13 Mo Old Won't Take Sippy Cup

I would suggest only offering her a bottle with water in it and the sippy with milk...she will quickly learn that the yummy milk is in a sippy. I had made a rule, no milk in bottles, only formula, so at around a year when I took her off the formula I only gave her the milk in a cup. She took to it quickly.

When my kids were about that age I started with a small pitcher of water that they could pour into cups on their own. They LOVE to explore their independence (and the science of it all) and they quickly took to drinking from a cup (no sippy top needed). Then we switched to milk in the pitcher. Yes, there are a few messes along the way but growing up is messy and takes some practice. Sippy cups were used occasionally for more mobile drinking but were rarely needed or requested. Letting them take the lead was key.

L., This is not unncommon. Try a 3oz solo plastic cup. Your daughter will be able to hold it herself and tell her it's like mommy's cup. When you talk a drink of water during the day offer her a drink too with her 'special cup'. She may notlike the mouthpiece of the sippy cup. You can offer her the bottle at meal time without putting it on her tray. Cold turkey does work but it is very stressful for both of you and I don't advise it. Good luck.
S....www.thefamilydoula.com

My son was the same way..try another sippy cup! We went to a Nuby cup with the "nipple" and when he could do that on his own, we got the "spout." Good luck:)

Keep offering it! Also, take the valve out of the spillproof cups. Have you ever tried to drink from one of them? It's not east. Start like that and once she gets the hang of the cup you can try putting the valve back in. Just don't push it in all the way. Be prepared for spills. As long as she's getting it at her high chair only it won't matter too much. Besides that's where you want her having it anyways. My son (now almost 17 months) was around 13 or 14 months before he gave up the bottle. Once we found the right cup for him there was no looking back and he will drink out of any cup now. A straw cup might do the trick, but I always found my kids would tip those like a bottle which of course doesn't work the greatest. She will get it eventually.

Hi,
My daughter was influenced by her older cousins to wear underpants, and also begin using a sippy cup. If your daughter has an older role model that she loves, try to arrange for a snack time when the bigger kid will be around. OR ask the mom if the older kid can gift one of her sippy cups. That could be a huge hit. good luck, V

My daughter prefers a sippy with a straw over the kind with a spout. Good luck!

My suggestion would be to leave her alone.
It sounds like this is turning into a real battle of wills.
The child is barely a year old and has the rest of her life to drink out of cups.
If it is that important to you for her to use a sippy cup...( dont know why it should be) then I would back off completely for few weeks, month maybe, then simply offer her the sippy cup with her meal with juice in it.
I would only say that there is juice in her cup if she wants it.
Dont force her, please. Obviously she is not quite ready or she would not be refusing so adamantly.
One can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, yes?
Back off, wait a while, offer the cup offhandedly without a big discussion or issues going on.
Let her grow up on her own time schedule, yes? They all have their own time schedules and all this forcing little babies to be children before they are ready really frustrates me to read of.
Best wishes and God bless
Grandmother Lowell

cold turkey. My little guy only wanted the nubby sippy cups and was making a huge mess w/ them he did the same thing your daughter does w/ sippys with the sippys that have hard tops so we took all the soft nubby cups away and by the end of the day he had forgotten about the soft nubby cups and was drinking out of the hard top ones. Just take away the bottles and give her the sippy she might be mad for a few days but she will soon forget about the bottles.

Take the bottle away and don't offer it again! She can't choose the bottle if it isn't a choice. Tell her it's all gone and give her the sippy cup. She will balk for a bit, but thirst is a powerful motivator!
Make sure you offer a sippy with a silicone spout- those feel the most like bottle nipples.
Good luck and just stick to your guns. My girls both switched happily to sippies around that age and I tossed all the bottles.
-S.

Hi L.. My DD was the SAME way!!!

You can try another kind of sippy cup - she might like another brand better.
Also, my daughter really LOVES a straw. Have you tried a sippy with a straw? A lot more fun for the little ones.

Lastly, I kept my LO on a bottle til 15 mos. When she turned a year, she was on 3 bottles a day (I had finally weaned her from Breastfeeding!). At 13 mos I offered her a sippy cup of milk (and other food) first thing in the morning. If she drank it fine, if not - fine, but NO more bottle in the morning.

Then at 14 mos I did the same thing at lunch - no more bottle.

I kept her bottle at night. I actually did not plan on getting rid of that one til 18 mos. but then at 15 mos she actually WANTED her sippy cup at night, and no more bottle.
We took the gradual approach.

Yes, she was drinking less milk, but I added more cheese and yogurt to her diet to make up for it.

I also mix yogurt, calcium fortified juice and fruit, blend it up, and give it to my LO in her sippy and she loves that. She'll drink that over milk anyday.

Good luck!

My son who is 12 months now was the same way. His doctor told us to just throw away all his bottles. I didn't do that but to be honest I haven't used them since. My son was so mad at me at first and would even bat the sippy cup away (I felt so bad) but I kept up with it and after a few days or so, he started to get better...especially realizing he wasn't going to get a bottle again. He loves his sippy cup now and walks around with it everywhere. You're better off doing it now instead of later because it's just going to get harder!

Hi L.,

Getting a baby off the bottle can be a battle, but it will be a major battle if you try to force her before she's ready (that's why I always preferred breastfeeding--no fuss, no muss). My best advice to you would be to offer her a regular little cup, the kind with handles so she can grab them, during meals and snacks and only pour a LITTLE BIT of milk at a time. One of my professors told me once, "Never pour more than you're willing to clean up." Keep at this and she will eventually learn to love her cup. If she's not getting enough liquid you can still give her a milk bottle when she needs it.

It will be much easier to transfer her to a regular cup than a sippy cup and so much better for her teeth. Sippy cups cause baby bottle rot, especially when used with juice and when babies are allowed to walk around with them all day. Again, I say this from experience: My youngest bonus daughter was hooked on sippy cups (with juice!) until age 3 when her dad and I took them away. She freaked and it was a constant struggle (her birth mom still gave them to her constantly) but we held firm. Her dentist told us it was a good thing we got them out of there because she had been starting to develop bottle rot across her two front teeth. Getting her off the sippys helped stop it, but she still had a brown stain on her teeth. It had to be polished off. I was anti-sippy since then.

But, I gave in and used a sippy cup (at my hubby's insistence) when my oldest son turned 1. It was still a nightmare! He used to bang the top of it all over the house to get the milk out so he could finger paint. After that, I said no more. He went straight to a handled cup and never looked back, the same thing (at 1) with my youngest son.

Personally, I feel sippy cups and Pull-ups are worthless but parents (including me, at the time) feel pressure to use them because that's what everyone else is using.

Hope any of my ramblings can prove helpful :)

--M.

L.,

You sound like a very caring mom. Take the bottle and get rid of it, she WILL drink form the sippy cup. The meltdowns will stop, she will be a happy little girl!

D.

I found that our son didn't like sippy cups but loved using a straw. Maybe you can try that? Just make sure the cup is leak-proof and clean the straws out very well!! They don't have to tip the cup back so it may be easier for your daughter. Good luck!

My 13 month old doesn't like it either! We bought a straw cup and she actually likes that. We had to hold it for her the first few times, like a bottle, but once she got the hang of it she started holding it herself. Be patient, I think it took her several tries before she figured out how to suck from the straw. good luck!

It depends on the style of cup you are using already. We switched our daughter over from the bottle by using a sippy cup that has a similar top that the bottle had. They sell them for less then 2 dollars at Walmart in the baby section. Usually in a bin in the bottom shelf under the rest of the cups etc. The tops are soft and pretty close to the top of a bottle. They have one or two little slits on the top and she just has to learn how to bit the tip to get a drink. Very easy. We gradually changed from the soft ones to the hard ones that she uses now at 17 1/2 months. Hope this helps.
D. R.

I just went through this exact thing. I think it is smart to gradually drop a bottle every few weeks and replace it with the cup. I kept offering the kind with a straw, and finally that was the one that he figured out how to do. It actually happened when I was drinking from a cup with a straw a really sweet punch and offered him a sip and that was how he figured out the straw. All other sippy cups he would only take if I held them for him. My doctor told me a 12 month old only needs 12 oz (including yogurt and cheese) of milk a day. So even if you just keep one bedtime bottle it is totally okay if for a while your child has a few oz of milk during the day while figuring out how to change over to a cup. Good luck!