Bottle to Sippy Cup

My pediatrician told me that there was no difference in using a bottle or a sippy cup because a child can still get bottle rot from a sippy cup from the dripping.
If the bottle makes her happy, stick with it. Wait a month or so and try again. It is not written anywhere that a one year old is no longer allowed to have a bottle.

Hi, T..

We found that if we put milk and water in the same kind of sippy cup, our son only drinks the water out of it and refuses milk. But when we use a different type of sippy cup for water and milk, he associates them in a different way, and we've been much more successful with the transition.

I know that sounds crazy. But we use the throw-away sippies or a Nalgene bottle with spout for water, and a handle-sippy with milk. We also heat the milk just a little bit.

Good luck!
J.

Yes, get rid of the bottles completely. If she can drink from a cup then she doesn't need the bottle. Good luck! She might fight you the first few times, but if she's really thirsty she'll drink from the cup. Just curious though why not give her the milk at meal times instead of water? Then if you want she can have a sippy cup of water only when she's out of her high chair. The rule generally speaking in my house though is drinks and food at the table (or high chair). Keeps the messes contained that way. On really hot days or when my son seems thirsty I will allow him to have a sippy cup of water in the living room, but nothing else. So maybe you can switch around your "bottle" times.

M.

I had the same problem - my pediatrician suggested giving my son watered down milk - starting really watered down and then gradually moving up to all-milk. That worked for us, he now drinks milk or water from a sippy without any trouble.

Toss the bottles! They recommend you ditch bottles at 14months and the easiest way to do it is to toss them. Your child will not go thirsty when she's thirsty enough she will pick up the cup. We had this problem when my son had the nubby cups they leaked so bad but that's the only cup he wanted so we tossed all but one because we didn't know how he'd be that first night but after drinking out of the hard top sippy cup all day he did fine w/ the hard one at night so we tossed that last one too and never looked back.

I started giving my daughter (20 months) an early afternoon sippy cup with drinking yogurt diluted with milk. Once she realized the sippy cup contained something other than boring water sometimes (and thicker liquid), she was willing to at least try it in the evenings when she usually had a bottle. At first she didn't drink as much when I used the sippy cup for milk as opposed to the bottle, but after a week, she now drinks the whole lot using the sippy.

I'm in the same boat.... As we struggle together, I will let you know if anything works!

Hi T.,

I'm a mother of 3, here is my little 2 cents. Don't worry, many grown up I knew, they used to drink milk out of the bottle until they were 1st grader (of course they did that at home). Even now, I have friends' kids who are 4-5y/o and still prefer their milk in the baby bottle. It is something soothing for them. Just thinkof it as wine must goes into wine glasses, beer to beer mug or coffee to coffee mug and tea in tea cup. She still little, let her enjoy her bottle bonding.

I skip the sippy cup and go right for the straw cups. Learning to use the straw provides better oral motor development which leads to stronger mouth muscles (so to speak) which leads to better talking, earlier. At meals I use a regular open top cup for sips of water and straw cups all through the day. My son is 10 months and still has a bottle 2-3 times a day, but both my girls (now 2 and 4 yrs old) went straight from breastfeeding to an open cup and straw cup. They never took bottles and did just great, once they got over the learning curve. Good luck!

we found that straw cups worked better than sippy for our daughter. it took her a few tries to get the hang of it but now she's a pro. To be honest we still give a bottle at bedtime (she's 15 months), but all day long she uses the straw cup. You could try it for the milk, your baby might take to it as ours did.

My 14 mo old had a challenge when switching @ 1 year. She previously had no problem drinking milk out of a sippy (intermixed with bottles) but after we switched- she had a little revolt. At first she wouldn't drink anything except for out of our glasses- I was worried that she was going to get dehydrated. Eventually, we tried every kind of sippy cup imaginable- and it turned out she like the really cheap kind (the take and toss ones- both the straw and the sippy). Now- about 2 months later- she's finally starting to drink milk again. Good luck!

Don't worry to much about it. We just cut out bottles completely at 23 months. My son always had his milk in a bottle and water and or diluted juice in a sippy cup. I used to get the playtex one with a straw in it when he was younger but then it started leaking so we switched to the gerber and playtex regular sippy cups. You don't have to rush, just keep introducing it to him. Give it to him with meals, when you are out and about, etc. Keep it filled with water during the day and he'll eventually catch on. Sucking on those things can take some time to learn and a lot of effort. Best wishes.

Take your time. I used the AVENT brand bottles and they had a 'sippy lid' attachment to use with handles with the bottle she was used to. I switched out one bottle to a sippy cup with milk every few weeks. I started with the mid-afternoon bottle that wasn't as big of a deal as the nighttime one! When she got used to that change, I switched the 10 am bottle to the sippy cup. So, we just took our time. Good Luck.