Sippy/Straw Cups and Milk
kderham
member
My son is about to turn one and we are transitioning him from formula to milk and bottles to sippy/straw cups. He likes this milk just fine but he doesn't seem to drink very much from the sippy cup or straw cups (although he does seem to like them and know how to use them). With bottles, he downed that formula! I know if I put the milk in a bottle he would do just fine but I have heard that can be really confusing and DC recommended we start with milk in cups and never put it in a bottle. Do you guys have any tricks of how you got your kids to drink more milk from a cup?
I'm also concerned about his feeding routine. Right now, he gets an 8oz bottle at 6:30 as soon as he wakes up. If I try to do anything else first, he screams and will not stop until he gets his bottle. Then breakfast at 7:30, 6oz bottle with lunch at DC, 4oz bottle with snack at DC, dinner at 6 and bottle with bed at 7. He eats table food like a linebacker so I'm not really worried about most of his nutrients. How in the world am I supposed to incorporate cups with milk into this if he won't drink it all? Do you just replace the bottles with cups? How long can the milk be left out? Sorry for all the questions, I'm a little overwhelmed although I'm certain I'm making this more complicated than needed 
Re: Sippy/Straw Cups and Milk
My daughter didn't take to sippy cups with milk very easily at first. I went through many different cups and finally found one by Nuby (or was it Nuk...I don't use them anymore now than she is older) that had a soft rubbery plastic spout that felt like a transition from bottle to sippy for me and seemed to work well. We went from that to a harder spout about 6 months later as I couldn't handle the face that the soft spout wasn't spill proof. Now use uses a harder spout also by Nuk that doesn't leak at all.
It may have also been the quick transition to milk from formula. Some kids don't take quickly to milk and I have had friends that do 1/2 and 1/2 more or less and then slowly get rid of the formula. Maybe that will work for you?
As for the bottle right when he wakes...my daughter is 22 months and to thisi day it is the first thing she asks for when she wakes up, though we put it in a sippy. I offer water throughout the day as she has her other allotted amount of milk before she goes to bed while we read her books. Then teeth brushed and in bed she goes after we sing a bit.
As for leaving the milk out. I almost always put a few ice cubes in a sippy with her milk if I know it is going to be out for longer than a 1/2 hour. I want to be sure it doesn't get warm.
I hope something in there helped. Give yourself and your son time. It will happen. Have faith and good luck!
Don't over think it. See what happens and don't create a problem where there isn't one. My kid had no issue distinguishing between milk in a bottle vs. a cup. To get my kid off the bottle (and she was a bottle addict) I just started replacing one bottle a day with a sippy. When she got used to that, I'd move on to the next round of bottle. By day 3, she got the drill and dropped the rest of her bottles entirely.
Let him practice and grow into it a bit. If he doesn't like milk in a cup give him water until he gets used to and than gradually start replacing it with milk once or twice a day. My own kid, just now at 2 is starting to like milk but previously would down water like a camel.
Whatever. It's not the end of the world to not love milk.
I guess I feel like the more you force it the more they fight because they can. Give it to them, call it a day and let them be with it for awhile.
Like your LO he wanted milk immediately upon waking. We always gave him a bottle while we were changing him so we wanted to stick with that for a bit. We decided to try zoli cups since he could drink them upside down. It took a few days for him to take ounces instead of sips but he finally did.
A few days later we just cut the bottles cold turkey. We gave him his straw cup at all the same times we gave bottles. When we started taking them well we consolidated to one in the morning after breakfast, one after lunch, and one after dinner. He gets water with all of his meals. Through this process we learned he is a sipper not a drinker. It usually takes him an hour to drink a whole cup so we just had to get used to that.
Now he takes all straw cups with no problems. Never did take a traditional sippy which I'm happy about now.