Switching from Bottle to Sippy Cup

My son will be 17months tomorrow. I just did the transistion this past weekend. The first 2 days were hard but I stuck to my guns and he is over it. He has been bottle free for 5 days. I did notice that he preferred his milk to be cold from the cup whereas he liked his bottles warmed. I am using the Gerber lil sports cup for him specifically for his milk only. And I use platex sippy cups for water and juice. That way he isn't disappointed when he really wants some water and gets a big mouth full of milk. He knows which is which. Good luck. I know how hard it can be.

M S,
My daughter went from bottle to sippy without a problem cold turkey when I put her on NUBY cups. The spout is so close to a nipple. I also transitioned her to the "sports cup" now that she's 17 months.
It's a mixture between the spout and a straw. I hope to very soon have her on a straw (they're also nuby) since that's what is now most recommended to prevent dental problems.
She has had a hard time "getting" the straw, but yours may not. A friend of mine went straight to the straw and her son got it easily.
Amy

My son drank water from a sippy at a year, but not milk until about 18 months. I totally understand where you are coming from.
I did take him to the store and let him choose his own sippy cup. That did backfire because he didn't want the milk in it, only water. I finally tried the disposable sippy cups with elmo and cookie monster on it and he never looked back.
I think every kid is different so just keep trying, eventually your son too will cross over!
Good Luck!

Hello, I have a 16 month old boy. I switched to a sippy cup almost as soon as he could hold his own bottle. I started out with the nuby because they are softer (especially for a teething youngun), then I went on to the firmer spouts. The nuby cups are nice but they are hard to line up (the spout and the lid have to line up) But my sons favorite cup came to him as a gift from our niece. It has the built in straw. At first he didn't know how to suck out of a straw but we tried it a month or so ago and what do you know he drank from a straw and loved it. That is the cup he always wants now. You might try a cup like that. It's something different. The way we started it was to get our own drinks and put straws in them. Then fill the straw and cover the top and let them have drinks from your straw with you controlling the flow of liquid. I don't know of any kids that don't want whatever mom, dad, or bubby have instead of what they have. Austin really took off with it. I did cold turkey. As soon as I saw he was capable of holding his own bottle, I hid the bottles (just in case) and started using only sippy cups. We never looked back. I ended up giving away the bottles. Sorry, I looked all over that cup and couldn't find the brand name. Hope this helps and really hope it works for you. Let me know how he does. Make sure you call his cup something positive like his big boy cup, or his cup like mommys or daddys. Good luck. Shannon

I don't have any great words of wisdom but when we first switched my son from bottle to sippy he refused the milk too (he had no problem drinking water or juice out of the cup, though). I just waited it out a couple months and made sure he had other foods with calcium (yogurt, broccoli, cheese, etc). That was at 12 months and now at 17 months old he LOVES his milk sippy (we use a certain sippy for milk). He doesn't NEED the milk, it's the calcium that's important. Don't force it, that will just make him mad. Offer it, and hopefully, eventually, it will take. Otherwise just seek out the calcium elsewhere :) If you took away the bottle completely I wouldn't go back to it just to get him to drink milk. Hope I could help.

I am in the same boat. My son is 18 months and I decided to switch to sippy cups. I actually took my 18 month old son to the store and let him pick out his own sippy cups. When we got home I threw away every bottle and showed him how to use his new sippy cups. I left the room to get some laundry. I came back in less than 5 minutes and the bottles were out of the garbage and on the table. Nipples and all. There was my son with a big smile on his face. His bottle is his best friend. He will hug an empty bottle like it is a teddy bear. Better luck to you.

Hi M S,
I just did tha transition with my daughter 2 weeks back so i can understand the issues you are referring to.
Don't worry he will start soon, what you need to do is just not pressurize him at the start. I did the same with my daughter, try to just keep the sippy cup around him rather than asking him to drink immediately. It would take time but he will himself pick it up when you are not watching and start sipping the milk.By any chance if you stil have the bottles in his view and yielding to his bottle than he knows that. So would advise to keep them away from his view so he knows that he will have to drink it from sippy cup.

And trust me he won't drink it the way he might have been from a bottle, there will always be some milk left at the end. But the Dr. says it's ok if they don't have more milk, they somehow compensate their appetite by having more solids.
Secondly, you can also comepnsate his calcium intake by giving him milk products like yogurt, cheese etc. if his milk intake goes down because of sippy cup.

He will be fine, don't worry.

Hi there!
I don't know what kind of sippy cup you are using, but we bought the kind that has a rubbery type straw. It is soft like a nipple and they still get to use the sucking motion. We bought them from Wal-Mart, I wish I could tell you what brand they were, but it has been a while ago. I can also tell you that it has a flip top portion where the straw is at. Maybe that would help the transition.