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I vote Don't push too hard, just keep doing what you're doing. Maybe you could try make bottles a little smaller? Cause basically, you don't need to switch to servings of milk in a different cup at those times, you actually want to change to milk as a beverage with meals (better for teeth). So maybe drop an ounce from each bottle and start offering milk with meals in an open cup. Just keep helping him and offer once or twice in a calm, no stress manner. And let him continue to practice with the straw cup he likes with water all day long!

I want to say we did cold turkey at 15 months, so I’m on team “give it Time” too :). Maybe pick a date a few months or week out, and explain what’s happened, even if it seems like he doesn’t understand. “I’m a few weeks, the bottles are going to go away and you’ll be a big guy who drinks your milk out of a big guy cup if you want to have milk.” Maybe keep mentioning it every time you give him a bottle? Then maybe I’m a few weeks he will get it and be less resistant/ panicky about it since he’ll have time to understand? Fwiw we did it cold turkey but he wasn’t freaking out, more just refusing to drink which scared me. But the pediatrician promised if I gave it two days he’d get it and that was right. But again, he was a few months older, so who knows. Whatever you decide, good luck!

I feel you. LO1 still doesn't drink milk to this day and he's 5. He wouldn't drink any milk outside of his Dr. Brown's bottles, and after speaking with his doctor about it, we gave up. He loved (and still does) yogurt and cheese, so we made up for calcium loss there. I say keep trying and cut the bottle completely. It's what we did with LO, and he eventually just wanted water.

I had massive trouble getting both kids to drink milk from a cup at first. I think in their mind milk was something that came from the tap (or a bottle) and that's that. If that's the problem, working on drinking other things from a cup first may help.

As for the milk? I tried to sneak it into food (cereal, dishes with dairy), and kept serving it in bottles at least once or twice a day until their other fluid intake was more reliable. And they ate lots of soup also because it was the only liquid they'd have without tantrums.

It was a long and pretty nerve-wracking process. One of them stopped bottles at 15 months and has no problems drinking enough now, and loves milk. The other one insisted on a bottle until two and is still not too good about drinking, but we're getting there.

@LCTBQE: Hi
We did this by 14 months and dropped one bottle at a time, definitely with bedtime being the last one.
He doesn’t need milk in the same volume at all anymore. So what my ped said is that if he’s drinking water and getting hydration there, the only major benefit of milk is calcium. As long as you make sure he’s getting yogurt and cheese and other calcium rich things, I would say don’t offer the bottle at all and If he doesn’t drink milk from a cup at all, who cares? He’s drinking water no problem. I would just keep offering it and one day he’ll take it.
I also offered special treats at that age to encourage. Like teddy grahams. Just to get him used to it and to encourage him and really after a few times he didn’t even need them anymore.

But I wouldn’t do the bottle much longer at all. If you think it’s hard to separate him from it now, just wait till he’s getting closer to 18 months. That’s really a major reason why pediatricians say to drop it around a year - the older they get the harder it is. Just like with sleep training

I vote to wait.
My guy was pretty attached to his bottle as well. After he turned 1 we tried randomly to offer milk in a sippy and he would cry. Eventually, close to 2, he started chewing on the nipples and breaking them. We were down to our last one and I explained to him that it was breaking and once it broke there would be no more bottle. The day it finally broke (he gagged on the milk) we went to target and he got to pick out his sippy cups. He was super excited and the transition ended up not being a huge deal AT ALL!!!!

I would start talking about how big boys don’t use bottles and soon it will be time for him to drink his milk like a big boy, etc. he’s a little young right now but maybe by 18 months he’ll get excited about a character sippy (that’s what worked for us)
Good luck! It’s tough when everyone else is pushing their schedule and your child isn’t ready. Give it some time!

My ped said that really 8oz of milk a day at 1 year old is plenty and if they are eating plenty of food and getting milk and yogurt, its not really that vital anymore. I don't think my eldest drank more than 8oz of milk for a LONNNG time after we dropped bottles and then suddenly at like 18 months he decided it was fine and drinks plenty nowadays.

I'm more team cold turkey in your situation. Basically, I think of it as comfort eating. Its not that he needs the calories or nutrients from the milk itself, its the comfort of the bottle and the sensation of the nipple, etc. I'd stick to the Munchkin straw cup since you know he drinks out of it (its also my 16 month old's favorite) and just put milk in it. I'd drop the afternoon bottle completely and replace it with yogurt for a snack. If you want to keep the bedtime bottle for a little while longer, fine, but I'd try to distract him with a fun bedtime snack instead (Teddy Grahams and sips of warm milk out of a coffee mug that you can share, etc). We did the cup switch with my youngest but offered him warm milk in the morning and the evening for while.

We tried every cup in the world. My son had the exact same dislikes as your kid - I tried the same cups (replace Zoli with Lola though) and went through the exact same struggle except we were DONE with bottles and had no back-up plan.

We ultimately just gave up and he eventually started drinking milk from the Take 'N Toss. He had yogurt every day for lunch and I decided not to worry about it.

In other news, while going through all my boxes of stuff for the new baby T has discovered all the other cups and is loving all the variety now. So at least it wasn't a total waste of money?

@LCTBQE: haha I am in a similar boat. my son has that first cup that you posted. he is also weird about drinking milk out of sippys. sometimes he will drink it out of a take n toss cup but not always.
My only advice is to stop giving it to him in the bottle. Its tough but thats the only way to really get him to accept it in any other form

My first never liked the soft sippy cups- I think they were too bottle like and confusing. At the time playtex made hard plastic ones and we also got her to use take n toss (mostly straw) and IKEA ones (they look like dogs, I don't know if they sell it anymore.) We also barely used valve ones, it just wasn't necessary and she didn't like it. Just something to try!

I vote cold turkey. Have you tried think baby? They make some transitional tips for sippy to straw and they are bottle shaped, sort of.
I didn't have this issue but most of my friends did. Those who waited it out had a much harder time and they regretted it. Cold turkey was harsh but it was only for a very short period. They bulked them up with other forms of dairy during the transition.

@LCTBQE: Which Dr. Brown's bottle does your kid use?

They make sippy tops that go on the Dr. Brown's Options line bottles. Do you think if you got him one it would look/feel similar enough to his regular bottles to fool him?

https://www.drbrownsbaby.com/products/sippy-spouts/

We had this issue with LO1. I was still nursing her morning and evening but I had weaned during the day and she'd only drink milk from bottles. She would drink water from a zoli cup but not milk. She wouldn't drink from any other type of cup, whether straw or sippy.

We waited and by the time she was around 15 months (I think) at which point our pediatrician said it was fine if she didn't drink milk at all, as long as she was eating dairy in other forms. So at that point, we gave up bottles cold turkey and even though we kept offering milk in cups, that basically ended her milk consumption. I kept nursing 2x per day until she was 1.5 and then 1x per day until she was past 2, and we made sure she kept eating lots of dairy.

Eventually she started drinking milk again on her own, but she was much older by then, maybe 2.5 years.