Sippy cups

I'm new to 2nd year and browsing through your posts I've noticed that a lot of you have your babies off bottles at 12 months. How did you guys get them to switch?

My babies are still drinking 4 bottles a day and per the advice of our pedi, they are on formula until 12 months corrected. They aren't eating solids as well as we would like.

I've purchased several different types of cups, and so far they just play with them or tip them spilling water on themselves.

Any tips???

TIA

 

We had great luck with the Munchkin Soft Spout sippy cups.

Good luck - and really, I wouldn't worry about rushing them off of bottles and onto sippies. Just take it slowly and try not to stress about it.

 

We didn't switch to Sippy's until they were 15 months actual (12 months adjusted). The only way we could get my girls to consistently take a sippy was to go cold turkey and take their bottles away entirely. Initially their intake went way down, but after a couple of days they "got it" and it has been smooth sailing ever since.

I would make sure that they are eating table foods well before switching. You have to remember that they are not going to be getting nutrition from milk like they do from formula. Their nutrition should be coming from the food they are eating, and milk is just a drink (or a dairy supplement).

In the meantime, just keep offering it to them to get them used to the idea and see how it goes!!

Good Luck with your transition!!

 

We weren't completely off bottles until 15 months. I dropped the afternoon bottle first, replacing it with a snack and a sippy of formula/milk and then water. Then I tackled the after lunch bottle, replacing it with a sippy of formula/milk with lunch (they don't finish it all anymore but its ok). Last a tackled the wake-up and bedtime bottles and just replaced those with milk sippies.

We had to try out a lot of sippies before we found one that worked for my girls. We ended up with the Playtex first sipsters which as a softer spout, but its not completely soft. It has a valve so it doesn't leak to much. Meara got it right away, but I had to take the valve out for Ana to show her how to get the liquid out. We practiced with water and after a couple of weeks they got it.

Don't stress about the bottles though. Every baby/parent is different so if you are on bottles longer than some of our other SY moms/dads who cares! GL!

 

We were off bottles by 16 months. We did not start taking them off bottles until after their 15 month appointment. Our pediatrician wanted them to gain some weight after the 12 month visit, so I kept them on bottles to monitor their milk intake. At 15 months, she was happy with their weights and we began to gradually wean off bottles. What we did was drop the bottle we thought they'd be least likely to miss (the afternoon one), then the next week the breakfast one, and after that the bedtime one.
I wouldn't worry about how old they are when they are off bottles, my mom said this to me about bottle weaning: "don't worry about it. I have never seen a child go to kindergarten with a bottle." Since your little ones are not eating solids well yet, I would still keep them on the bottles and start testing out sippies for practice.
We started with the Nuby soft spout, which I hated (because they were messy) but my kids loved them and it really helped them learn how to use the sippy. We then graduated to straw sippies and they love the Munckin ones and that is what we use now. Good luck!
PS: I just re-read your post. Mine played with the sippies for a while too, they will get it to drink out of them.

 

Just keep offering it to them. They will get it. We started with the First Years Take and Toss and then graduated to a straw sippy.

 

I fretted about this a while ago - Max is still on 2 bottles a day. But after the replies I am just so couldn't care less at the mo! So am not even going to bother with it until he is around 18 months then will just go cold turkey. Don't stress about it mama!

 

We are at 15 1/2 months and we are still on bottles, gonna give it one more month, I'm in no rush!

 

I have an entire cabinet of sippys! They are both poor drinkers/eaters so I started off with one baby at a time. I still have them on formula because they are just getting the hang of table food (they are both bad gaggers too!). For the past couple of weeks my DD has finally found her preferred sippy (Born free) and is holding it about 30% of the time. At first I held it for her like a bottle, then I put her in her chair after a few days and now I’m holding it with just my finger. Next week I’ll start on my next DD. But the PP is right, stay on formula until they are getting a lot more table food and then the milk becomes part of the meal instead of the main source of nutrition.

I'm trying hard not to stress over it too and the prior posts have helped so much!

 

Take N Toss sippies are a great starter and you can get the package that comes with 2 handles that snap on to any cup. No valve and they don't leak. The no valve was good because they don't have to suck very hard to get anything out. They caught on really quickly. But like anything else all of a sudden one day out of the blue your kids will just be ready to do it there is no sense in pushing it. You as the mom will know they are ready!

 

As far as sippy cups go it was trial and error here! We tried all sorts of sippies and now that they are a little older they will drink from all of them.

We had a pretty easy transition to milk. We just switched. We did 1/2 pediasure and 1/2 milk for a long time and the sweet taste of the pediasure made the transition pretty easy.

 

My dd was off by 13 months and she only wanted the soft spout sippys. My ds was off by 19 months and he'd only take the take n' toss cups. :wacko: I had to do cold turkey with my ds, my dd really didn't care as long as she was getting milk. Definately make sure they are eating well so they don't lose calories through food and milk. :good: Let them practice and it will come to them. There is no rush. :hug:

 

I started introducing sippys at around 6 months as per the suggestion of our pedi. That was probably a waste of time as they had no idea what to do with them. I think at around the 8 or 9 month mark they started to get used to the idea of using them - we have the playtex ones with the handles. At first we took the spouts out and showed them how to drink, and after a while, put the spouts back in. They eventually got the hang of it, but it took a long time for them to learn to tip the cup up. We cut the bottles out completely a week before they turned one. I just washed them, and packed them up so I wouldn't be tempted to go back. We had a few protests from Tyler, but after a couple days they soon forgot all about bottles.

 

I focused on the dropping the daytime bottles first and although that went smoothly, we didn't stop the morning and night bottle until 18 mo. I just let them lead me and I knew when they were done with the bottles. It worked out so well for us and all went smooth. I know some swear by cold turkey but I don't think that would have worked for us. I was really hard on myself about it but now I'm so glad that it went the way it did.

GL! I hope you find a cup that works. I think I own two of each.

 

Since our twins were super preemies, we always worried about doing things "by the book" in the beginning and started introducing the sippy cup early. I had read that around 6 months babies can start using sippies. HA! If I've learned anything thus far with my girls it is that no kid does anything by the book and you have to follow their cues. I could tell they werent ready for the sippy so over the months I'd take it out now and then and let them play with it in addition to their bottle. We were able to switch them from bottle to sippy around 12 months though because they were so used to having the sippy along with their bottle. I think it would be hard to just go straight from bottle to sippy without them playing/getting familiar with it.

We slowly weaned the amount of their bottle down as we increased sippy amount and solid food amount. By the time the day came when we just took the bottle away completely they didn't even notice. It worked really well. It's like the bottle was more secondary to the solid food and sippy. And we never looked back!