How to Transition Your Baby from a Bottle to a Cup

Whether you breastfeed, bottle feed, or do a combo of the 2, in some unspecified time in the future you may surprise: Is it time to maneuver on to a cup?

If you simply breastfeed, the simplest change is to skip bottles fully and go straight to cups across the 1-year mark, or everytime you resolve to cease nursing. If your youngster fortunately sucks on bottles, their first birthday may nonetheless be a sensible choice. That’s since you’re already altering from method to cow’s milk round that point.

Missed that window? Waiting till your child is just a little older? No worries, however don’t wait too lengthy. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests saying bye-bye to the bottle earlier than your child is eighteen months previous. “I’d say undoubtedly earlier than age 2, however the sooner the higher,” says Keith T. Ayoob, EdD. He’s an affiliate scientific professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y.

As a registered dietitian who works with children, Ayoob snatches the bottle from children as previous as 5 — and he says it is not fairly. “You need to know your youngster, however usually, the longer you wait the tougher it’s.”

Why the Bottle Needs to Go

A bottle provides meals and luxury to many kids, so letting your infant use it for so long as they like might sound innocent sufficient. But there are a number of the explanation why it is good to modify to cups:

Bottles enhance tooth decay. Milk has lactose, a sort of sugar. And in the event you’re giving your youngster juice in a bottle (although you should not), that is even worse. “The acid in juice is a nightmare for enamel,” Ayoob says.

Milk ought to stay an vital a part of your kid’s food plan, and juice is OK every now and then. Sucked from a bottle although, the sugar and acid will keep longer on their enamel, which may result in cavities. Letting a child fall asleep with a bottle is very unhealthy, as a result of your physique makes much less saliva (which helps to scrub away meals particles) when you’re asleep.

Prolonged use of a bottle is linked to weight problems. Research reveals that children who’re nonetheless utilizing a bottle at age 2 usually tend to be overweight by the point they’re nearly 6. Ayoob says some children stroll round with a bottle of their mouths on a regular basis, though they’re consuming loads of strong meals. This can lead to too many energy.

He says that being too connected to the bottle may have the alternative impact, too: With some choosy eaters, the bottle turns into the “go-to meal,” and a child may not be eating enough of his breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Bottles could mess with her smile. Constant sucking can change the position of her adult teeth down the line. It can affect the development of her facial muscles and palate (roof of her mouth), says Peter Richel, MD. He’s the chief of pediatrics at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y. This can easily lead to an overbite that might later need to be corrected with orthodontia such as braces.

Drinking while laying down increases the chance of ear infections. If your little one loves to curl up with a bottle, watch out.

“Some of the milk kind of gurgles up in the back of the throat, and it just sort of sits there while bacteria grows,” Ayoob says. “Bacteria can crawl right up the Eustachian tube [in the throat] and into the ear.”

Giving the Bottle the Boot

Your child should know how to drink out of a cup before you take away the bottle. Many pediatricians tell parents to introduce sippy cups around 6 to 9 months. That’s when kids commonly start drinking water and other liquids besides formula and breast milk.

If, from a young age, you start giving some milk (not just water) in sippy or regular cups, then things will be easier when you’re ready to get rid of the bottle for good, Richel says.

Once you decide to ditch bottles, there are two main ways to go about it: Go cold turkey, or slowly wean her off. Whichever way you choose, experts agree that sticking to it is key. “Cold turkey is the quickest but most difficult for parents, because they feel they are being cruel,” Richel says.

Just don’t expect either way to be easy. Even if you opt to wean slowly, “there will be some pushback,” Ayoob says. “If you’re trying to do it without any resistance whatsoever, you’re in the wrong business.”

Cold turkey: One day, you simply make all the bottles disappear. If your child is old enough to understand, it might help to include them in the process. For example, you can warn them that today is the last day for bottles, and that starting tomorrow, they are going to drink only from “big boy” cups.

Weaning: The idea is to slowly swap out bottles in favor of cups. For example, you might fill in a cup for the bottle at just one feeding a day, then add a second cup the following week.

No matter how slow (or fast) you want to go, Ayoob says you should take away the mid-day bottles first, then the morning one. Get your child used to eating something solid first thing in the morning, he says, before you remove the morning bottle.

Most experts (and parents!) agree that taking away the nighttime bottle is the toughest final step. “Denying your baby a bottle, especially that last one before bed, can be incredibly challenging for moms and dads,” says Rallie McAllister, MD, MPH, coauthor of The Mommy MD Guide to the Toddler Years. “It makes it far tougher to get infants to sleep, and when infants don’t sleep, neither do their dad and mom.”

To make issues simpler, she says to have a bedtime ritual in place. This retains you from solely counting on the bottle to ease your youngster into sleep. “A pleasant heat tub, rocking whereas studying a narrative, and snuggling with a lovey may be nice sources of consolation, safety, and rest earlier than bedtime, even when the bedtime bottle is not part of the routine,” she says.

Common Concerns

Nervous about stopping the bottle? We requested the specialists to supply some further assist and assist.

You’re considering: “She hates sippy cups.” 

The repair: To defend her enamel, attempt a cup that does not have a strong spout. It’s too much like a nipple, says Ayoob, who says a straw is a better option. But ultimately, “the perfect sippy cup is the one your youngster will drink from fortunately and constantly,” McAllister says. “Buy just a few differing types and experiment. When you discover one your youngster likes, purchase just a few!”

You can even have your youngster use common, non-sippy cups. Still, it’d take a while for her to be taught to make use of it by herself. Give her one thing thick — like vanilla yogurt or some puréed fruit that is been thinned with just a little water — to chop again on spills, Ayoob says.

You’re considering: “She’ll drink water or juice from a sippy cup — simply not milk.” 

The repair: “Some kids love the bottle so very a lot that they are going to be cussed to take milk from the rest, however it is a non permanent starvation strike!” Richel says.

Not prepared to attend it out? Take the nipple off the bottle and supply it with a straw as a substitute. Or begin placing water in bottles and milk in cups and provides your youngster a alternative. “Tell her, ‘Milk is available in a cup now. Water is available in a bottle. Which one would you like?'” Ayoob says. You can even attempt to make milk in a cup extra tempting by flavoring it with puréed strawberries or different fruit. “A strawberry ‘milkshake’ may tempt her to drink from a cup,” McAllister says.

You’re considering: “If she refuses the cup, she will not get sufficient calcium.”

The repair: Don’t fear about them not getting sufficient calcium, even when they refuse milk from a cup for a number of weeks. Just remember to feed them different sources, reminiscent of cheese and yogurt. Broccoli, soy milk, and calcium-fortified orange juice are good picks, too.

You’re considering: “He’s going to throw a tantrum.”

The repair: Let them. Throwing a match is hardly out of character for a toddler, and so they’ll recover from it. “If the father or mother is prepared to place up with a meltdown for a day or two, it is going to go away,” Ayoob says. “Remember, if he can drink from a cup, you are not denying him liquid.”

You’re considering: “She’ll by no means go to sleep.”

The repair: Many kids are used to having a bottle to quiet down, however that may change. “Infants and toddlers can be taught to self-soothe with out the sucking that they’ve been accustomed to from pacifiers or bottles,” Richel says. “It merely takes a little bit of time. But it is going to occur.”