Any advice/suggestions for weaning from bottle to a sippy cup?

bam6582 · January 2014

2 issues: 1) We are trying to transition our 13 month old to a sippy cup and we have tried several different brands of sippy's and she refuses to drink her milk from it! She will drink water or juice from a sippy cup but not her milk! We are currently doing half formula, half cows milk to transition her to straight cows milk in another week. 2) She has never been one to want to hold her own bottle until recently when we started making her. So our other issue is that she wont drink from her sippy cup unless we are holding it for her! If I give it to her to drink on her own, she will just fling the sippy around and play with it. Any suggestions on what I can do with both of these issues?? Thanks!

mommaoftrips · January 2014

We gave sippies with just water in it pretty early so they got used to it. Maybe just let her play with it. In terms of transitioning we didn't start until our LOS were on full cows milk.

Once this happened, we took away the 'easiest' bottle - for us this was the afternoon one (as it wasn't associated with any naps), once this was gone, we went onto eliminating the next. It just takes time. GL

We had to try many different brands. The one that worked for us was the born free - trainer.

bam6582 · January 2014

We did try the born free brand but it seemed she had a hard time getting anything to come out of the spout! I'm sure its a lot harder than the nipple so she didnt want to work at it! Maybe I will try again.

mommaoftrips · January 2014

The born free sippy I am talking about has a rubber top - not a hard top, and it's super easy to get out.

bam6582 · January 2014

Yea, we got the longer rubber spout. However, I got the 6 month top because the rubber seemed softer than the others. The only other one I found was a 9 month+ I believe. The other ones were the harder plastic spouts. Are there other born free rubber spouts out there that you know of?

mommaoftrips · January 2014

No, those are the ones. Have you tried a straw? Letting LO drink from a cup?

beachbum482 · January 2014

I feel your pain! We are going through the exact same thing with our son! He has been doing a little better drinking some milk out of a sippy right when he wakes up in the morning and during breakfast. This just started happening after weeks of offering. My advice is to just stay vigilant about trying - she will drink it when she wants it!!

bam6582 · January 2014

Yea, we tried a straw one as well. She drank ok from it once, then when tried another time she didnt want it! Shes a little stinker!! She drinks well from a regular cup with no lid but of course I have to hold it for her. Im trying to get her to have some independence and learn to do it herself.

mb314 · January 2014

DS was super attached to his bottles at daycare. we tried sippies for milk at 12 months, and he would have none of it. i decided to wait until he was 14.5 months and tried again. daycare replaced one bottle a day with a sippy over three weeks, and that worked. so my advice is to maybe wait another month and try again. your LO may not be ready.

sorry i dont have advice for getting LO to hold bottle/sippy cup.

credcat7 · January 2014

we started water in a straw cup at 6 months and she did great but as we now are trying the milk I get the same issue.. she fills her mouth with milk and lets it dribble all over... she will do fine with water URG

I wonder is SOME of the issue is that we never changed her nipple flow on her bottles ......so its a lot of milk at once which she isn't used to?

ashiscute · January 2014

I would just try a straw cup (like the take & toss ones) that are easy to drink out of. Some of the sippy and straw cups are so difficult to drink from it doesn't really seem worth it. I would ditch the bottles altogether and she'll get it. Just offer lots of water and dairy until she gets used to. My LO is almost 16 mos and I don't stress how much milk he gets.

zbeesma86 · January 2014

DD loved straw cups for water. Then when she turned 1 year I put all the bottles away and only gave her sippy cups. She transitioned fine.

Your LO is using them for water and juice just keep offering it with milk and she will take it eventually.

pb_bride · January 2014

Regarding not holding the sippy, does yours come with the little handles? We have the oxo brand and the sippy comes with a detachable handles, makes it easier for DS to hold his sippy cup when he was younger.

JoNi2010 · January 2014

Maybe wait until she is completely switched over to WCM before this transition? I did it stepwise so it did not overwhelm my LO. But I switched to straw because I did not want the headache of switching from sippies (my dentist detests them for his teeth!).

About the hold thing, when she is hungry enough, she will hold it herself.

emberlee3 · January 2014

Re: not holding her own sippy, I would probably work on that first. Just stop holding it. Or offer a regular cup or straw cup. Offer foods with high water content and continue bottle feedings until LO takes water from a cup on her own. Then just get rid of the bottles--slowly, cold turkey, any way you please. Neither of my children held their own bottles but both transitioned easily to cups.

bam6582 · January 2014

I will have to look for the oxo brand. Do you know where you bought it? We got the born free brand because the handles are detachable but i could tell she had a hard time drinking from it so she didnt want it. I'm sure it doesn't flow as easy as a nipple on a bottle!

ss265 · January 2014

Another brand you can try is the Nuk one with the rubber spout. DS is almost 14 months old and I just tried giving him milk in this cup over the weekend and he did great! We also waited until he was completely on WCM before starting the sippy so that it was one change at a time.

https://www.toysrus.com/buy/cups/nuk-trendline-learner-5oz-cup-silicone-spout-whimsy-1pk-neutral-62727-11015108

AlfiesMOM · January 2014

This was so difficult for us and the ONLY thing that worked was this combindation. We did almond milk in the nuk transition sippy cups for all meals/ normal times we would give a bottle accept at night. She liked the almond milk because it was a little sweeter and our pedi said it was perfectly fine to give. Finally, she just stopped taking the night time bottle and we slowly started added whole milk with the almond milk. After about two months she was fully on sippys with whole milk! This was after MONTHS of trying every sippy cup with no luck!

littlemurphy2912 · January 2014

This may or may not make you feel better but my daughter is 17 months old and drinks water and juice from sippy cups just fine but at night time wants milk in a bottle. That's the only time she has a bottle usually. She goes to daycare full time and they offer her water, juice, and milk in a sippy cup and she drinks it there just fine but hasn't wanted to drink milk out of a sippy cup at home yet. I know lots of people are going to get on me for saying this but oh well...my husband and I have decided that even though our pediatrician told us to that our daughter should be off at bottle at 15 months old we feel she isn't ready for it. She has told us in her own ways when she is ready to start new things (solid foods, drinking from sippy cups, etc) and when she wants to stop certain things (at 12 months old went from drinking 4 bottles a day to drinking only 2 morning and night all on her own) she is very used to having a bottle at night before she goes to bed and that's the only time she gets one and we don't want to interrupt that ritual for her until she is ready and tells us she is ready...however if she goes beyond 2 years of doing this we will start to consider weaning her from it. Also, we got our daughter off formula and onto milk by doing half milk and half formula in a bottle and did it until we could do all milk and she didn't notice a difference. Good luck!

hmontty · January 2014

Some PPs mention that they introduced cups early to get their kids used to using them, but honestly, I don't think that matters.

For both my kids, I didn't introduce sippies until about 11 or 12 months, and they both basically took right to them, at which point I got rid of the bottle. Oh, you used a cup successfully? Good-bye bottle! No "transition." They both did well this way with no fuss.

I DID, however, have to try several varieties of sippies until I found one they each liked, which for both ended up being straw cups.

janinekrause · January 2014

littlemurphy2912 said:

This may or may not make you feel better but my daughter is 17 months old and drinks water and juice from sippy cups just fine but at night time wants milk in a bottle. That's the only time she has a bottle usually. She goes to daycare full time and they offer her water, juice, and milk in a sippy cup and she drinks it there just fine but hasn't wanted to drink milk out of a sippy cup at home yet. I know lots of people are going to get on me for saying this but oh well...my husband and I have decided that even though our pediatrician told us to that our daughter should be off at bottle at 15 months old we feel she isn't ready for it. She has told us in her own ways when she is ready to start new things (solid foods, drinking from sippy cups, etc) and when she wants to stop certain things (at 12 months old went from drinking 4 bottles a day to drinking only 2 morning and night all on her own) she is very used to having a bottle at night before she goes to bed and that's the only time she gets one and we don't want to interrupt that ritual for her until she is ready and tells us she is ready...however if she goes beyond 2 years of doing this we will start to consider weaning her from it. Also, we got our daughter off formula and onto milk by doing half milk and half formula in a bottle and did it until we could do all milk and she didn't notice a difference. Good luck!

My older one was on bottles till 2, and my little one until 18 months. I personally could care less- they loved them and were attached, and it wasn't a battle I really cared about. The transition when they were more ready was so easy. So either keep trying new sippies, or if you don't care, keep the bottle for a few more months. My point is - don't feel stressed into making the change quickly if they aren't ready.

littlemurphy2912 · January 2014

janinekrause said:

littlemurphy2912 said:

This may or may not make you feel better but my daughter is 17 months old and drinks water and juice from sippy cups just fine but at night time wants milk in a bottle. That's the only time she has a bottle usually. She goes to daycare full time and they offer her water, juice, and milk in a sippy cup and she drinks it there just fine but hasn't wanted to drink milk out of a sippy cup at home yet. I know lots of people are going to get on me for saying this but oh well...my husband and I have decided that even though our pediatrician told us to that our daughter should be off at bottle at 15 months old we feel she isn't ready for it. She has told us in her own ways when she is ready to start new things (solid foods, drinking from sippy cups, etc) and when she wants to stop certain things (at 12 months old went from drinking 4 bottles a day to drinking only 2 morning and night all on her own) she is very used to having a bottle at night before she goes to bed and that's the only time she gets one and we don't want to interrupt that ritual for her until she is ready and tells us she is ready...however if she goes beyond 2 years of doing this we will start to consider weaning her from it. Also, we got our daughter off formula and onto milk by doing half milk and half formula in a bottle and did it until we could do all milk and she didn't notice a difference. Good luck!

My older one was on bottles till 2, and my little one until 18 months. I personally could care less- they loved them and were attached, and it wasn't a battle I really cared about. The transition when they were more ready was so easy. So either keep trying new sippies, or if you don't care, keep the bottle for a few more months. My point is - don't feel stressed into making the change quickly if they aren't ready.

I'm glad I'm not the only one doing this!

janinekrause · January 2014

There are many things I care about in terms of my childrens development- but pacifiers, bottles, potty training- everything in time. Not worth my stress or my childrens stress.

BLPL101 · January 2014

DD wouldn't use a sippy until I got her ones with a straw and this was right before she turned 1. Once I knew she could use it, I just stopped giving her the bottle. No transition. She didn't even seem to notice.

Any advice/suggestions for weaning from bottle to a sippy cup?

Re: Any advice/suggestions for weaning from bottle to a sippy cup?

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