How to Wean from Bottle to Cup

DO you have a specific reason for wanting to wean her from her bottle? She is a bit young from what I have read about it. But a good start might be to introduce the sippy cup with water or formula and see if she takes to it. My daughter was very slow to get into the sippy cup, although she loved straws from pretty early on. Many people I have spoken to have the best luck at about a year with a complete transition.

We also used NUBY cups after the bottle for my son that is 11 months. We still give him a bottle before bed. It is most like a bottle and a really easy transition.

As for Rice Cereal, it is blah. I would add it to the baby food you start feeding. Any of the flavors would be perfect. :) Best of luck!

Advent has a great system where the nipples gradually change from a regular nipple to a more sippy cup style nipple with bigger or more holes and then they make sippy cups that have a very friendly top.
It sounds a bit early to switch directly over. I would suggest the transition and see how she does at each stage-
There is also more interesting things that rice cereal, pretty much anything-put a smushed banana in it or start giving her different foods-avacados, sweet potatoes etc.you just do one different thing a week to check for allergies-.
L.

Hi A.,
I can only tell you that your daughter is too young to be wean from the bottle; she still needs the action of sucking,that is as close as possible from nursing. It is important for her well being as well as her speech ability. Wait at least until she's one and even longer if you can.

Try the BORN FREE sippy cups..they transistion well with a soft nipple and then can also become a regular cup. It is the best sippy cup around, check it out.

I did this with my son. Show her the number of bottles you have. Put them on the counter. This begins the countdown of bottle to sippy cup. Everyday, throw one bottle away and replace it with a sippy cup. Say you have nine bottles, let her throw the bottle away and put the sippy cup on the counter. Now only eight bottles(eight days) left. Make sure to clap and make it exciting that she only has eight more bottles before going to a big-girl sippy cup. At the end, she will see the transition was done by her and how "grown-up" she is. Then put her favorite drink or special drink like chocolate milk in the first sippy cup drink to celebrate the transition.

Just like to add that 7 months is really early for this transition. A year to 18 months old according to my doctor is a better age for this transition.

Hope this helps.

As most people said in earlier comments, 7 months is too early to get rid of her bottle. She needs that sucking action. Not to say she can't start on a sippy cup during meals. I tried the nubby, but my daughter took to the small sized take and toss cups better. I think we got them at Babies R Us. I would fill it half way so that it wasn't too heavy for her. I would hold it for her the first few times, and then show her how to. Eventually she was doing it on her own. It will take time though. Good Luck.

Hi A.,
Why so early with the sippy cups? You might want to try drinking out of a sippy cup. It is really difficult! Many people remove the valve. We had our son stay with the bottle longer and went straight to a straw cup. Our son hated the rice cereal. The advice we were given was to mix a food he already liked and tolerated well into the cereal. We started with banana, which worked ok. He never really took to the rice cereal, though. Just for some perspective, my son just turned five years old, and I haven't thought about how he wouldn't really eat rice cereal for over three years! IMHO, try mixing a food your daughter likes into her cereal and hold off on transitioning from the bottle for at least a few more months unless there is a really good reason (can't think of any, but willing to believe there could be one I haven't heard about). Our son used a bottle until at least a year. I cannot remember exactly when he transitioned. It just wasn't a big deal for us.
K.

I think most kids are not ready at 7 months so I would wait but when you do just use the sippy at meals and when she is thirsty now she is too young to understand this concept.

Seven months is to young to ween to a cup - let her play with and help her drink from it but still give her the bottle for nutrition.

Lots of people said to not wean the bottle yet. So, I will answer your question about foods. I daughter loves food! But she is not a big fan of the rice cereal. (which is fine with me because we found it to be constipating). Try oatmeal. Or go straight to the veggies. My daughter seems to prefer homemade food over store bought because I make it a bit thicker (but that is preference). I love the website: www.wholesomebabyfood.com it has been really helpful for finding which foods to feed at what age. Have fun with food. It is so important to creating good eating habit for life.

I don't have a suggestion for weaning, but instead of rice cereal, you could try the Oatmeal. My son liked it MUCH better!!

A.
You could start introducing the cup with water, diluted juices or even breastmilk or formula, but I would not get rid of the bottle yet. This is the easiest way to guarantee how much fluid you little girl is getting. She still should be getting at 7 months old most of her nutrition from breastmilk or formula. Solid foods are to supplement the liquid diet.
With rice cereal I would add some applesauce or pears 1 at a time though, (every 5 days to be sure of allergies) to sweeten it up a bit. I also added a bit of pear or apple juice to the cereal instead of breastmilk. As long as you have tried both of the foods. I never gave fruits before veggies straight just in the cereal and see if this doesn't help.
Good luck,
Trish

At seven months most babies still like to suck, so you may need to give her more time. I have found that they really take to the sippy cup when they are strong independant eaters (able to sit up in a chair, feed themselves, etc.) This usually happens around 12-14 months. So I would say slow down, enjoy and take your time, she's still very young :)

I can't help with the weaning from bottle as my 16 month old is still taking the bottle (today he took orange juice from the sippy cup and I am so excited). However, regarding the cereal, I alternate between Oatmeal and Barley cereal and don't have a problem. Just wait on the mixed cereal as the company suggested I wait until 12 months to start that. Best of luck!

I'm curious as to why you want to wean your baby from her bottle so soon. I work in a licenced daycare and we have 2 babies in there. One of which is 1 year and one that is 14 mo. When the babies turn a year, it is then that we start offering them a sippy cup. We also get the kind that does'nt leak because babies like to make a mess with a sippy cup. I say, let her be a bsby for awhile longer. As least until she is a year old. Hope this helps.

She's a little young to worry about weaning from the bottle. You can introduce her to a sippy cup but I really wouldn't worry about the bottle at this point in time. As far as the rice cereal goes it takes time for them to get used to the texture she'll get used to it. Ask your doctor but you can probably start some applesauce and mix some rice in that.

Hi A.,
When my daughter was about that age, I went to walmart & got what is called a NUBY cup system. It takes them off the bottle in 3 stages. The 1st stage is actually a bottle, the 2nd stage is that the lid feels like a bottle to them but isn't, & the 3rd stage is the actual sippy cup. What I think kids have a problem with switching is because, they are going from a soft nipple (with the bottle) to a hard plastic cup lid. This really worked w/ my little one. Hope this advice helps.
M.

Hi A.-
We started our son on a sippy cup (with juice and water only) at that age. He is almost a year, and we still have him on a bottle for formula. We tried the sippy cup for a few days and he more or less just played with it. I think he was having trouble grasping the concept of sucking and drinking from it. After a few days, he got it and hasn't looked back. He loves it. Give it a few days. Try a few different brands/styles.
As far as the rice cereal, our son hated it from the get go. We started it a 5 months. After a few days, I added bananas to it. That he loved. Needless to say, that was the end of the rice cereal and he was onto solids.
Just remember, as with everything, give it some time. Eventually she'll get there! :)

Why do you feel the need to wean her right now? She sounds too young for this.

My son never really took to a sippy cup for some reason. He went from bottles to using straw cups. There are straw cups that don't leak. That might be another idea to try anyway.

Good luck.

My daughter is almost 8 mo and we're in the process. I got some bottles from nature pure that transition from a bottle with handles to a sippy to a straw cup. Once she was use to the bottle I tried the sippy lid. She just starred at it and poured it all over her chest. So I decided to introduce "drinking" (this came to me b/c I was eating lunch with her one day and she kept trying to grab my glass). So now during her meals I have a little cup of water that I offer to her. I hold it and tilt it for her while she takes her sips. This always makes a huge mess and she’s gotten some down the wrong pipe a few times but just yesterday we turned a real corner where she will now control how much she lets into her mouth and swallow. She also likes to spit it onto her tray and play with it. So now that she’s starting to understand drinking I think I’m going to try the sippy again (hopefully this will cut down on the mess. ;-) ). I found that a wide mouth cup with a thin rim filled about half way is the easiest for her to drink from. I use a plastic (poly-propylene or plastic #5 – I’m just adding this incase anyone who reads this is looking for containers made from safer plastics) freezer jelly jar. This is also what I’ve been using to store my breastmilk. Their made by Ball and I got mine at the grocery store.

As for the cereal try making it with her milk/formula and add a little of what ever fruit she’s eating. My daughter loves oatmeal with bananas and breast milk.

Good luck,

A.