How to Transition Your Baby from a Bottle to a Cup


Whether or not you breastfeed, bottle feed, or do a combo of the 2, sooner or later you will marvel: Is it time to maneuver on to a cup?

Should you simply breastfeed, the best change is to skip bottles totally and go straight to cups across the 1-year mark, or everytime you resolve to cease nursing. In case your baby fortunately sucks on bottles, their first birthday may nonetheless be a good selection. That is since you’re already altering from system to cow’s milk round that point.

Missed that window? Ready till your child is a little bit older? No worries, however don’t wait too lengthy. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests saying bye-bye to the bottle earlier than your child is eighteen months previous. «I would say undoubtedly earlier than age 2, however the sooner the higher,» says Keith T. Ayoob, EdD. He’s an affiliate scientific professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein School of Medication in Bronx, N.Y.

As a registered dietitian who works with children, Ayoob snatches the bottle from children as previous as 5 — and he says it is not fairly. «You must know your baby, however on the whole, the longer you wait the more durable it’s.»

A bottle offers meals and luxury to many kids, so letting your toddler use it for so long as they like might sound innocent sufficient. However there are a number of the explanation why it is good to modify to cups:

Bottles enhance tooth decay. Milk has lactose, a kind of sugar. And in the event you’re giving your baby juice in a bottle (although you should not), that is even worse. «The acid in juice is a nightmare for teeth,» Ayoob says.

Milk ought to stay an vital a part of your kid’s weight loss plan, and juice is OK every now and then. Sucked from a bottle although, the sugar and acid will keep longer on their enamel, which might result in cavities. Letting a child fall asleep with a bottle is particularly dangerous, as a result of your physique makes much less saliva (which helps to clean away meals particles) whilst you’re asleep.

Extended use of a bottle is linked to weight problems. Analysis reveals that children who’re nonetheless using a bottle at age 2 usually tend to be obese by the point they’re nearly 6. Ayoob says some children stroll round with a bottle of their mouths on a regular basis, regardless that they’re consuming loads of stable meals. This may end up in too many energy.

He says that being too connected to the bottle might have the other impact, too: With some picky eaters, the bottle turns into the “go-to meal,» and a baby will not be consuming sufficient of his breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Bottles might mess together with her smile. Fixed sucking can change the place of her grownup enamel down the road. It might probably have an effect on the event of her facial muscle mass and palate (roof of her mouth), says Peter Richel, MD. He is the chief of pediatrics at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y. This could simply result in an overbite which may later must be corrected with orthodontia comparable to braces.

Consuming whereas laying down will increase the prospect of ear infections. In case your toddler loves to curve up with a bottle, be careful.

«Among the milk sort of gurgles up at the back of the throat, and it simply type of sits there whereas micro organism grows,» Ayoob says. «Micro organism can crawl proper up the Eustachian tube [in the throat] and into the ear.»

Your baby ought to know find out how to drink out of a cup earlier than you are taking away the bottle. Many pediatricians inform dad and mom to introduce sippy cups round 6 to 9 months. That is when children generally begin ingesting water and different liquids moreover system and breast milk.

If, from a younger age, you begin giving some milk (not simply water) in sippy or common cups, then issues can be simpler while you’re able to eliminate the bottle for good, Richel says.

When you resolve to ditch bottles, there are two foremost methods to go about it: Go chilly turkey, or slowly wean her off. Whichever means you select, specialists agree that sticking to it’s key. «Chilly turkey is the quickest however most tough for fogeys, as a result of they really feel they’re being merciless,» Richel says.

Simply do not count on both approach to be simple. Even in the event you choose to wean slowly, «there can be some pushback,» Ayoob says. «Should you’re attempting to do it with none resistance by any means, you are within the unsuitable enterprise.»

Chilly turkey: Sooner or later, you merely make all of the bottles disappear. In case your baby is sufficiently old to grasp, it would assist to incorporate them within the course of. For instance, you may warn them that right this moment is the final day for bottles, and that beginning tomorrow, they’ll drink solely from «massive boy» cups.

Weaning: The concept is to slowly swap out bottles in favor of cups. For instance, you may fill in a cup for the bottle at only one feeding a day, then add a second cup the next week.

Irrespective of how sluggish (or quick) you need to go, Ayoob says you need to take away the mid-day bottles first, then the morning one. Get your baby used to consuming one thing stable very first thing within the morning, he says, earlier than you take away the morning bottle.

Most specialists (and oldsters!) agree that taking away the nighttime bottle is the hardest closing step. «Denying your child a bottle, particularly that final one earlier than mattress, might be extremely difficult for mothers and dads,” says Rallie McAllister, MD, MPH, coauthor of The Mommy MD Information to the Toddler Years. “It makes it far tougher to get infants to sleep, and when infants don’t sleep, neither do their dad and mom.»

To make issues simpler, she says to have a bedtime ritual in place. This retains you from solely counting on the bottle to ease your baby into sleep. «A pleasant heat tub, rocking whereas studying a narrative, and snuggling with a lovey might be nice sources of consolation, safety, and leisure earlier than bedtime, even when the bedtime bottle is not part of the routine,» she says.

Nervous about stopping the bottle? We requested the specialists to supply some further assist and assist.

You are pondering: «She hates sippy cups.» 

The repair: To guard her enamel, strive a cup that does not have a stable spout. It is too just like a nipple, says Ayoob, who says a straw is a better option. However ultimately, «the most effective sippy cup is the one your baby will drink from fortunately and constantly,» McAllister says. «Purchase a couple of differing types and experiment. While you discover one your baby likes, purchase a couple of!»

You can too have your baby use common, non-sippy cups. Nonetheless, it would take a while for her to study to make use of it by herself. Give her one thing thick — like vanilla yogurt or some puréed fruit that is been thinned with a little bit water — to chop again on spills, Ayoob says.

You are pondering: «She’ll drink water or juice from a sippy cup — simply not milk.» 

The repair: «Some kids love the bottle so very a lot that they are going to be cussed to take milk from the rest, however this can be a short-term hunger strike!» Richel says.

Not prepared to attend it out? Take the nipple off the bottle and provide it with a straw as a substitute. Or begin placing water in bottles and milk in cups and provides your baby a alternative. «Inform her, ‘Milk is available in a cup now. Water is available in a bottle. Which one would you like?’» Ayoob says. You can too attempt to make milk in a cup extra tempting by flavoring it with puréed strawberries or different fruit. «A strawberry ‘milkshake’ may tempt her to drink from a cup,» McAllister says.

You are pondering: «If she refuses the cup, she will not get sufficient calcium

The repair: Don’t be concerned about them not getting sufficient calcium, even when they refuse milk from a cup for a number of weeks. Simply be sure you feed them different sources, comparable to cheese and yogurt. Broccoli, soy milk, and calcium-fortified orange juice are good picks, too.

You are pondering: «He will throw a tantrum.»

The repair: Allow them to. Throwing a match is hardly out of character for a toddler, they usually’ll recover from it. «If the mum or dad is prepared to place up with a meltdown for a day or two, it’ll go away,» Ayoob says. «Bear in mind, if he can drink from a cup, you are not denying him liquid.»

You are pondering: «She’ll by no means go to sleep.»

The repair: Many kids are used to having a bottle to calm down, however that can change. «Infants and toddlers can study to self-soothe with out the sucking that they’ve been accustomed to from pacifiers or bottles,» Richel says. «It merely takes a little bit of time. However it’ll occur.»



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