Getting My Little Guy to Move to the Sippy Cup

Try watering down the milk. My MD said to make the milk in my daughts bottle as undesirable as possible. So if he gets 8 oz at every feeding then give him 7 oz of milk and 1 oz of water. The next day 6 oz of milk and 2 oz of water. And so on and so on. Now with this offer him full milk in a sippy cup. So he can either have the watered milk in the bottle or great milk in a sippy cup. By the third day my daughter didn't want the bottle any more cause she realized that the milk in the cup tasted better. Good Luck!!!

Well, I don't have any advice really on how to get him from drinking out if his bottle, we just gradually took it away, but he also had cousins and daycare kids that drank from a cup, so I think that helped. With him drinking water, we did have that problem, even if you have to put it in his bottle, he's only 10 months, it's fine, my son was over a year before he got off the bottle, put a teaspoon of sugar in his bottle of water, it helps with the taste (also cure hiccups), with the constipation, add some Kayro syrup to his bottle, it can be in milk, juice, or water (we had to do that for our son's constipation). But he will make the change from the bottle to a sippy cup eventually, he sounds pretty set on his bottle, so you might not be able to get him to switch, I truly think he will switch when he's ready.
Also, have you tried letting him pick out a cup from the store, that also worked withour son. Anyway, I hope he makes the switch, but truthfully, he's still a baby, now if you're having this problem and he's almost two, then it's time for some tough love drinking! ;-)

Hi S.,

My dr told me the same thing until my son hadn't had anything to drink for 2 1/2 days. Then, he said give him anything he'll drink, anyway you can get it into him. Period. You're his mom and you know best. My problem was that mine wouldn't take a bottle either.

I tried a sports bottle, every kind of bottle and sippy cup I could find and finally, he decided he liked a sippy top bottle (like the ones on the top of water bottles). We barely opened it and helped him with it. Then, we trained him to a straw by putting a little liquid in the straw and putting a finger on the other end of it to regulate the flow. Within a day or two, he was drinking out of a "juice box" (the plastic Rubbermaid kind). Oh, and he wouldn't drink milk (he's allergic), juice (it tore up his stomach - even watered down) or water....only Orangeade Snapple. He's now 5 1/2 and as healthy as can be and the doctor never fought with me about the child's choice of beverage.

Relax and do what you know is best for your son. The doctors don't know it all. Believe me, he won't go to Kindergarten with a bottle!

Good luck!

I had the same problem with my little boy, Gionni, the only one that he would drink from is called "Nubby" ( I think). It has a the spout like a sippy cup by is made out of the plastic like the nipple from the bottle. After drinking from those for a little while he went straight to the regular sippy cup.

I would definitely try a little diluted juice to help entice him. We introduced our baby at about 8 months old to a nuby sippy cup to get her used to a spout, and the material was almost exactly like the nipple of a bottle. After she turned one, we started working on getting her to hold it herself with the gerber graduates cups with handles. They're marked, so you can see how much you're putting in.

Also, try one kind at a time and when you find one that works, then buy a bunch of them. Otherwise, you end up with tons of valves, cups, bottles, and lids and none of them seem to match!! Good luck.

Dear S.,

This is probably redundant, since you've decided on your course of action. My daughter was 2 1/2 before I got her to drink anything out of a sippy cup, and I'm the one who had the tantrum about it. She decided she liked the Playtex sippy cups with the soft straws. I like them, too, less spillage. Yeah, yeah, those doctors and experts getting paid by toothpaste or cup companies like to scare parents and say stuff like children should be off bottles and sippy cups at a certain age, but I think that is just a bunch of alarmist baloney. And they don't have to worry about dehydration or spilled liquids all over the furniture. No, my daughter doesn't have rotten teeth or a bunch of cavities. The nipple or the straw puts the liquid way in the back of the mouth past all of the teeth. I never let her sleep with a bottle, either.

The reason why she didn't want to give up her bottle is because she liked the extra cuddle time with me. She wouldn't even hold it herself until right before I got her to give it up. Finally, she got a bad cold and couldn't lay back, drink her bottle and watch tv at the same time. She saw the advantage of sitting up and drinking from the sippy cup. And I still cuddled her while she did. Because of her personality, I have to introduce change slowly (she is very bright and articulate, but she depends on her routine to know what is expected of her).

Just so you don't think you are a failure as a mother because your son won't take a sippy cup, I read in Parents magazine that 40% of children older than two still drink from bottles. Makes me think that those doctors who are adamant about being off bottles by age one are not practicing what they preach (or don't have children).

Well I don't have advice, because I'm in the same boat. so when you find out the trick could you send your advice to me?

My son wasn't off of his bottle completely until around 13 months; so I wouldn't expect you on the day he turns one to say 'no more bottle for you'!! They use that as a guidepost for a date! What worked for us was to allow Jesse to have a empty sippy or one w/ water in it ALL day - to allow him to experiment with it. Each time in highchair - sippy cup w/ a little milk. Eventually he grabbed onto the idea. Our other obsticle was WHICH sippy cup worked best... we ended up buying a very unique cup that allows the baby to regulate the flow of the juice/milk. They're available at health foods stores or online at www.newbornfree.com - we started w/ 2 trainer cups from there (they're pricey) and then eventually bought 2 more. Now, at 16 months, he'll use the Nuby cups from Walmart that are pretty cheap. But those newbornfree cups were an overnight success!! Good luck!!

I don't think I would worry too much that he has to be off the bottle right at one. My duaghter is 10 months and we just started a plan to slowly eliminate one bottle a day from her daily routine at a time over the next 2-4 months. I have read that it is best to start by cutting out the midday snack bottle first, and so far this week that is working okay. But every day is different and we have to kind of let her lead us. My ped. made the suggestion that anything you want your child to drink out of a cup, never put in a bottle. If it has been in a bottle for them, they will expect it there the next time. He told us that that is the #1 reason babies cannot give up the bottle if parents have put milk in it. They want the milk but the bottle, too. So far it has worked for us. We put water in a cup or sippy. If she gets any juice (we only use this for constipation- also under ped. advice like yours) it is also in a cup. If you have already put it in a bottle before, i would try slowly introducing the cup over time with the liquid of choice in it. I would not rush to the milk until he is used to the cup. All babies do things differently, and I think it you force him to keep a time table you may be the one with the headache. Hope it all works out for you!

I had the same problem with my son. I let him just play with the sippy cup for a while and then slowly introduced him to it. It took a couple of months for him to really adapt though. He was almost 15 months before he was drinking well from a sippy cup. I think if you keep practicing with your son he'll come around when he's ready for it.

I had a hard time getting my little guy to take sippy cups too. He hated the hard spout ones. I tried Nuby, he just bite down on them and let the stuff pour into his mouth and the ones with the handles leak bad! I tried the Playtex ones with the handles since they were soft but he still didn't like them. I finially got the Gerber ones with the blue spout and he took them like a champ!! After a few weeks with those he would take the Playtex ones and then he would take the regular Playtex hard spout ones. If you are trying to get him off the bottle then put nothing but water in them even thoguh you already know he doesn't like it. It won't be worth his time after a while. Put his milk and juice in the sippy cups. Just wondering but why did he DR say no juice? I dulite 25/75 (juice/water) and even though mine doesn't care for plain water he'll drink it like that. Just don't cave in to him throwing a fit about the bottles. Good luck to you!

S.

First of all I would like to say that if your son is getting dehydrated and constipated that is way worse than a little juice in his cup. My girls hardly ever just have plain water. I mix about 2 oz of juice in the water, so that is not much juice. Your the mom, trust your instincts. Personally, I think an MD who says no juice is being a little unrealistic. Also, my girls were a year and a half before they were off the bottle completely, and they are just fine. I would suggest putting half juice half water in a sippy to make it more yummy, and then when he likes drinking from it put less and less juice in the cup. Also, taking him to the store to help pick out the sippy cups he likes is always a big hit. It worked with my girls, and my friends' babies.

Hold your ground. My son wouldn't take a cup or drink out of a straw till he was almost 4. At about 3 and a half yrs old, I just couldn't take it anymore and made him give me all his bottles and made him watch me throw them away. It was especially hard to break him of these habits because he had a baby sister. So there were bottles and passy's around the house for her.

Don't give him juce and give him sippy's instead of bottles. Throw your bottles away. Put your foot down and he'll have no choice but to take the sippy. It works, I've done it.

I agree with the other ladies - juice is not a no-no. You just don't want to give it to them all day or let them go to bed with it. I started giving both of my kids diluted juice (50/50 mis) at around 8 months. Giving him something new like that might entice him to use the sippy cup. Or you could try some of the new flavored waters. My son (2 1/2) loves those.

The other thing to consider is that maybe it's not the cup, but that he doesn't want to give up the extra attention he gets with a bottle. My little diva baby did this. To get her to start using a sippy cup, I had to hold her and hold it for her like I would a bottle a few times before she would try it on her own. At that age, they are not going to readily embrace anything that gives them less of Mom's attention!

Good luck!