before getting rid of them completely. I think gradual change works better but then my son is a bit stubborn. Your son will use the sippy when he's ready. Try putting a sippy and a bottle within his reach whilst he's playing so he can try them both. He'll eventually use the cup cos he can't get the amount he wants from the bottle anymore. Just be patient.

Nora - posted on 12/14/2009

Thanks, Lyn. What is baby tea? Never heard of it.

Lyn - posted on 12/13/2009

Hi Nora, yes i had the same problem with my daughter. She is 19 months old and only started drinking out a sippy cup at about 15 months old and also would only drink formula out of a bottle. What i did was make baby tea and mix the formula in that, still out the bottle. I also found that once my daughter started to see other children drinking juice out of a sippy cup she also wanted to do it and so cottoned on to the idea that a sippy cup wasn't too bad. She now drinks juice out the cup and still drinks tea and formula out the bottle which she only gets when she goes for a sleep at lunch and at night. When she is old enough to understand we will throw her bottles away together so she knows that they are gone and won't be coming back. Hope this helps

Joelle - posted on 12/12/2009

There are no rules stateing he HAS to use a sippy cup. Try using a straw, Put the straw in what you are trying to get hime to drink and place your finger over the top so a bit of the liquide stays in the straw, dribble it into his mouth. This tells him that the good things come from the straw. If he doesn't like straws, try a regular cup, put a teaspoon in the cup and let him do it, there will be a mess, but he will be learning so many great things. Make the time he is learning to use the cup fun and happy, no stress. Make sure he isn't too hungry, but hungry enough to want to get something in to his tummy. Have all the bottles put away, if you normally have one sitting around on the counter in the kitchen drying after being washed or what not, make sure they are out of sight. The cup is a Good thing and when he does pick it up tell hime what he is doing, "I like the way you are picking up the cup, lets drink." or " You are learning so many great new things like the cup."

Good luck, it can be hard, but don't give up.

Lana - posted on 12/11/2009

We had to experiment with lots of cups before we found one that worked. I tried the cups with straws, cups with handles, no handles, etc. Also I used to hold a straw in a regular cup and really enjoyed drinking that way - made her feel like a big girl. I've found that I can now go back to some of the cups we tried before that didn't work and now she likes them. It took about 2-4 months to transition.

Dawn - posted on 12/11/2009

My son (now 19 months) only recently decided he likes a sippy cup for his milk. He didn't give us any problems switching from formula to milk, Our son took to cups with straws (and lids of course) when he was about one year old. He saw me drinking out of my cup with lid and straw and actually took the cup from me and started drinking. He's very in to eating and drinking like Mommy and Daddy. I'd suggest letting your son see you drinking water and other liquids and maybe offer him a kids cup with a straw.

Rachel - posted on 12/11/2009

My one year old had the same problem. He did not like a sippy, especially with real milk. For the first week I would do half formula and half milk. That was a little better but he still did not like his sippy. I had to put all his bottles away so I wouldn't be tempted. He would eventually take his sippy once he was so hungry/thirsty. It sounds mean but I would just feed him more solid foods to substitute until he realized all he was getting was a sippy. After two long weeks, IT WORKED!! Now he takes a sippy like a champ. Don't worry, your baby will eventually take it, you just have to not give in.

Jenn - posted on 12/11/2009

i would suggest slowly leaning him off of the formula but addind a little milk at a time to the formula. like every week add about an ounce or so to the formula. and each week or two slowly adding less and less formula. as for getting him off of the bottle, im not too sure. straws might help from a 'big boy cup'. i know bendy straws were a big hit for my brother when he was that old.