I'm Weaning My 11 Month Old. How Do I Get Him to Drink Formula from a Cup?

First off it may be the type of formula. Similac taste sweeter and is much more like breast milk, but Enfimil taste so nasty it is crazy. Yes, I have tried them both. Second, I would try sippy cups with something that tastes good to get them to learn how to use them. It takes a little while but they will get the hang of it. I take bottles away at one year on their birthday and give them pretty fun sippy cups. It works. Good luck!!!

My children have always taken a sippie cup best if I take them to the store and let them pick out the cup(s)!

What makes the DR. God? He is just PRACTICING medicine! What do you think they fed kids even 30 -40 years ago and they turned out alright. I read this sight everyday and everyone relies on what the DR. says and that is only what is in style now. Wait it could change in a week. My child is in this percentile and they need this because of that. There has to be children in every percentile and that doesn't nescessarily mean that is wrong!! Why do we judge our children even before thay are old enough to be judged! Use cows milk, Whatever you need. You do not have to have your DR.s permission to do anything!!!!!!! You are the MOM what do you need to make life work! I raised my children 20 years ago and in that amount of time it went from breast feed only to formula is great and better everyone should use it to back to breastfeeding. Plus cereal is bad to cereal is great. It comes down to they don't know any more than you. DO WHAT YOU NEED! YOU ARE THE MOM! Sorry to vent so much but the amount of POWER you all give to a DR. is amazing.

Use sippy transitional cups OR the bottle. Let the cup be his idea! My little 18 mo old is still nursing a little (once or twice a day, sometimes skipping the day) and she is aware of everyone else drinking from cups by now so she wants to too.
He just might not be ready to make two transitions at the same time.

Hi-- I'm sorry you're tired. . . you sound like a sensitive, responsive mom and soon you will be rested again. ;) You might be interested to know that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all babies be breastfed until they are at least 12 months old. You'll easily meet that guideline, but there are many strategies to weaning your baby only at night, since it sounds like it's the nighttime nursings that are really getting you down. The simplest one is "don't offer, don't refuse," which is gentle and still encourages your close relationship but also allows you to find other ways to meet your child's needs beyond breastfeeding. With my kids, I've had my husband offer a fun and filling late-evening snack to help stave off the nighttime hungries. Then, if they woke up at night, he or I would try a few other things (rocking, patting, snuggling, a drink of water) before nursing. This was not a quick-fix, but after a couple of weeks of a good snack and a change in the nighttime response we were sleeping for a much longer block at night.
Sometimes it's not the actual calories they need as much as it is some human contact and reassurance, and I personally don't think that's a crime. I mean, they are still babies, learning to trust, and I much prefer my children to connect with other people than with inanimate objects for comfort. I just can't see how responding to your baby's needs is a bad habit. . . . You could try some negotiation techniques, like saying goodnight to everything, including nursing, until the sun is up again. (In my experience, bargaining works better with a slightly older toddler, but anything's worth a try when you're wiped out!) In my opinion, any kind of cry-it-out method will just leave you with a stressed, clingy, ultra-needy child who *really* wants to nurse for reassurance and won't be easily distracted from it during the day--could throw off your whole weaning strategy.
You also might be interested to know that sleep researchers define "sleeping through the night" as a four to five-hour stretch. Adults wake at night, too.
Bottles at this point just sound like extra dishes to wash to me, and the introduction of something that will be hard to get rid of later. Consider a straw cup, and maybe adding extra calories to solid meals instead of formula. Guacamole and refried beans are favorites at my house for stick-with-you toddler foods. Hummus, too. Human milk is so, so sweet that the substitute will be a hard sell for someone who's been used to the real deal. I have read that since the action of drinking from a bottle is so different from breastfeeding, many babies who use bottles have more orthodontic and mouth/palate shape formation issues that babies who exclusively nurse, so choosing a cup or a straw-cup seems like a healthier choice than going to a bottle at this point. Offering a fun cup at mealtimes would be appealing to be like the B. people--maybe with water and ice cubes in interesting shapes, or made with fruit juice? I've seen cute ice tray at kitchen shops.
You might enjoy the books "How Weaning Happens" and also "The No-Cry Sleep Solution." They both talk about night-weaning and complete weaning strategies that are not miserable for everyone. Gradual weaning will help you stay comfortable, too. It's hard to sleep when you have a toddler whoneeds you, but it's also hard to sleep when you're engorged and end up with mastitis, too, so excellent self-care is important.
Perhaps in a couple weeks your baby will graduate to a new and different need and some of the nighttime neediness will fade. The nighttime needs could be a call for more snuggles, or just more calories during a growth spurt. Hang in there--this too shall pass!

A 11 month ols absolutely does not need to nurse in the middle of the night! I would really think at this point what you are doing is enough and skip the formula all together! Do NOT introduce a bottle now if you have not already! Go straight to sippy cups, a child this age can use them and they won't leak in their crib. It looks like you already have an older child, ehat did you do with her? This is what all three of my kids did at this age: early am nurse, breakfast with juice in sippy cup, mid am snack ( real food!)with juice, lunch, afternoon nurse before nap, snack with juice, dinner and finally a bedtime nurse. I gradually cut one nursing and started giving them cow's milk at this point. They were all weaned by 12/13 months. Good luck to you!

Try different kinds of sippy cups. Avent makes a nice one that has a spout that seems to be good for starting kids--it is very soft and flat. Just make sure you don't put these in the dishwasher--for some reason, it makes them leak! Also, the Nuby brand has one (very cheap at Walmart) that has a soft top, like a bottle almost. We mostly have Playtex ones now and they work great. If he won't drink from the sippy, try a straw cup (Nuby makes those, too).

Hello,
If you have been nursing full time I defintalely would not put him on Formiula, Experts say your baby need to be on foumula only till 12 months, Milk, Viamin D to be exact as all the vitimins and nutriants your 1 years old will need. And not to mention you get to save some money, no more buying formula.
I know this is not what you were asking advise on but it caught my eye. As far as putting him on a cup I just gave it to my little ones and I always kept a variety for them around. I nursed my kids and they never knew what a bottle was, so when it was cup time it was easy.

I hope this helps

Why the urgency to wean at this time? He will eventually drink from a cup, but if he hasn't been introduced to a cup, then it'll take some time. Most breastfed babies won't take formula so easily. Be patient, be consistant and good luck w/sleeping thru the night again. Did your daughter sleep thru the night, does she now? Do parents of babies get to sleep thru the night? I never did. Does he eat other solid foods throughout the day? Personally, I would wait to wean him until he drinks formula from the cup. A couple more months and it will be better for him and he could skip formula all together!

My girls are 14 months now and I stopped breast feeding at 10 months. They started taking formula out of the bottle and now are taking whole milk. I don't think they need to be taking a cup yet. My girls just starting taking water out of a sippy cup but when I give them milk it is out of a bottle. He should be taking at least 5 ounces at a time now just just make sure you have fast nipples. You may need to buy new bottles completely because we had a hard time finding nipples over 6+ month. One of my girls always wakes up once a night so we keep a bottle next to the bed so we can add warm water and give her a formula packet. She usually falls asleep in the middle of drinking and back in the crib she goes. I hope this helped.

S.

If you feed him during the night he knows he can count on it. If you do not feed him during the night (I have let my children cry for certain reasons and they eventually fall asleep and do better for it) he will soon eat during the day because he knows he is not going to get fed during the night. It may sound mean and some people may not recommend it and you don't have to do it. It's just what I would do because I've been through being insane mommy and then NO ONE is happy. I would let my baby cry until they fell asleep even if it took a few times, then they'd drink more during the day and start sleeping at night.
Try the nuby sippy cups that have soft squishy tops similar to bottles. They have them at Walmart.
K.

I use born free bottles and they have a transition sippy cup that acts as a bottle. I tried using the sippy cup with my nephew who is almost 4 and he could not get his juice out of it because it is more like a bottle than a sippy. So that may work????? Good luck and God bless :)
K.

Wait until he can drink milk to wean. Then add 50/50 breast/cows milk and slowly reduce the breast milk so the flavor is familiar. try diff sippy cups too!

This is a tough one. I nursed exclusively till my daughter was 2 and I remember around the 1 year mark her doctor at the time was telling me that she may not be getting enough of what she needs- which was completely contradicting to what her growth charts said. She in the 98th percentile since 2 mos for her weight. They even told me to hold off on cereal feeding till she was 9-10 mos because her weight was fine. On top of him telling me she 'may' not be getting enough, he said I should try and start her on cows milk around 12 months even though I wasnt planning to wean. It took her 3 mos, 4 sippy cups and a lot of wasted milk before she ever took it. The worst part of all: She now has dairy & egg sensitivities (almost full blown allergies) and skin problems direcly linked to introducing dairy to early. Talk about a slap in the face. I would question your ped. and be weary of the formula. Even if you get him to take it, you may be up all night w/ new problems like upset stomach because his system has issues digesting it. To eliminate night wakings, look into the different sleep teaching methods and find one right for you. He could be waking out of habit and knowing that when he does, he gets to eat. We went through that too. Good luck.

You can try half breast milk half formula. I wouldn't go cold turkey to formula. Try using a shot glass and try teaching him to drink from a regular cup. Of course teach him at his table and use sippy cups only on trips to the store or other outings. But try the half and half in a bottle first. GOod luck.

We were okayed to do yogurt at that age. Our son loved it. We did the Yo Baby whole milk yogurt. That should help him feel full. Neither of our kids liked formula, although one did tolerate it. You could also try goats milk. You can get it whole at health food stores or 2% at the grocery store.

Well I had a similar problem , my son would never take a bottle he would only breastfeed. So at 11 months he was in the hospital with croupe, so because he was so sick I dried up real quick!!! So I had no choice but to put cow milk in his sippy cup. He did just fine and he is almost 6 years old now and no allergies to be heard of. I never used formula, so best of luck to you and your precious little one!!!!!!

Can you pump and mix the breast milk with formula? That's what I did to transition my son. Then I slowly reduced the breast milk to formula ratio by an ounce each day and eventually he would drink just formula. I did the same thing again when switching from formula to cows milk. Hope this helps.

Sounds like to me he's getting enough milk/formula. Sounds like you should focus on him eating solid foods. He should eat 3-6 meals/snacks a day and 16-20 oz. of milk. He should only have 4 oz. of juice a day. The rest of the time he should have water. Try Nuby sippy cups. They have a soft sipper that is good for the transition. His waking up at night might have nothing to do with feedings. He might be hot/cold. He might be scared. he might be wet. He might have gas. He might have pain. He also might need to cry it out. I've gone through this with both my boys. Sleep is precious. Good luck.

in this book i have, "so that's what they're for," it says babies wean when they're ready. besides that, just keep working with him, and make it fun.