Problems with Bottle vs Cup

It was very hard for me to cup train my first daughter too and she would not give up her bottle until I told her we had to give it to Santa so he could give it to another baby who needed it. So when we saw Santa at the mall she parted ways with her bottle and never looked back. (Out of sight out of mind) My baby Claire who is 18 mos likes to drink out of cup only if there is a straw and I found some of these plastic ones with a lid at the store. However, she still uses the bottle to calm herself to sleep. Hoping to be bottle free by summer.

My daughter had the same problem. She's always been on the lighter side so I was naturally worried about taking her bottles away from her. I didn't think I would ever get to that point where I could give her a sippy cup and that's it. It took a good couple weeks of weaning her off the bottle until now she's 100% off the bottle. I would start by giving her a bottle in the morning and before naps and bedtimes only, so she's still getting plenty, but during the day always have sippy cup filled and available for her to see and play with. She'll get used to seeing it around and she'll eventually be more willing to try to use it.

Also, she's only 13 months, so I wouldn't be too gung ho about trying to completely stop the bottles. This is the age I started weaning so you're on the right track. If she's thirsty she'll drink.

During her best mood times is the best time in my opinion to give her a sippy cup. It'll seem like forever until she'll take it but one day she'll pick it up and that's all she'll want. My daughter went about another 3 weeks or so with just a bottle at night time and just sippy cups during the day. There are all sorts of ways to wean.

Hope this helps.

I don't know if I actually have any advice for you but I can say I know what you are going through. My daughter is also 13 months old and will not take milk out of her sippy cup. It's not that she doesn't like her sippy cup because she will take water out of it. But as soon as we put whole milk in there for her she will not drink it - she will actually throw the cup to the ground. We'll take that same milk and pour it into her bottle and she chugs it down. I was thinking about doing the hold out thing pretty soon but she's very stubborn so I am afraid she's not going to get enough milk that day then.

Does anybody know how much milk a 13 month old is supposed to get? Would it be awful for me to hold out and not give my baby the bottle? Is it going to hurt her if she doesn't have any milk during the day?

If she's tiny and needs to gain weight I would maybe keep her on the bottle and deal with that later. I usually wouldn't give that advise but a low weight child I would. My daughter had weight checks when she came home because she was a preemie so I know how it is to be constantly thinking about getting them to eat and gain.

I know for my daughter she drank more when on the bottle, when we switched to sippie cups her fluid intake went down quite a bit.

She was very attached to her bottle and I didn't take it away til she was 2.5 years old. She used a cup all day and had a bottle with water every night to fall asleep. It was a life saver and then the hardest habit in the world to break later on, but at 13 mos. I wouldn't be to concerned about breaking that habit.

Have you ever tried having her father help I notice my daughter tries to get me to baby her so I have to make daddy inforce change.

Unless your pediatrician thinks she really needs to be on a cup, I wouldn't worry about it. My son wouldn't take a cup until he was 18 months old and never held his own bottle. My daughter started a cup at 8 months and was holding her own bottle at 5 months. Kids are different and your daughter won't go to kindergarten with a bottle! Put the cup in front of her on a regular basis when she's in her highchair but don't put any pressure on her. One day (and it might be next week and it might be 6 months from now), she'll pick it up and start drinking out of it.

My 9 month old does not like sippy cups very much. I've found that if you remove the "no spill valves" from the top of the cup, he is more willing to use the cups. What's more interesting to me is that he prefers to drink from a wide rimmed cup with no top on it at all, just like adults. As far as holding the cup goes, you have to help him or he will fling it around in play and spill milk everywhere. Babies develop different skills at different ages. Maybe your daughter isn't quite ready to self feed with a bottle yet. Are you receiving pressure from her pediatrician?

I think the previous poster is absolutely correct. The biggest thing is to encourage her without forcing her or she will never want to try the cup. Put the cup in front of her every single day and several times a day. Maybe even have it full of water and available for her to try out all day long. My son first took to the cup just using the spout as a teether, but now he'll drink from it quite often.

My son NEVER holds his own bottle for me, but he'll do it at daycare! That's totally manipulation/behavior or whatever. I don't mind because soon enough they won't be snuggling with us to eat anymore! If she is low on weight, just concern yourself with her getting the nutrients she needs and her skills with the cup and dropping the bottle will come. They might call them toddlers at a year, but they're really still just babies and trying to learn SO much!