getting Liam to drink milk and/or out of a straw

egpitt22 · July 2012

Liam looks like he's being poisoned every time I offer him milk. If he accidentally gets some in his mouth (he must not pay attention sometimes and thinks it's water when I hand him the cup) he spits it out. Jake wasn't a huge milk drinker at the beginning, but he'd at least take a few sips. Eventually, I got Jake to drink more by giving it to him in a straw sippy. I tried that with Liam, and he can't figure out how to drink out of a straw.

So, any tips on getting him to drink some milk? Or, if you have any advice for how to teach a 1 year old how to drink from a straw, I'm all ears.

thanks!

lishie · July 2012

The straw cup was going to be my suggestion. Michael was so proud the first time he got to drink milk like his big brother. But, Michael tried a straw and immediately suck up a ton of milk, so I have no suggestion on how to teach him how to use it. Good luck !!

gwennythepooh · July 2012

Claire acted that way the first few times I tried to give her milk. I ended up mixing whole milk with breast milk and just gradually tapering off the amount of bm (I did 1/4 whole milk and 3/4 bm for a few days, 1/2 and 1/2, etc). If you still have frozen bm to use up, that might be a way to ease him in. No help on the straw, that's the only sippy I could get Claire to use. Good luck!

egpitt22 · July 2012

Yeah, I was all smug, like I was an old pro getting out the straw sippy cups a few weeks ago. But he just can't seem to get it! He puts his mouth around it, then tips the cup back. I try to hold it down and get him to close his mouth around the straw, but he just gets mad and takes the straw out and flings it on the floor. Good times.

AmandaJLewis · July 2012

I wouldn't stress over it. Offer small amounts in whatever cup he knows how to work, an ounce even so you are not wasting it. Give him cheese and yogurt and he will be getting the calcium he needs. He may acquire a taste for it. Did you try warming it slightly? that may help too. I ended up going with some of those yogurt drinks mixed in with milk to get EJ to drink milk (and slowly changed the ratio of the mix) but she was like 18 months or 2 years when I did that. At 1 she was a little sensitive to whole milk and we were giving her rice milk for like 6 months.

egpitt22 · July 2012

gwennythepooh:
Claire acted that way the first few times I tried to give her milk. I ended up mixing whole milk with breast milk and just gradually tapering off the amount of bm (I did 1/4 whole milk and 3/4 bm for a few days, 1/2 and 1/2, etc). If you still have frozen bm to use up, that might be a way to ease him in. No help on the straw, that's the only sippy I could get Claire to use. Good luck!

Yep, I did that at first to use up my stash. He did ok until it got to the point that it was almost all whole milk and little breastmilk....how did that little bugger know??

egpitt22 · July 2012

AmandaJLewis:
I wouldn't stress over it. Offer small amounts in whatever cup he knows how to work, an ounce even so you are not wasting it. Give him cheese and yogurt and he will be getting the calcium he needs. He may acquire a taste for it. Did you try warming it slightly? that may help too. I ended up going with some of those yogurt drinks mixed in with milk to get EJ to drink milk (and slowly changed the ratio of the mix) but she was like 18 months or 2 years when I did that. At 1 she was a little sensitive to whole milk and we were giving her rice milk for like 6 months.

I haven't tried warming it yet, maybe I'll give that a shot.

gwennythepooh · July 2012

egpitt22:

gwennythepooh:
Claire acted that way the first few times I tried to give her milk. I ended up mixing whole milk with breast milk and just gradually tapering off the amount of bm (I did 1/4 whole milk and 3/4 bm for a few days, 1/2 and 1/2, etc). If you still have frozen bm to use up, that might be a way to ease him in. No help on the straw, that's the only sippy I could get Claire to use. Good luck!

Yep, I did that at first to use up my stash. He did ok until it got to the point that it was almost all whole milk and little breastmilk....how did that little bugger know??

Oh man, he's a smart little cookie! I wish I had some genius idea. I'm thinking as long as he gets good doses of cheese, yogurt, etc, you should be okay.

MrsAmers · July 2012

Todd had the same impression of milk at first. I made sure he ate cheese and yogurt, and he had free access to water. I think he was about 15 months when he was drinking enough milk at daycare that I stopped sending EBM to daycare. Daycare wouldn't warm milk, so I never tried that. He was still nursing morning/evening as well, so it wasn't a huge problem if he only drank water all day.

bride2003 · July 2012

Eamon likes to drink it but then let it run out of his mouth. Good times. I'm with you on the straw cup - he's pretty clueless - unless the cup is totally full he doesn't know to keep sucking it. With the girls I know I practiced with a straw and put my finger on the end so they'd have to suck a bit before I lifted my finger.

Caileigh wasn't a big milk drinker either until 15-18 mos or so. Keep offering and he'll get it eventually.

Lys1011 · July 2012

Spencer will not drink milk from a sippy cup. We've tried every sippy cup out there. We started offering Cheerios (she LOVES her "O's") with milk in the mornings and evenings. We would put as much milk on the spoon as possible while she was eating the Cheerios. When all of the Cheerios were gone and the milk was left, we would offer her a straw (a regular straw) and place it in the bowl for her to drink the milk. That's the only way she would drink milk. We can now get her to drink milk from a glass with a straw - of course we have to hold the glass and straw, but at least she's drinking the milk.

psychgalbride · July 2012

It took us a little longer to do the transiton to WCM. we did half and half for a few weeks but the ped strongly recommended just making the complete switch. two days later. We were good to go.

We tried every sippy cup under the moon and they didn't work. Went to a straw cup and almost immediately she got it. the playtex trainers with handles worked best at first since you can squeeze them to show them that the milk will come up. Madeline thinks she is just the coolest kid ever to get a big girl cup of milk at starbucks or whatever with milk.

One of the hardest parts of the bottle to straw cup transitions for M was the having to hold the straw cup differently. the expensive 14.00 Lollacup helped with that since the straw is weighed and she could hold it more like a bottle and still get milk out.

Now we can use just about any straw cup (finally!)

getting Liam to drink milk and/or out of a straw

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