Stopping the bottle

Mich&Mike

We're trying to stop our 23 month old son from drinking his milk out of a bottle. He drinks juice and water out of a cup but refuses the milk. The first few days he threw a tantrum when we weren't giving him the bottle, but the last two days he just pushes the cup out of the way and refuses to drink, so he's not drinking any milk at this point. Has anyone else experienced this? Right now I'm concerned because he's not drinking milk, I'm almost tempted to go back to the bottle so he's drinking milk.

Tapthathank

I wouldn't go back to the bottle.  Stand firm - you are the parent.  Has he ever drank milk out of a sippy cup?  How many bottles a day was he getting before you decided to stop the bottle? 

We started WCM in the sippy right at 12 months at meal times.  He didn't like it at first - only wanted water in the sippy.  Our pediatrician recommended to just keep offering the milk in a sippy, but don't give in and give him water or juice in the sippy if he refuses the milk.  If he's thirsty, he will drink it.

We tried this and it worked, pretty much immediately.  Obviously your child is older, so he is bound to be a little more stubborn at this age - so watch for dehydration if he is really defiant and just won't drink anything.

Keep offering other dairy products so that he is still getting some calcium and vitamin D.

ELF4321

I agree with the others about not giving the bottle back. Our pedi actually recommends cutting out milk at 2 years and just giving cheese, yogurt and other foods to get calcium and vitamin D. If you want him to have milk, maybe you could take him to the store and let him pick out a new big boy cup, but make it clear that it is for milk only.