Bottle to Sippy Cup - Halethorpe,MD

Hi

It is probably more of a comfort thing for him , he associates his milk with a bottle , is it really a big deal that he has his milk from a sippy cup? He is still only 14 months , still a baby. My 15 month old has her milk from a bottle as did my other 2 , they are now 6 & almost 4 , their teeth are fine , they can drink from normal cups no problem & they grew out of having a bottle with no issues. I don't see why there is such a big thing made out of taking a bottle away as soon as a baby has it's first birthday.

Good luck

K.

At 14 months I assume your son still eats in a highchair or other restrained booster seat. It is time for him to receive his milk primarily at meals and not at-will throughout the day, so to start his transition, simply do not offer ANY other liquids between meals. None at all during this short interval, not even water. This means that he will get very thirsty and with only the milk available in whatever container you next wish him to use, he will simply drink it! If you are very firm and do not offer other juicy items like applesauce either to replace the fluid, this will only require a few meals to settle down. We had a son who at that age wanted no solids AND would only use a bottle for his copious drinking of milk, so we had to do something as he was too big to get adequate nutrition from only his gallons of milk, and this worked. If your child is anything like ours was (i.e.with a will of steel) and desires nothing but his bottle for his milk, he will hurl it to the floor when you start this and fuss and possibly tantrum on you. But it is all for YOUR effect, therefore, place him in his seat and be sure he is safe, remark that he's such a big/nice/wonderful boy (or whatever), do not mention the milk cup, place the milk in a sippy or straw-type cup AND LEAVE THE ROOM. Peek back at him in a manner he can not detect. If he throws the cup, return with NO COMMENT, place it back on his tray and leave again. Repeat. You will soon be surprised when you peek, that he is slurping down that milk because he is thristy and can evaluate that he has to help himself....!

tell him he is a big boy now and no bottles are allowed

have him give them up, (do like super nanny does) get the fairy doll to help give them up.

tell him that he needed to put all his bottles together and put them in an envalope and send them to the next baby in the world who needs bottles.

failing that just take it away tell him

no more, and dont make such a big deal out of it.

that is how i did it with my son

hope this helps.

theres a sippy cup by nuby that has the same nipple type as a bottle (silicone instead of hard plastic)that might help. it even comes in a more nippled shape. its the green sippy in the picture in the web site below http://www.nuby.com/products/cups/1214.aspx

Try the Nuby brand, they have cups w a soft spot, more like a bottle.
We found them at the Dollar General

I've gotten the best advice here for my daughter! She was drinking water from a Gerber 9oz hard sippy but would not drink milk from it. The advice was to try a Nuby Sport Cup; it has a soft tip that looks like a straw. I went out, got a two pack and crossed my fingers. She took it no problem. After six sippy cups with the usual "no way" toss and this worked right away. I was shocked! Now 2 weeks later we are using all Gerber 9oz hard sippy cups without the valve.

Just a short thought. My kids were never fond of the sippy, they would only use it when desperate. You might want to try a straw cup. I know that the strawcups say on they 18 months and up, but they were SO much easier for my kids right from 12 months than the sippy.

Help him drink milk from an open cup. he will either learn to do it himself, or he willbecome more accepting of the sippy once he realizes it's fun to drink milk froma different source. Kids like the open cup because it's like our's and they like ot play with it. Yes, it's messy at first, but you get into a rythm and it works, just try a small amount at first.

P. - I hope you have better luck than I did! My daughter (now almost 6) refused to drink milk out of cup of any kind (but would drink water, etc. from sippys) so we let her have a bottle in the morning and one at night - brushing teeth afterwards. But, when she turned 3 it became embarrassing (even though no one really saw this going on) So I took away the bottle cold turkey. She has not has a SIP of milk ever since. We try every once in awhile but it's just not happening. So maybe my advice is this - find a good sippy cup for the milk soon! I guess it got too late for us. My daughter obviously drinks out of a normal cup now, but she still won't touch milk. And trust me, she LOVED milk until that bottle was taken away! Good luck!

Hi there,

I suggest using the straw cups. They have hand grips and are leak proof, well as much as the sippy cups are anyhow. http://www.greatbabyproducts.com/ProductDetails.asp?Produ...
My daughter was about 9-10 mo old when she started using these. They are great for developing the muscles on the tongue, they help with speech. He won't really know how to use the straw to begin with, unless you have already done this with him. Suck some of the milk in the straw, plug one end and put the other end in his mouth for him to suck from. He will eventually get the process and will be able to use the straw independently.
If you do get these cups, the lids can break after only a few months if you tighten the lid too much, all you have to do is call the company and they will send you replacents for free, just keep the center pc that holds the straw. I am really glad that I went this route! They are great!
Good luck!

We had the same problem. For my son we just got him a different sippy cup, a folgo (or something like that). it is a aluminum body, with a bright blue and yellow mouth and cover, different enougth from his water sippy. we only use that sippy for milk.

milk doesn't have any change in nutritional value when it's in a sippy cup. so why create a battle over it? he's drinking water and juice, so he knows how. at 14 months it's really not the end of the world if he has a bottle, but if you're bound and determined to have him quit the bottle now, just keep offering him milk in a cup and don't fuss if he turns it down. there are a gajillion other ways for him to get milk's benefits (yogurt, smoothies etc) without drinking it so add more of that until he decides he's okay with drinking it from a cup. this a total no-big-dealio. it's a phase that will be gone and forgotten before you know it.
khairete
S.

As a few others have suggested, sometimes it is just a matter of finding the right cup. My son resisted the switch from bottles to sippy until we found the right one. We went from the born free bottles to the born free sippy cup w/soft spout (more like a nipple than hard plastic). He uses a sippy cup for his milk during the day. However, my son still loves bottles and we continue to give him one in the evening w/dinner which he sucks down in a heartbeat. As long as they are not sucking on bottles all day/night (i.e. leading to dental carries and cavities), really what is the big deal! Good luck!

My trick was to offer a bottle with nipple number 1 on it along with a sippy cup. My son will choose the bottle but then realize it was not satisfying (because of succion was harder and flow slower) so after a while he chose the sippy and that was it. Good luck!