The Best Way to Ween My Daughter Slowly from Bottle to Cups and Whole Milk...

You could try using a sippy with a straw, then a cup with a straw, then just the cup. Depending how she does, you might just go for it straight to the cup! :)

Hi!
I did not move slowly from bottle to cup at all nor over to the whole milk. With both of my kids around the time each turned one, I just handed them a sippy cup of milk and watched the results. Neither refused, neither asked for the bottle again, and neiter complained about the new liquid. I was, in both cases, surprised that neither was upset about changing over to milk but not at all surprised that both took right to the cup - it works exactly the same as a bottle.

Good luck!
*K

Hopefully it will work out smoothly for you! The more used to a sippy cup she is now, the easier the transition will be. I started weaning at 11 months and really had no problem just going to the sippy cup. However, he only had a bottle 1-2 times a day at most, other than nursing, so he really didn't know any better. I had to convince him that he liked milk (took about a week), but he never fought the sippy cup. If it's all you offer unless there's the occassional full-out meltdown that you can't deal with (always those moments!), then I'm sure she'll just assume that's how she gets milk. Good luck!

We used the Avent cups (they used to have that BPA warning or soemthing like that, but they are different now - didn't know it when I was using them). But Avent has great sippies that you can buy rings for the top of and transform into cups.

Every kid is different when it comes to bottle to be honest. Some have a hard time and some barely bat an eye. My son could care less when his bottle went away but my daughter turned it into a war.

But a year is 2 month's away so I would say every two weeks switch from a bottle to a sippy. She'll have two weeks to adjust to this new change and getting that last bottle away won't be bad b/c she'll know the drill.

Best of luck!

My daughter isn't completely weaned from bottles, but we are well on our way. Basically, when she's eating table food we put a sippy cup with milk on her tray. After a day or two she started trying it during meals. Now she only gets bottles before nap and bedtime. I'm almost ready to switch the nap to a cup, too. As for the juice, if you can skip it, please do. She doesn' need the extra basically empty calories or sugar. If she'll take plain water, great! If she insists on juice, make sure it's diluted at least in half.

With my son we started giving him formula in sippy cups when he was 10 months old and got rid of the bottles all together. We started him on sippy cups that had a soft spout and then switched over to the hard spouts once he got the hang of them. When he turned one we mixed formula and milk over a few days before going straight to milk and he did just fine. My son never had a bottle at nap or bedtime so we never had to break him from that so if your sweetie is used to a bottle for comfort it may be different. Good Luck.

We went from a bottle to sippy cups at 1-year. Avent has great sippy cups. This way you don't have to worry about spills and it introduces the more cup-like way of using the mouth. They still suck a little, but it's not like drinking from a bottle's nipple. As our kids then approached 2, we moved to cups. We purchased these perfect Tupperware cups that have lids with little straw holes. (They're called "Tupperware® Impressions 11-oz. Tumbler Set". We got two sets for a total of 8 cups and our 7 and 5-year-old kids still drink from them. Highly durable and dishwasher safe.) At the table, they'd drink from just the cup. If they were thirsty anywhere else, we'd put the lid on and let them use a straw.

I heard a report somewhere that kids who do sippy cups and bottles beyond two years can develop speech problems. So try to be on a cup by or shortly after 2.

What we did was give a bottle at nap time and bedtime only and gave her sippy cups during the day. Then as she got older gave her little plastic cups easy for her to hold. She just turned 3 in sept.

One thing I didn't see anyone else say is that after a year old, your daughter doesn't need formula. When I took my daughter for her one year checkup in Oct, her pediatrician said just to cut the formula off. Her bowel movements will be a little different for a week, but as long as she doesn't have any milk sensitivities, she should be fine. At this point, she should be eating enough food that she doesn't need the nutrients in the formula. The bottles were the harder thing to get rid of, especially at nap and bedtimes. For a couple of months, I put whole milk in her sippy cup around those times. Then one day, the bottles disappeared, and I was surprised that my daughter was none the wiser! Good luck!

I weaned mine from formula to whole milk one ounce at a time. So, one day it would be 7 oz formula and 1 oz whole... the next day 6 oz formula and 2 oz whole... etc. If you notice a day that she acts like she doesn't like it anymore then stick with that combo for a few days while she gets used to it.
As for going from bottle to cup, I first offered juice in the cup to get them to be more willing to drink out of it. Milk only in the bottle, juice only in the cup. Once they got used to the cup, I started giving them a cup of milk during meals while they were in the highchair. Once they were okay with that, I gave the bottle only for the pre-bed bottle. By this age, they will pretty quickly go from tons of formula and a little food to tons of food and a little formula. Having a sippy cup will make them drink less, thus eat more, so be prepared for that. When mine really resisted the sippy cup, I offered a bottle of warm water along with a sippy cup of milk, and they could choose. Usually it didn't make them happy, but was enough of a compromise to make it manageable.

I think that every child reacts differently - and although you may think that it is cruel to simply take the bottle away, you also might find that it is the only thing that actually works. We tried the gradual approach, and my son didn't buy it (he too would drink water from a cup without any problems), so at 14 months - we just took the bottles away. He didn't care - refused milk for about 2 days, and then everything was fine. As for the gradual wean from formula to milk, I think that many people mix (each bottle/cup) for a few days, starting with 3/4 formula:1/4 milk for the first 2, then half and half, then 3/4 milk:1/4 formula, then pure milk. My son was breastfed, but he was fine with just switching to milk (other than the bottle issue, which is a different issue) without even trying the mixing. I think that whatever method (cold turkey or gradual) you try, you need to give each change a few days because it's not going to hurt her, even if she is sad, and you are establishing new patterns...which would also be a reason to go cold turkey - just one new thing, not cup at one time and bottle at another time during the day, which might be confusing to her!

I would try doing it like a pacifer. My kids never used a bottle, didn't like them. But both had a pacifer.

Let's say she gets a bottle in the morning, one before nap, one after nap and one before bed.

First you would take away the one after her nap, once she is use to not having that bottle, then you take away the one she gets when she wakes up. Again, once she is use to not having that bottle, then you take away the one she has before nap. Last you take away the one before bed.

Hope this helps.

I guess I was lucky. My daughter, now 16 months, didn't have any trouble. At around 10 months (she wouldn't even hold her own bottle before then!) we started giving her water or diluted juice in a sippy cup. At one year old I also just handed her a sippy of milk and she thought it was a little weird but drank it anyway. My husband was the one I had to finally take the bottles away from!! He insisted she needed them. I finally had to hide them from HIM!!! BTW- we used the Born Free which also turn into sippies like Advent.