How to Transition from a Bottle to a Sippy Cup (9 Easy Steps)
Like adults, most babies don't enjoy change. Y'all may think bottles and sippy cups are like, but to a baby who has spent countless hours receiving condolement and nourishment from their bottle, the differences tin experience astronomical.
Experts recommend you lot stop using bottles by a baby's first birthday. But switching from bottles to sippy cups is really challenging for some babies. You lot want to do all y'all tin to make the transition a smooth one.
We've been at that place, and nosotros've learned a few tricks along the way. Check out these nine steps to make the transition from bottles to sippy cups easier for everyone.
- When To Introduce a Sippy Cup
- Reasons to Transition
- How to Transition from Bottle to Sippy Cup
When To Introduce a Sippy Cup
It'south a good idea to introduce a sippy cup of h2o (with the spout removed for piece of cake drinking) when you innovate solid foods. At this age, the goal isn't that your baby will potable anything but instead become familiar with the sippy cup and start to acquaintance it with meal times.
Introducing but not forcing the sippy cup early on tin can brand your transition easier. If yous wait likewise long, your child can develop a difficult-to-break zipper to their bottle. For these reasons, pediatricians recommend you drop the bottle completely by your child'south first altogether.
However, don't worry if you're parenting an older baby and still haven't started with a sippy. We've got some tips and tricks for yous.
Reasons to Transition
Prolonged bottle usage is associated with several negative health outcomes, including (1):
- Tooth decay.
- Obesity.
- Picky eating.
- Poor diet.
- Misaligned teeth.
- Overbite.
- Ear infections.
How to Transition from Bottle to Sippy Loving cup
Sometimes information technology takes trial and error to get results. To increase your chance of transitioning without tears, try the following:
ane. Start Early
Introduce your kid to a sippy cup with solid foods. Occasionally during their feeding, tip the cup's spout to their mouth so they acquire what it's for.
Don't wait your baby to drink a measurable corporeality or satisfy their thirst with the sippy cup. In the beginning, it's more than about developing skills and habits early than the actual part of the cup.
The earlier you introduce the sippy cup, the fewer tantrums yous'll have to deal with during the transition.
Consider giving your baby an empty sippy cup to play with. Assuasive them to handle the loving cup may make them more likely to accept it when you utilise it with liquids. When your family is eating, let your baby have a sippy loving cup. Then see if you tin get them to mimic you as you have a sip from your ain cup.
Editor's Note:
Michelle Roth, BA, IBCLC
2. Remove The Valve
Whether you're working with an infant or an older baby, until your kid gets the hang of drinking from a sippy, remove the valve. While the valve prevents spills, it makes the liquid harder to excerpt from the cup, potentially causing frustration.
Let the water to flow freely — and, yes, messily — until your child understands how the cup works. So, replace the valve when they're ready.
3. Start With a Silicone Spout
A flexible silicone spout will feel familiar to a bottle-fed baby, and then information technology may brand the initial transition easier. Many bottle manufacturers make sippy spouts compatible with their bottles to assistance in the transition. Once your kid is used to drinking from a silicone sippy spout, it will be easier to transition to other sippy loving cup styles.
4. Offering Something Also H2o
Yep, water is best for your babe. Simply it's also boring and flavorless, which makes it difficult to entice a seemingly uninterested infant. For their initial introduction to the cup, fill it with diluted juice, and rub a niggling of the sugariness juice on the spout.
Bring the spout to your baby'southward lips, allowing them to taste the sweetness. By and large, they'll be interested plenty to figure out how to get more. One time your child has the hang of the sippy, revert to only offering water with meals.
5. Offer a Sippy Loving cup Instead of a Bottle
Later on your kid has mastered the sippy cup, offset to use information technology as a replacement for bottles at regular bottle-feeding times.
Fill the loving cup with formula, and feed it to your baby instead of their canteen. If you are exclusively breastfeeding, offering the sippy cup at mealtimes with solid food. Don't worry about feeding your baby milk in a loving cup unless you are specifically trying to wean them from nursing.
six. Go Piece of cake on the Nighttime Canteen
When you've finer replaced all your child'south bottles with sippy cups, y'all still need to go them on a "big-kid" eating schedule. If your child is accepted to a pre-bedtime feeding, gradually reduce the book of their night bottle (now cup). Instead, feed them a protein-rich snack to make full their belly before bed.
You can besides get-go to create some fourth dimension between the final feeding and bedtime. If y'all typically feed your kid their terminal bottle in their nursery, feed them in the living room instead. This helps you lot slowly break their bedtime association with milk while still ensuring they go down with a total abdomen.
seven. Quit Cold Turkey
As an culling to slowly replacing bottles with sippy cups, yous could merely eliminate all bottles at once and make the complete transition to sippy cups overnight. While it may create some initial stress, the transition volition exist much quicker.
8. Follow Through
"Follow through" will be your number one parenting rule, so y'all might too start now and get used to it.
Take Annotation
One time y'all determine to offering your child a sippy, practise not give in to their protests to revert to bottles. Children learn quickly, and after you give in one time, they'll do everything in their power to become you lot to do information technology once more.
9. Quit All Bottles Effectually Age One
If your babe hasn't reached the one-year mark, strongly consider getting them off the canteen around the fourth dimension their birthday arrives. After that, they can develop stronger attachments to items, including bottles, and breaking the addiction can be much more difficult both for you and your baby.
Source: https://momlovesbest.com/feeding/sippy-cups/transition-bottles-to-sippy-cup
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