Change over from bottle to sippy cup

Alissa - posted on 01/01/2009

We transitioned my 13-month old son from the bottle to cup in about 2 weeks and then just went more or less cold turkey with the cup. First we put (diluted) apple juice - probably his favorite beverage - only in the cup and served milk only in bottles. Then we just kept decreasing the bottles to one in the morning and one before bed and everything else in between was sippy cup. We also had to try a lot of different kinds of cups and found the simpler the better. Our son's doctor told us as long as he's making wet diapers and cries tears, he's not dehydrated so not to panic when he rejects the cup.
It helps that at our son's daycare center his whole "class" is transitioning to sippy cups together too. The kids want to do what the other kids are doing so if you've got a friend whose child is on the cup, it might help to have a couple of snack or meal-time interactions where your daughter can see that other "big girls" (or boys) are using a cup and it's just fine. The sippy cup is great!
Hope this helps. Good luck. I know eating and drinking issues can feel scary.

Devrim - posted on 01/01/2009

With my son I had him throw away all of his bottles and when he wanted milk I gave it to him in a sippy cup and when he would throw a fit I would just remind him that he threw them away and that this is all we had. It took a week or so but it seemed to work. Hope that this helps.

Stephanie - posted on 01/01/2009

nuk or nuby makes a sippy cup with a nipple like top. it is all soft un like the the others that are hard with a soft spout. I used these with my older two to take the bottle away.

Tanya Bauer - posted on 01/01/2009

The bottles with the straws, Nuby brand I think she can't pull the straw out of, so that will help. Just keep doing what you are doing, she will eventually take milk from the cup. They say that little one's need only about 12-16 oz. of milk a day and only about 4-6 oz. of Juice, any more interferes with their eating.

Shaunna - posted on 12/31/2008

Thanks, Melissa! After writing this, I did a bit more research and found that she was likely getting enough milk, still. I have tried several cups, and she will drink anything else out of all of them, except milk. With milk, she will only drink a little bit .. an ounce or two at most at any given time. I feel like I am pushing it on her a lot. Oh well! She loves drinking from a straw, too, but always takes the straws out of whatever and makes a mes... :)

I guess I will stop stressing, and just let her do what she wants to, with regards to this. Thank you for replying!

Melissa - posted on 12/31/2008

I found for my 17-mth old daughter, it was just a matter of finding the right cup. I tried hard-spout cups, soft-spout cups (which may actually be the answer for your daughter, if she's missing her bottles, one style I tried was very bottle-like), with handles, without handles... and finally I tried the ones with a straw, and presto! She loves drinking from the straw!

Also, I'm very jealous that you're even able to get the equivalent of 2-3 bottles into her. I think that's just fine! As long as she's getting what she needs from other sources... (liquids from juice & water, dairy from cheese, yogurt, etc.) I wouldn't worry too much that her milk intake isn't what it used to be. Good Luck!