Weaning from Bottle to Sippy Cup - Oceanside,CA

Transition to the sippy requires patience - I found I had to offer her milk in the sippy many, many times before she decided it was cool to drink milk out of anything but a bottle. For this reason, I would advise waiting until he is on cow's milk instead of formula. Formula is so much more expensive! I didn't feel as bad about dumping regular milk that she wouldn't drink, rather than formula.

As for bedtime bottles, I eventually had success with the Nuby spout. Honestly, I don't think it's all that different from a bottle, so if he still needs/prefers a bottle at bedtime, I don't think there's any reason to take it away. Anything that works to get them to sleep, I'm all for!

Good luck!

To be honest, my daughter will be 16 months old on Thursday and she still takes her milk from a bottle. I tried to take away the bottles at 12 months, and she threw a fit. She'll drink water or juice from a cup, but not milk.

What I have done is to put her sippy cups in the bottom drawer in the kitchen, where she can reach them. When I offer her a drink, I tell her to pick out which cup she wants to use, and she'll open the drawer and pick out one (usually two!). I stopped pumping last week, and so I took most of the bottles off of the counter. My plan now is to put the bottles out of sight, and offer her a cup. I'll keep the bottles if she insists on them for a few more months, but I hope to have her off of them by the time she's 18 months.

So I'd recommend putting the cups where your son can reach them, let him pick which one he wants to use, and offer the cups first instead of the bottle.

I would start by offering him one of those bottles in cup form, and then gradually increase it as time goes on...cold turkey is killer, and I wouldn't recommend it for anything to do with kiddos.

But, in retrospect my son took a nighttime bottle until he was about 18 months old and I was okay with that...especially since, he had weaned himself off of daytime bottles by the time he was 14-15 months old. He would still occasionally ask for one and I'd give it to him. But, once he started to associate the cup with meals and milk he was no longer interested in the bottle full-time.

Basically, I started with the daytime bottles and then let him work out of the night one. I would offer him cups during meals and snack and then, he slowly forgot about the bottle.

The night time one is a lot harder to kick for little ones who are used to it in the bedtime routine (like my little dude), but what I started to do once my son lost interest in the bottle was also offer him cup of milke/snack once he was in growth spurt mode and would ask for the bottle at around 20 months (and had been off it at night for 2-3 months). Even today at 2.5 he'll ask for milk and snack at bedtime if he's hungry and he'll eat his crackers and drink a cup of milk while I read the first book of the night...I pick books like Green Eggs and Ham or something that is longer...then, once the book is done so is snack.

I would suggest starting now with offering the cup, but don't cut out the bottle right away. Give it time. This is a huge transition for your little one and you will need to be patient with the whole process. It might be a smooth one or tough, but just expect to put a little time into it.

Good Luck!

Great job introducing sippy cups at mealtime! Since he knows how to use the sippy, you can start removing one bottle at a time and replace with a cup of water or cows milk. I'd start with lunchtime.

I introduced cows milk at about 11mo and worked fine (my personal theory is no formula/breastmilk in a sippy). The doc said no rush to wean, so we kept using bottles till 15 months, but started sippy cups around 10 months. The last bottle to go was the nighttime one (and notice I did NOT say "bedtime"--you'll probably want to start separating the last feeding from the bedtime ritual in the next few months).

I let my daughter have her cup of water basically anytime, and walk around the house with it. Milk is generally just at mealtime. (She is 17 months old now)

My daughter was about 11 months when I took her from the bottle. If he can already drink from a sippy cup, then he is ready to be taken off the bottle. Just start putting his formula in the sippy cup and take the bottles away. It worked with my daughter. Maybe get a cup with his favorite character on it to help.

Good luck.

I was a breast feeder but I was able to wean my son to a sippy cup immediately when he was 1. What I did was sit him down like I was going to breastfeed, but instead offered the cup. He took to it right away, and transitioned very easily from there. It's worth a shot!

Hi L.,

I started with snack time like you are doing, but try giving him formula/milk with the snack. This will give him a heads up that milk comes in a tippy cup. Then, try taking the bottle he least desires, and begin weening one at a time. With mine, he didn't mind giving up the other bottles during the day as long as his meals were regular and fulfilling and he had his milk with his meal. The nighttime is the hardest, but by ridding the daytime bottles, he'll begin to see that they are slowly moving out of his routine.

Hope this helps and have a fabulous day!
A.

I started the weaning process at 1 year going from formula in a bottle to milk in a sippy cup. I switched one bottle at a time, waiting 4 days or so before moving on to switching the next bottle to a sippy cup. The last bottle to go was the bedtime bottle. Your bedtime ritual sounds similar to ours. We finished with snuggling and reading a book while he had the bottle. I can't remember if we just stopped including the bottle, or if we gave him a sippy cup with water while we read the bedtime book, but he never missed the bottle. I was nervous about his reaction, but we just continued the same routine as usual (the only thing missing was the bottle) and he never gave us any indication that he was upset about not having a bottle. It was almost too easy! This was with my 2nd baby. I had planned this weaning process with my 1st baby, but he flatly refused the bottle himself at 11.5 months, so I never had a chance to start the process. I wouldn't complain, but I was a little sad because I missed the snuggle time with the bottle and I thought I had another couple of weeks to enjoy it.:) Maybe my babies were just extra easy-going, but getting rid of the bottle was no trouble even for my 2nd baby. I think it may be easier because they're so young. It seems like it is usually older babies that I hear of having trouble getting rid of the bottle.

Just to warn you, neither of my babies drank nearly the same quantity from a sippy cup as they did from the bottle. It worried me a lot, especially with my 1st, but they seem to drink what they need. And I had to alter the usual "routine" a little and offer the sippy cup throughout the day, rather than at the same set time they used to have the bottle. Neither of my babies ever drank a full sippy cup at one sitting. They "sipped" and would only take a little at a time, so I would offer the cup throughout the day, give sips during playtime, etc.

The Nuby sippy cups worked great in the beginning because it is very much like a bottle nipple, not the hard spout that most sippy cups have. They are not great because they do leak, but that helped my babies get used to sippy cups. I believe it is Playtex who also makes a beginner's sippy cup that has a spout very similar to the hard ones, but it is slightly softer to help them make the adjustment.

I hope this helps! Good luck!

Babies need to suck. He is still a baby. What is the rush?

Hi L.,

Do one bottle at a time - do the mid day bottles first then the morning bottle, then the bedtime bottle - because the morning and bedtime bottles are probably most comforting to him. You may have to keep the bed time bottle going for awhile because you don't want to mess up night time sleep. If he's still taking that bottle at bedtime until he's almost 2 - it's not a big deal and by then he should be on sippy cup the rest of the day.

When you switch at bedtime it will probably be the hardest - make a big deal of it - "You're such a big boy, let's pick out a bedtime sippy" - that might help.

Good luck! My boy is 6 now. You have a lot of fun times to look forward to!

I have a 4 yr old and 16 mo old. I just did this........ Wait a couple of months...at 12 mo stwitch to whole milk. After another month or two cut abigger hole in the bottle so he jets use to a faster flow. After another week cut the hole bigger so the milk pours out. After a week throw away all the bottles and give him milk in the new sippy cups that have a hard mouth piece and in the middle it is silicone like a bottle. It is spill prof but there are no plugs to put in and unlike the solid silicone top cups he can;t bit wholes in it. Then your done.

my daughter took to the Nuby BPA free no spill sipper. she was breastfed, but took bottles of BMilk, then rice milk after she turned one. i used the sippy the same way i'd BF her or give her a bottle, and i think the silicone spout really helped.

Hi L.,

Guess what? There's no magic to it--you just wean them! My son had his last bottle the day before his 1st birthday, and on his birthday I put milk in a sippy cup and away we went. No issue! Since your son is already drinking water from a sippy, you should be fine. Just put about half of the amount of milk that you normally would in the sippy cup in the beginning--they don't suck it down as fast as breastmilk or formula.

It'll be great!
:-) D.

We went cold turkey when my son was 14 months. Starting on Saturday I told him we didn't have bottles any more and that he only had the sippy cups--I don't know if it was because he was so young, but he really didn't complain and by Monday, he wasn't looking for the bottle any more.

I would also recommend that the sippy cup that holds the milk be different from the cup for the water---he seemed to like that he could tell which one was supposed to hold the milk or the water.

Good luck!

why aare you rushing it ? givehim ime to grow a little a bottle is much easier for you to deal with than a cup. give him time raised 4 allwrown with children of their own good luck mom fro mom in no hills