Monday, January 26

Refusing Formula & The Bottle

We had a good weekend this weekend. We went down to see Judd's parents on Saturday morning and stayed until Sunday after lunch. His mom looks good. She is eating more every day and slowly gaining strength. It was as if Charlotte knew who needed a hug. She crawled right to her grandmother and wanted to be picked up. Judd's dad picked her up and she put her arms around her neck and put her head on her grandmother's shoulder.

Friday when I took Charlotte to daycare, I asked them to start using sippy cups with her rather than the bottle. I'm not sure if something happened that day, but Charlotte has been refusing her bottle all weekend. That would be fine if she would drink her formula from a sippy cup, but she won't do that either. She pushes them both away and fights and squirms if you try to put a bottle in her mouth. I tried milk, and she won't drink that either. She takes a sip from the cup, but then spits it all back out. Last night she went to bed without taking her bottle - she has never done that. I'm at a loss. I'd be fine giving up formula now - she'll be a year in a week and I don't think it's a bad thing to start milk a week early - but she won't take milk either. How do you get a child to drink milk? Any advice from moms that have gone through this?


5 comments:

Rebecca said...

That's a tough one - sorry you're going through that. They put Liam's formula in a sippy cup at daycare on Friday and said he did great, so we did that over the weekend a little bit. Will Charlotte drink ANYTHING out of a sippy cup? Water or anything? I would just say keep trying the cup, with whatever in it - formula, milk, water...she'll get thirsty at some point & start drinking. You might also try different types of cups. We had some that when Zachary was a baby, he just would not drink from, and others he drank out of like a champ. So maybe try a different kind of cup (with a different shape or texture sippy part - some have the hard plastic sippy, while others are softer & more flexible like a bottle). Good luck - let us know how it goes!

Wells Family said...

Carrie- we are going through the SAME thing. Cooper will drink water from a sippy cup all day long, but as soon as you put milk or formula in it, he wants no part of it. He wants milk from the bottle and water from the sippy cup. I have stressed about this. Then, I just came to the realization that he might need the bottle a little longer; we will still try with the sippy cup, but I'm paranoid about him not getting any milk, so I'll still give the bottle. Our sitter says that he is still a little too young to give up the bottle yet, so she recommended a month more of it. My other friend Jill is going through the same thing with her 13/14 month old. I think we'll try his sippy cup that has a straw, except this time we are going to puncture the valve b/c the suction is so hard for him to get out, so we'll see what happens...

Mollypants said...

Sorry to hear about that...I know it's probably the worst advice ever, but since she seems to like sweet stuff (the key lime cookies)...maybe put some hershey's syrup in it so she'll associate it with good stuff?

m said...

I would say just start putting milk in the sippy and maybe try some different styles. When she gets thirsty enough she will drink it. Also, she is probably already getting some dairy through yogurt and cheese.

Drena said...

I have no idea but I'm again so glad that I have all you guys ahead of me to learn from!! :) Take good notes.