My 20-month-old only drinks water and mi

Short answer: keep water and plain milk as the two drinks in the house. Juice and chocolate milk are not a "when" — at 20 months they are drinks to skip, not to schedule.

What the paediatric guidance says (American Academy of Pediatrics, HealthyChildren.org, "Recommended Drinks for Children Age 5 & Younger", checked 2026-10-09):

• "While drinking only water and plain milk is the ideal" — and children who do keep that habit tend to keep it as they grow.
• On 100% juice: "it's very sweet tasting and lacks fiber, an important nutrient found in whole fruit… infants less than 1 year of age should not drink juice. Eating fruit is always preferred to drinking juice." (Their figures for juice start at age 2 and stay small — 4 oz/day at 2–3 years — which is a reason to skip it here, not a target to reach.)
• On chocolate and other flavoured milks: they "contain added sugars. Added sugars should be avoided in children less than 2 years of age," and an early taste for them "may make it more difficult to get them to accept regular milk."

1. What you tried vs. what to do instead

What you tried: offering juice in a bottle. That is the one move to change tonight — not because juice is poisonous, but because a bottle makes it a habit that is hard to walk back, and a bottle at 20 months is also the easiest way to keep a bedtime or night bottle going.

Better, using only what is already in the kitchen:

• Offer water in an open cup or straw cup at meals instead of a bottle. Same water, different cup — this is the habit you actually want at this age.
• Keep milk as the milk they already accept. If it is cow's milk, keep it whole until age 2 (AAP: "Children ages 12-24 months are advised to drink whole milk").
• If they want "something special," it does not have to be sweet: a small piece of fruit they can hold, or a strawberry or banana piece dipped in the milk they already drink. You are answering the want, not the sweet.
• If a juice box is going to happen anyway — birthday, grandparent, school — make it a cup beside the meal, not a bottle, and let them finish it there. Same as the water rule.
• Chocolate milk: not now. If they see you drinking it, that is the actual advertisement. Keep it off the shopping list for the week.

2. Avoid list

• Juice in a bottle, at any time.
• Flavoured milk (chocolate, strawberry) before age 2 — added sugar, and it works against the plain milk they already drink.
• Sweetened drinks of any kind, including stevia-sweetened and artificially sweetened ones: the AAP notes the risks in young children "are not well understood," so avoidance is the safer default.
• Caffeinated drinks — cola, energy drinks, tea — poor sleep and irritability in small children.
• "Toddler milk" / next-stage formula: unnecessary for most children and often contains added sugar that fills the stomach before meals.
• Sweetened milk at night, and any bottle kept in the bed or used to settle to sleep.

3. Decision tree

Is the child well, alert, growing, and eating some solid food?

• Yes → water in a cup, whole milk, fruit as a food. No juice, no chocolate milk. Do nothing new.
• Yes, but she will only drink and refuses most solids → this is a conversation for her doctor at the next visit, not a juice problem. Drinks that fill her up make solids harder; that is the one thing juice or chocolate milk would make worse.
• No — see red flags below → stop the DIY and get her seen.

4. Red flags — stop experimenting, get clinical help

Book a clinic visit (not an emergency) if any of these are true, and say "she only drinks":

• Weight that has gone flat, or has dropped, or that has not moved along her own curve between visits.
• Fewer wet nappies or less urine than usual, dry mouth, no tears when crying.
• Constant tiredness, pale skin, or a very picky eater who also seems to be losing skills or words.
• Repeated constipation or loose stools around milk intake, or any blood in the stool.
• Not gaining but drinking heavily, or drinking noticeably more than before with weight loss.

Go to urgent care today if she becomes hard to wake, floppy, unusually sleepy or unconsolable, is breathing fast or working hard, or is not drinking and urinating — do not wait it out at home.

What to bring: her age, what she drinks in a day, her last weight and when it was taken, what she eats from solids, and any change you noticed. Ask the clinician directly: is her growth on track, and does she need her iron or blood checked.

Tonight, in under 5 minutes

Put the juice bottle in a cupboard, not the recycling — out of sight ends the negotiation faster than saying no twice. Fill one cup with water and put it on the table at dinner. If she asks for juice, the one-line script is:

> "No juice today — milk or water, and I'll give you a piece of fruit you can hold."

What success looks like in 24 hours

Not a new drink accepted. Success is: no bottle offered, one cup of water used at a meal, plain milk still drunk as usual, and one piece of fruit handled or eaten. If tomorrow goes the same way, that is the plan working.

Two things I will not do here: diagnose why she drinks only those two, or pick the products. The first is her doctor's job, with her growth chart; the second is your call in the aisle — and the shelf answer is easier than it looks.