Weaning from bottle?

membrn

I was reading in "Parents" magazine last night about weaning from a bottle to a sippy cup.  It recommended starting LO on a sippy cup at 9 months.  We've been giving DS a sippy cup to play with at meal times that just has water in it because he primarily breastfeeds; he only uses bottles when I'm at work (just 3 days a week). And his bottles only have breastmilk in it with the exception of water when he eats.

I hadn't even thought about it and was planning on using bottles until he's a year or weaned.  Should we start using sippies now for his milk when I'm at work?  

Interestingly, it talked about kids going to the crib with their bottle - we have never done that and he definitely doesn't walk around with one...and I know that we're supposed to discourage walking around with the sippy cup.  

QueSrah

T didn't really understand sippy cups at 9 months (especially the ones with valves), when we gave her one with water to play with occasionally.  We were still giving her bottles until about 14 months (we did a very slow transition to cow's milk and waited to be done with formula to switch over), and she gave up bottles pretty easily.  I think to some extent it depends on the kid - some kids need a long time to warm up to a change, and some don't.  It doesn't hurt to give your LO some time to play with a sippy, but I wouldn't worry about having to switch over right now unless you want to.  One year isn't a magic number, and it's no big deal if you haven't made the switch by his 1st birthday.

kbalb

By one year, we had pretty much only had milk in bottles.  DD liked having "juice" or water in a cup.  I would give out DCP an empty cup to see if she would take any milk in it (which she wouldn't).  I was more concerned with her nutrition than going without a bottle. 

However, it became really frustrating after awhile when the sippy cup of milk would be thrown across the room, and she would run and get her bottle.  We eventually quit cold-turkey after a week long milk drought (because she was sick).  Once we reintroduced milk to her in a cup, she took it, and the switch was done.  She was about 15 months then.

However, I have friends whose kids were only doing cups at a year, and a few who were doing bottles at 20 months.  Go with whatever works best for you.

DCtoLowcountry

Like QueSrah we did a slow transition from formula to whole milk between 12-13 months, and introduced the sippy around the same time. We'd offer a sippy and he'd hold out for the bottle, so around 13 months we went cold turkey. We made a big production out of putting all the bottles away and sippies only. We had one long week of protesting and since then it's been no big deal. He loves straw cups, which we introduced at 15 monhts.

MrsPhilDunphy

C's had sippys of water at meal time since 6 months and used them fairly well at 12 months, so we just switched over cold turkey when we transitioned to milk. There were some protests and some thrown cups, but we knew that he could operate a sippy just fine and he came around pretty quickly. Plus, at the time he still nursed so I knew he'd still get decent nutrition, even if there was a brief sippy boycott.

Sofka

I am anti-sippy! We go from bottle to straw cup. DD learned to use a straw cup in 2hrs at 8mo old, DS took 2 months to learn it but was pretty good by 10mo.

 

Jitterbug2668

at 9 months we gave DS a sippy to play w/ during dinner, filled with water.  I took the valves out of those that had them so he could get some water out, but even now at 13 months he's not too thrilled about the sippy cup and drinks very little from it. 

jess08200

We tried multiple sippy cups leading up to DS's first birthday.  Around that time we found one that he would actually use.

At 1, we went cold turkey and switched to sippy cups.  I am trying to switch to a cup with a straw or harder top, but he is refusing them.  He can drink from them just fine, just refuses.  But that's a whole different discussion....

membrn

Sofka:

I am anti-sippy! We go from bottle to straw cup. DD learned to use a straw cup in 2hrs at 8mo old, DS took 2 months to learn it but was pretty good by 10mo.

 

My mom is as well - I've been indifferent but DS is drinking from a straw (or DH had him doing it) so I'm thinking of picking up the kids ones and not doing much more with the sippy cups.  

Thanks everyone!  I figured it would probably be based more on my own judgment but all of a sudden I wasn't sure after reading the article.  Thanks for weighing in.

 

kastle

Thank you for this thread!  Sprout is all about drinking out of a big boy cup & actually does better with a regular cup than his sippy cup.  However, a regular cup requires far, FAR more supervision (he likes to throw things down when he's done with them...)  Maybe I'll try a straw cup & see how that goes.