When to Transition to a Cup

My daycare lady went directly to an open cup with DD, so that's what we did at home too. We used those really small dixie cups (like 3oz) with only a bit of water in it. She had the hang of it within a week or so and could also drink out of a regular water bottle (with some help) on the go. Introduced the cup at one year (while still giving bottles for milk) and did away with the bottle about 6 months later. It was pretty smooth transition.

with both of my older kids I switched cold turkey right about 1 yr.

our boys have to be off the bottle by the time they are 1 year old. all of them have cleft lip and palate and they have their palate repair surgery at that time. so after the surgery until they are totally healed they cant have bottles, no sippy cups, no binkies etc. so with our oldest, he is 2 1/2 now, we just started giving him milk in a regular cup and thank God he took to it from minute one. he went cold turkey from the bottle to regular cup. he wouldnt even drink from a sippy cup until about 6 months ago. our twins are almost 9 months old and their palate surgeries are in november, 4 days after their first birthday. so we'll start in about 2 months getting them used to drinking from a regular cup. messy at first but it's worth it. i'd try and see if your LO could drink from a regular cup

We jumped to a sippy cup on her first Birthday. I talked it up for about 2 weeks. I told her "when you turn 1 years old no more bottles". "You will Get to use a sippy cup".. I took her to the store and she picked out the one she liked, I purchased a different style.. The night before her birthday we threw all of the bottle stuff away..

In the morning I asked our daughter, "so you want milk or juice in your sippy cup".. We never looked back. At her birthday , every person gave her a sippy cup, so every day I asked he which cup do you want to use.

Give it a try and see if your child is ready.. you never know. There are a ton to choose from.

My pediatrician had me start introducing sippy cups at 6 months of age. We put water in it, and the transistion when the time came was easy!

At a year is when they should be off bottles, so earlier than that. Offer them every time you give formula, water or juice. You may have to play around a bit to see what works, sippy or straw in the lid, or even an open cup if your child doesn't like to sip and can handle the flow and not spill a lot✿

My last child NEVER wanted a sippy cup unless he was stealing it from someone else. We went from bottle to cup with straw. We still use both at a year old.

I transitioned my child to a REAL cup at 10 months. That's when I introduced water to his diet, and I did it straight from a cup. A very small cup that holds about 3 ounces. It was my dad's. We have never even had sippy cups in the house. I'm an older mom (45, my only child is 4) and I figured that I learned to drink out of a real cup, so my son could too. It's been great. No gross sippy cup lids to try to keep clean. No spills because we always sit at the table or stand in the kitchen to drink. You might consider trying it that way instead of the sippy cup route.

My son is only 9 months old so he still uses a bottle but we are working on using a sippy cup too. We use one with two handles and a spout that is similar to a nipple. I have found that he does best with it when I fill it to the brim with water and then give it to him in the stroller when we go on walks. I use my car seat/stroller combo for walks so I can keep an eye on him and it keeps him from throwing the cup out of the stroller because he can see me instead of when he is facing out. Plus there is not much to distract him from holding the cup, whereas in other environments, he might let go of the cup and move on to something else. I have noticed that when I drink from my water bottle, he sometimes will put the sippy cup to his mouth. Another bonus of having the cup on walks is that it helps him to get at least a little bit of water with this extreme heat we are experiencing. I put ice cubes in the water because he seems to chew on the spout more when the water is ice cold. He only sucks on it properly once in a while but with the flexible spout he is able to get some water out when he chews it.

My niece went to a daycare where they went straight from bottle to regular cup, and when my son is a year, I will be doing this and trying to use the sippy cup more for convenience. They started with dixie cups and I plan on trying those along with open cups with handles.

We started both kids practicing water in sippy cup abt 9 mos

I tried at 9 mos...he hated it.

I tried at 12 mos...he still hated it.

I tried at 15 mos by filling it w/plain old water and put milk (his fav) in a sippy. He was ok with it. I tried a few sippys before we found the right one but once he took to the sippy, there was no looking back at the bottle.

gl