The Sippy Cup and Milk Conundrum, or My Crazy Children

I keep thinking "Surely I'm not the only one with this problem."  Then I tell someone about my picky, weirdo kids, and I determine that maybe I AM the only one.  So let me share with you and you can help me decide.  And if, by chance, someone else ends up with this same problem, then they'll know what we did.

Here's the problem.  I have two kids.  When each of them has turned one, they have pretty much refused to drink milk. 

With my first, I tried mixing it with breastmilk. 

I tried letting it reach room temperature.

I even tried mixing it with chocolate.   

After a month of her refusals, I finally had an epiphany.

Change the sippy cup.

Here's the background information.  First of all, I nurse my kids until they're 1 or longer.  I rarely give bottles of pumped milk to the babies.  Bottles are just not worth the hassle and my youngest baby even refused to drink out of bottles, so it's not even an option.  We go from nursing to a sippy cup with nothing in between, so there's not bottle attachment to deal with.

By the time the babies reach one, they're only nursing a few times a day.  The rest of their fluid intake comes from a sippy cup of water, which I usually introduce around 6-8 months of age.  Juice is also a hassle to me.  It's an added cost and inconvenience, and it's also not very healthy.  But that's another story.

The bottom line is that my kids aren't used to drinking anything but water from their sippy cups. 

Now I'm super picky and struggle with perfectionism. It bothers me to deviate from my routine too much. I can handle deviating a little bit, if you give me 24 hour notice or something...that's my version of being flexible.  I'm not a "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of gal. Unfortunately, my daughter has inherited this trait.

When Isabelle puzzled me with her milk refusals, I had my epiphany because I finally started thinking like a baby.  I was giving her the same old sippy cups but when she lifted them up to gulp it down, she discovered some strange beverage that she wasn't used to.  It's kind of like when I'm served Coke instead of Dr. Pepper.  Coke is great, and I like it from time to time, but if I'm expecting DP and I taste Coke, my first reaction is going to be yuck!  This is how Isabelle responded too.

I bought a new sippy cup for Isabelle's milk and that did the trick.  She's still that way too.  When she was 25 months old, Andrew was born.  Damian left the hospital to go home and take a shower.  My sister approached him, perplexed because Isabelle would not drink anything!  He took one look at the cups and said "You've got it backwards.  You can't put water in the milk cup or milk in the water cup.  She'll never drink it." 

And Andrew?  We only had about one week of this not drinking milk nonsense.  First, I had to switch the milk, thanks to a dairy allergy.  Once I settled on coconut milk, I started trying out various sippy cups we already had, but he wouldn't tolerate it.  I even gave him the coconut milk through a syringe, just to see if he liked it.  He loved it and would whine for more, but refused to have it from a cup.  Finally, I bought a new, completely different sippy cup.  One with a straw.  The next day, he started pumping down the coconut milk. 

Now that he's drinking milk well, it's time to wean, baby, wean!  Normally, I would not be in a hurry to wean, but with another baby on the way, I'd love to have a short break from nursing.  I know that some of you who did extended nursing or tandem nursing probably think I'm a wimp, and that's OK.  I've been pregnant, nursing, or both since 2008.  Call me selfish, but I want a little break. 

So has anyone else dealt with this sippy cup and milk issue, or is it just my strange Daigle children?