Hi everyone,

After much, MUCH fighting with my trio, I've been VERY lucky to get two of our girls to take their afternoon milk in sippies. My middle daughter however, still refuses to take her milk in a sippie but prefer a bottle. They are all 14 mo., so I know how much they need to move beyond these pesky bottles.

I've read that the ideal solution is to do away completely with the bottles. I'm afraid however that if I do that, my DD won't drink her milk and eventually develope an aversion to it. Plus, they're so tiny (they're in the lower 5 to 15th percentile for their weights!) that I'm afraid of any weight loss or stunted growth. Can anyone please offer any advice? Many thanks!!
tran

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I was kind of apprehensive when we witched from bottles to sippies too (12-13 mo), thinking they would not drink enough and would lose weight.
I cut out their midday bottles one at a time and gave them milk in sippies instead. Then their morning gone was gone and finally bedtime gone. I did this over the course of a month.
It took them a while to really get the hang of it and to drink a substantial amount from the sippies, but now they're doing great with them. They have 2 9oz cups of milk ina day, plus some water.
My one son ws between the 10th and 25th percentile so I was concerned about him falling lower. However, once he figured things out he started to eat more solids, drink his milk from the sippy cup and now is above the 25th a few months later.
People told me that if you take the bottles away and only offer sippies, they will eventually figure it out and drink when they are thirsty enough. May sound a little harsh, but having been through it I totally agree.
Good luck!

Jill

www.rauckmantrio.blogspot.com/

Sept 5/08 @ 32w6d

You are going to need to go cold turkey. If they know how to drink out of sippies, they will drink when they are thirsty. If they aren't drinking enough milk at first, just give them other sources of dairy to compensate. They are likely to drink less milk in sippies than they did from bottles. That is normal. They need less milk than they did formula anyway. They should be getting the majority of their calories from food, not milk anyway. My kids weren't even on the charts when we switched (still aren't) but we did it anyway.

Lori

http://yesidohavemyhandsfull.blogspot.com/

Hi Tran - how's it going with the sippy cups? We are now going into the 3rd day of our transition. Hope it's going well - I'm glad we waited until our GGG's were a bit past the 1 yr mark - approaching 18 months (15 adjusted). They seemed ready and so far things are going smoothly. Good luck!
Lana

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for your suggestions. Sorry, I've been too busy fighting with my DD to log onto the Connection.

Hi Lana,

I hope you're having much better luck with your little ones than I am. I've spent this last week buying literally every type of sippie cup and cups with straw. Here's the current scenario with my girls:

Evie, my oldest now prefers to drink her milk with a straw. She likes the sippie, but after seeing me introduce it to Tori (our problem kid), she thinks these straws are neat and wants them with every meal.

Elise, my youngest, drinks from a sippie and only from a sippie. She used to like straws but refuses them today (may be due to teething?).

Tori, my problem child, still refuses to take milk in any cup. She won't even exert an attempt. She sees the milk jug and immediately shakes her head and watches for us to pour it into a bottle.

I have sent her to nap without milk once or twice. I offer it to her again after her nap hoping she'll take it, but never any luck. I'm so scared that that if I take the bottles away completely, she'll build an aversion to milk completely. I've had friends whose kids are that way. To make matters worse, Tori has slipped into our lightest baby.

Lana, since you're starting at 18 mon (15 adj), maybe I should wait to do the same. Our girls are really only 11 mont (14 mon actual) right now. Maybe this is something they do eventually outgrow, and our 'fights' with them are just a waste of time. (I'm hoping and praying this is true!)

tran

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It's been a long time since my dds used sippie cups, but this is what worked for them, or should I say me. I switched them over to sippies right after their 1st birthday, cold turkey, with no prior practice using sippie cups. The only way they would drink from the sippie was by lying down and drinking from it like it was a bottle-lol. I didn't insist that they sit up since they were happily drinking their milk. They did this for 2 or 3 months, until they eventually started drinking from the sippie sitting up. Looking back on it, I'm glad I didn't make a big deal about correcting them because it saved me a lot of unnecessary stress. GL!! -- Gloria

Mom to five girls: ages 11, 10, and 8/8/8

I have 21 month GGG triplets and I'm having the same problem with my middle daughter. I understand the whole cold turkey thing but they will not drink the milk from the sippie cup and I did take the bottle away and they were not having wet diapers so they were dehydrating themselves. Anyone have any suggestions on that?