Kirsty Lavender has asked for tips on how best to wean her baby off his bottle and onto a trainer cup. Thanks for the request, Kirsty.
The best advice I can give is to have patience.
When I decided to coax my oldest son off his bottle, at around 12 months of age, it took several attempts before getting a result. I offered him a variety of different cups, until I gave him a small plastic beaker with about 6 tiny holes in the spout. He liked this one and never had a bottle again.
Don’t be tempted to swap and change between bottle and cup once your child takes to a cup, stick with it.
My mum tells me that when she got me off my bottle, she hid it away in a drawer out of view. Several weeks later on a rainy day she decided to let me help her tidy some drawers to keep me entertained. ( she had forgotten the bottle was in there). When I looked in the drawer, I saw the bottle teat and excitedly said “Look, I’ve found a malteser!”
Never give your baby sweet drinks from a bottle, as this will encourage tooth decay.
Nowadays, there is an enormous variety of trainer cups and tops available, from teat like tops, to plastic sippy cups. These are good, in the way that they are non-spill, but I have witnessed children actually shaking the liquid out of them, all over my carpet! while I was child minding.
My sister tells me that she gave up with a trainer beaker and let her children suck drinks through a straw and then progressed to a normal plastic cup with no top.
I am guessing, Kirsty, that when you give your son his bottle, you cuddle him. Try doing a similar thing when introducing him to a cup. Obviously, you will need to hold him more upright to prevent choking, but by holding him close, maybe sitting on your lap,it will be more familiar. Then as he gets used to it, give it to him in his high chair.
Hopefully, this gives you some food for thought and with trail and error and as I mentioned earlier patience, hopefully your son will soon happily be drinking from a cup and his bottle a distant memory.
Good luck Kirsty, stick with it and let me know how it goes.
Karen x
As always comments/questions are welcome..
Brilliant,loved the malteser episode. It’s so much easier these days,such brilliant things on the market compared to when my girls were small. Some really good ideas Karen as usual such a big help to new mums.
This is something I haven’t even thought of! My little boy is just over a year old. When he has his milk before bed he has it in a bottle but during the day he just has a sippy cup for his water. I may need to have a look into changing the bottle at night! Guess it’s just another reminder that he’s not a baby anymore 😢 #ablogginggoodtime
We’re just making the transition to cups. Nursery have been trying too which is really helpful. Some days she will go for it, some days she won’t. I’m not going to push the cup – she’ll get there in her own time like everything else x #ablogginggoodtime
We are now transitioning between sippy bottles and glasses!!! eeek scary
I loved everything about this post! my son will be 1 next month so this came in handy at the right time!, Even though my son is drinking out bottles I do help him drink out of a cup every now and then but he’s managing to drink through a straw now!
-Becca x
That’s great news that I have helped you both, thanks for letting me know about it x
sounds like some good advice – luckily mine had no issue!
Thanks for linking to #ablogginggoodtime
Very useful and informative post indeed. Loved it !!!