1 year old won't take bottle or cup

[roch]

Hi! I exclusively breastfed my 12 month old son for 6 months and tried to introduce a bottle a couple of times but my son wouldn't drink from it.  I have being introducing different styles of cups but he refuses them too.  He is still breastfeeding on demand.  I am wondering how I can get him interested in a cup or if it's just better to continue breastfeeding and not worry about it?  Thanks for reading:)

[Imakcerka]

Has he tried drinking from what you're drinking from?  Like a straw or maybe a normal cup?

[roch]

He will sometimes drink out of a normal cup if I hold it for him.  But usually he just pushes it away.  I think I will try a straw.  Thanks for the suggestion!

[KristyDi]

The straw sippy was really what my DD did best with. So I second that suggestion.

[SundayCrepes]

Frankly I'd just let him nurse until he's ready to try a cup on his own.

[Homebirth_Mom216]

LOL my DS is 11 months and cannot figure out straws or sippy cups (haven't tried bottles).  It drives my nuts .  He drinks from a regular cup but I always have to hold it for him.  And he's not very clean about it if it's mealtime so we don't share cups .

My DS is nursed, too, but since he is eating more, he is nursing less and getting less hydrated from that, so it is important to find some way to get the water in him.  He confirms this by drinking from his little cup very eagerly.

Edited by Homebirth_Mom216 - 1/30/12 at 11:15pm

[roch]

Thanks everyone for responding.  I think I will try a sippy cup that has a straw and just continue to nurse him and trust that when he's ready for a cup he will start to use one.

[motherhendoula]

I second HomebirthMom 216 - we never used a bottle - my son couldnt figure out a sippy cup - he drinks water from a normal cup - we have to hold it for him or else it goes everywhere.  This past summer we taught him to sip out of the cap of a water bottle!  

[cristeen]

My DS never figured out sippy cups, and at 2 1/2 he's still not reliable with open cups.  But I know an 18 mo who can handle an open cup perfectly.  She got it somewhere around 15-16 mos.  They intro'd the open cup and nothing else, and just kept trying and trying with no other options available to her, and she figured it out with a little time. 

We use sports cap bottles (Klean Kanteens) sometimes, but mostly we just use straw cups.  He could never figure out the spill-proof ones, so we use the plain straw cups from Green Sprouts.  They will spill if he drops it and it's full, or if he flips it over and starts shaking it, but he didnt have any trouble with straws at all. 

[Mama505]

"They intro'd the open cup and nothing else, and just kept trying and trying with no other options available to her, and she figured it out with a little time. " -Cristeen

Yeah, that is what we did.  We kept a lot of receiving blankets and diapers on hand to catch spills and all cups were reserved for water (including mine and my partners).  Oh, and we also only ever gave him a splash of water with the option to refill.  That way if he did spill it wasn't so bad.  If he didn't want to drink and set it down, then he could go back to it later and I wasn't worried there was a full cup somewhere to be knocked over, but he could explore the whole cup/liquid thing w/o us hovering on his own.  He's almost 2 now and totally reliable with glasses, as far as drinking goes (he has now discovered that he likes to "cook", or mix various things together if he has the opportunity).

[craft_media_hero]

My little guy was the same, wouldnt take bottle or sippy.

We did blw and would give him amtiny shot glass of watervwith meals, at first he spilled it a lot, but since a little over a year, he has handled open cups just fine.

I do like pp said and dont fill it up all the way and still stick with pretty small cups (like 4 oz or less). Dh and I always marvel at how handy he is with a cup! He is 18 mo now and doesnt spill too much tho he "cooks" and likes to pour back and forth, too.

[Pookietooth]

They say not to do sippy cups for anything but water anymore anyway. I guess that's what you were trying though, so maybe they are ok. Neither of my kids got sippy cups unless you took the valve out, at which point they aren't really spill proof anymore. Have you tried a sport style water bottle such as a Kleen Kanteen? My dd loves those. They aren't spill proof though.