Transitioning Your Baby To a Cup

As your baby heads into toddlerhood, they need to transition into using a cup – whether they’re breastfed or bottle fed. The primary reasons for introducing a cup is preventing tooth decay (yucky, right?). The American Dental Association recommends transitioning to a cup by your child’s first birthday. Here are some tips and recommendations to help you transitioning your baby to a cup.

In my many years of mom experience, with my 3 kids — each one reacted differently to cup transitioning. My first child was finally transitioned from his bottle at 22 months. We just didn’t think about it until my brother in law, a dentist said that it could affect his teeth. My son, who was almost 2 at the time, did not want to use a cup – he wanted his babas back. Finally I had to just keep saying no and give him a cup and it took a weeks to stick (and was a nightmare). Plus we went through so many cups to find the perfect ones.

My second child picked it up easily at around 13-14 months. She saw her big brother using a cup (peer pressure is a wonderful thing!) My third child, who was breastfed until 13 1/2 months had a rough time. He would take one bottle a day until we weaned at 13 1/2 months and then I gave him bottles more often (mistake). When I’d give him a cup, he’d look at me and drop it off the high chair. Then I tried a straw cup and it surprisingly worked instantly (I also gave it to him when he was hungry!).

Remember this doesn’t mean you have to stop giving your toddler breastmilk! Just transition the breastmilk from bottle to cup.

Here are some tips to help:

1. Start as early as possible: While most people don’t think about it (with a baby you’ve got enough to deal with), you can introduce a cup as early as 6 months of age. But most parents, including myself, introduce a cup between 12-24 months of age. Don’t stress if your child looks at you like you’re an alien and bats the cup away. Keep the cup in your cabinets and pull it out every few days or weeks so they get used to seeing it.

2. Let them play around with it: You may want to restrict cup time to when they’re in their high chair or feeding booster seat. But keep offering the cup during mealtimes.

3. What can you put in the cup? You can give them expressed breast milk, water, formula, or whole milk (if they’re over 12 months). If you choose to offer juice, water it down. We love WebMD’s tips from Atlanta pediatrician Jennifer Shu, MD, co-author, with Dr. Laura Jana, of Heading Home With Your Newborn and Food Fights, “Start weaning baby by skipping a bottle feeding every five to seven days and Give your little one the liquids he likes best in the sippy cup and the ones he likes least in his bottle.”

4. Don’t let your children keep toting bottles or sippy cups around. Dr. Susan Sorenson explains the reason why in an article on BabyCenter, “Every time he takes a drink, natural bacteria in his mouth feed on these sugars and attack the teeth for 20 minutes. If he’s taking sips from a bottle every few minutes for an hour, his teeth are exposed to the sugars for at least 80 minutes. Over time, that causes tooth decay.”

3. Change up the Bedtime Bottle Routines. Some babies use bottles as security objects, like during a bedtime routine (like drinking their bottle as you read to them in the glider in their room). Just modify the routine, by using a cup of milk, but make sure to add toothbrushing in. Milk contains sugars, which will cause tooth decay, by brushing their teeth, you’ll prevent that. Bring in your baby’s toothbrush and baby/toddler toothpaste (flouride-free) in the room with you and you brush their teeth gently after their bottle, before you put them into their crib.

4. Keep cups out of the crib, unless they contain water. Between 12-24 months, children decrease waking up at night, so going bottle free may be much easier.

5. Straw cup Vs. Sippy? If your child keeps refusing the sippy cup, before you get totally frustrated – try a straw cup. My oldest child and my youngest child preferred them to sippy cups. You also may have to go through several brands and types (soft spout, one handle, two handles…)

If your child keeps resisting any cup, Dr. Shu in the WebMD article recommends, “let him get into the groove of eating solid foods before trying again. Some children naturally lose interest in the baby bottle or breast once they’re eating three solid meals most days.”

How is your child doing with transitioning to a cup?