Having a hard time getting rid of the bottlle (18 months) diet related

crazyanimals

So my little man just turned 18 months and we were determined to get rid of his bottle.  He drinks from sippy cups fine.  Our issue is that he just hit 21lbs and we want to keep his weight up.  He gets 1 8oz bottle of milk in the morning, eats breakfast at 9:30am, snack, lunch at 11:30am, snack after he wakes up from his nap, dinner at 5pm, bottle at 7pm.  He isn't a huge eater by any means and I feel like we struggle to keep him gaining weight.

I don't want a 2 year old walking around with a bottle, HOWEVER I feel like the 16 oz of milk he drinks is a big part of his diet still (fat and calories).

The problem is, we have tried on a consistent basis to give him a sippy cup with milk vs a bottle and he won't use it like his bottle.  He will drink maybe 2-4oz out of it and then he loses interest....what do I do?

bhilyer

No advice.  Your guy is older than my boys, and I already have a love/hate relationship with the sippy cup.  

Maybe a straw cup would encourage him to drink better?

Is he drinking WCM or something else? Maybe try Pediasure since it has more calories than WCM? 

 

ETA - what about making smoothies for one of his snacks?  This would increase his use of the sippy cup and you could sneak in some high calorie stuff as well. 

crazyanimals

BostonKisses2:

Have you tried a straw sippy?  We made the decision to transition early (around 1 year actual, 10.5m adjusted) because she was showing an interest in the cups, and had the best success with straw sippies.  She did relatively well with the Playtex cups, but absolutely loves the Nuby ones (she'll also use a Nuby soft spout, but prefers the straws).

J acted very similarly while we were working on transitioning - she would only drink a few oz at a time, then lose interest.  The best thing you can do is be consistent, persistent, and patient: keep offering the cup, and eventually your LO will build up to a larger amount.  I did discover that we had more success with the sippies once we a) found a cup she really liked and b) stopped offering the bottle out of concern/fear she wasn't drinking enough - that was confusing her, and once we stopped offering it she did much better.

We have the weight concerns as well, so what I did was made sure she got other full fat dairy foods while transitioning (in addition to whatever pediasure she would take since we're not doing WCM yet) to help ensure she was getting those extra nutrients and was keeping her weight up.  Maybe you could try that while you're helping your LO work up to taking larger amounts from the sippy.

Sorry that was really long, but hopefully something out of that will help you.  GL! 

 We have tried every sippy cup out there Lol.  We have two different Nuby ones (the straw and the regular) and he just chews on them since they're squishy.  Also I think the soft spout top on the straw on confuses him bc sometimes he will lay down and try and drink it like a bottle.

We use the playtex ones now and have a Tommy Tippee that he likes but still, the issues I stated earlier.  We feed him tons of yogurt, etc.  I don't really like the idea of putting him on PediaSure because he drinks cow's milk fine EXCEPT from a sippy cup and pediasure has a lot of sugar in it...so I figure why give him something sugary if he will drink the milk just fine.

meldoo2002

I don't know I think you have to talk to your doctor about this one.  Or a nutritionist.  Maybe there is a way to get more fat/calories in to him to make it count.  I know so many children (personally) working for EI that it gets really hard to get rid of the bottle the older they get.  My preemies transitioned at a year... we kept their bedtime bottle a little bit longer, but gone by 15 months.  And yes... they definitely drink a lot less milk than before but we try to make up for it with high calorie, nutrition dense foods.  

sucrets4

My DD started rejecting bottles early, so we weren't in you situation but she didn't take to cow's milk well.  She would drink so little at a time and only got maybe 5 oz a day.  I still nursed her, but my supply is/was so low once she cut back that she can't be getting anything too substantial.  She still nurses and drinks a little bit more cow's milk now but has had no trouble gaining.

Like PP said, I just made sure that she ate plenty of other whole milk dairy - yogurt and cheese, which she LOVES, so thankfully that was never a struggle.  At 18m you have a lot of options with high fat food, so it shouldn't be as scary as trying to get a younger kiddo off the bottle.

My bff's daughter refused milk from a cup and took a bottle before bed for a long time, probably until she was almost 3.  Pre-baby me would have side eyed that, but now that I'm a mom I get it.  She liked it, she wanted it, it didn't hurt anyone, she didn't fall asleep with it, and it was in the privacy of her home.