https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Tue, 12 May 2026 16:40:44 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/weaning-off-the-bottle#post-2017093 Fri, 09 Jan 2015 14:43:33 +0000 Chillybear 2017093@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>At 15 months we're just starting this process.... Lo takes water from a straw cup very well (skip hop straw cup) and this week we started putting her daycare milk in spill proof insulated munchkin cups i found on clearance at target. So far so good. but she's still getting a bottle in the am, before nap and before bed. I will be talking with the ped about cutting back her milk at our appt on monday. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/weaning-off-the-bottle#post-2017088 Fri, 09 Jan 2015 14:42:18 +0000 MrsRcCar 2017088@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Honestly one day the bottles just disappeared because N was so attached. We offered his hard top sippy and that was that. He fussed for a minute but then was over it. Now with E, he never took a bottle but he took right to a straw cup. We have the munchkin straw cup and a skip hop one we love them both. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/weaning-off-the-bottle#post-2017026 Fri, 09 Jan 2015 14:21:05 +0000 ShootingStar 2017026@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm curious, how do spouted sippy cups interfere with oral development? DS uses those more often than straw cups (and I like that they're more similar to how you'd drink out of an open cup) but he takes a short sip only every few minutes. He doesn't suck on it for 10 minutes straight like he would a bottle.</p> <p>To wean off of bottles we introduced a sippy at 6 months. At first it was just water, so if he dropped it or if it spilled I didn't care. He wasn't really getting it, so we gave him a juicebox at a party and he totally figured out the straw. For a couple weeks we gave him some watered down juice so that he'd be motivated to drink. But now he loves water and WCM so we didn't cause an issue. Breastmilk is really really sweet, so you're not going to cause a monster over sugary stuff.</p> <p>At 9 months we dropped his evening bottle and just did a sippy of milk. At 11 months we got serious about dropping bottles and did about 1 a week, starting at the end of the day and moving up. We replaced each bottle with a snack and he was totally fine with it. It took us longest for us to get rid of the morning bottle because for a long time he wanted to eat the minute he woke up, and by giving him a bottle it allowed me more time to get ready. </p> <p>But now I just put him in the high chair and give him a sippy of milk and some banana and he's fine. I think we stopped the final bottle right before Christmas, so he was about 13 months. And by the end he had just been getting WCM in his bottle, we stopped giving formula right around 12 months when it ran out. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/weaning-off-the-bottle#post-2017014 Fri, 09 Jan 2015 14:16:03 +0000 Mae 2017014@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our LO loves her zoli cup. It is non spill, can be drank at any angle, and I don't think you could really backwash because the top of the straw is covered unless you're actively sucking. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/weaning-off-the-bottle#post-2017009 Fri, 09 Jan 2015 14:12:15 +0000 fancyfunction 2017009@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We also did bottle to straw cup cold turkey at her 1st birthday. She started getting the grasp of water out of the straw cup at 9/10 months and so was used to it for that. She didn't always finish her milk for the first week or so but after that it was fine. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/weaning-off-the-bottle#post-2016802 Fri, 09 Jan 2015 12:07:10 +0000 Skadi 2016802@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Thanks for all your suggestions! I was in the drug store today, and I noticed they had OXO straw cups. I picked one up as an impulse buy, along with some pouches (we never do pouches).</p> <p>I tried giving her the straw cup with water first, and I don't think she knew what to do with it. Then I gave her a pouch, and she would actually take a sip out of the pouch and then take a sip out of the straw cup. Success! When she isn't eating a pouch, she still mostly pushes the cup away...but I think we're making progress. She's almost 12 months, so I'm wondering if she'll be more likely to drink out of it when I put milk in there.</p> <p>The only thing I don't like about the straw cup is backflow. When she takes a sip after eating, you can definitely see some food go back into the cup and muddy the water. Yuck. I guess it doesn't really matter, though. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/weaning-off-the-bottle#post-2011347 Tue, 06 Jan 2015 08:09:58 +0000 illumina 2011347@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We went from bottles to sippys cold turkey right at 11 months. It took a few days for her to realise the bottles weren't coming back, but then it was fine. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/weaning-off-the-bottle#post-2011320 Tue, 06 Jan 2015 07:35:38 +0000 looch 2011320@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'd move to either a straw cup or an open cup. The end game is an open cup, but in the meantime, a straw is better for oral motor development than a sippy cup. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/weaning-off-the-bottle#post-2011316 Tue, 06 Jan 2015 07:32:55 +0000 blackbird 2011316@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We used a zoli bot straw cup and we let her have formula in a bottle but when we switched to milk at about 12 months (our pediatrician said by 15 months), it only took a couple days. We didn't offer the bottle, we offered milk. And a few times, she got upset and we'd give her the bottle for a few sips, then take it away. And then we just never offered it again and she figured out that milk came in a straw cup and while she did drink less for a bit. It was a very painless transition for us. But we kept offering water/milk in a non-bottle. Formula was just for bottles. And then one day, it was just gone. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/weaning-off-the-bottle#post-2011271 Tue, 06 Jan 2015 04:13:34 +0000 lamariniere 2011271@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I also started this thread awhile back to get recommendations for straw cups.</p> <p><a href="http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-straw-cup-1" rel="nofollow">http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-straw-cup-1</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/weaning-off-the-bottle#post-2011270 Tue, 06 Jan 2015 04:12:21 +0000 lamariniere 2011270@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Skadi: We have been using Nuby Straw cups for milk and Zoli straw cups for water. There is a learning curve to figure out how to suck from a straw. What I did was offer a fruit pouch to DD, then took it away after she sucked on it a few times and got her to take the straw cup immediately after. She continued the sucking action, and figured out how to suck from the straw pretty quickly. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/weaning-off-the-bottle#post-2011269 Tue, 06 Jan 2015 04:10:05 +0000 Skadi 2011269@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lamariniere: Thanks! Can you recommend a straw cup? I thought a rimless cup would have less of a learning curve, but I'd like to try straws and see if she likes it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/weaning-off-the-bottle#post-2011260 Tue, 06 Jan 2015 03:31:20 +0000 lamariniere 2011260@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Are you against straw cups? Neither of my LOs ever took a bottle, but we skipped over sippies and went to straw cups. That's how both of mine would drink cow milk. It took awhile to transition, but it has been successful. DD is 13 months and we introduced cow milk just before she turned 1 in the straw cup. She still doesn't drink a lot in one sitting, but I'm still BF too. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/weaning-off-the-bottle#post-2011207 Tue, 06 Jan 2015 01:05:24 +0000 Skadi 2011207@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Weaning off the bottle at age 1 is pretty important to me, but LO is not cooperating as much as I'd hoped. At 11 months old, she knows how to drink out of the sippy and will occasionally take a sip here and there (we offer her water all day). However, she will not drink formula out of it at all. She understands how it works, but I think she's just attached to the bottle.</p> <p>If you successfully transitioned to a sippy cup early on and you did not use a soft spout to do it (we won't be using spouted sippys because FIL is a dentist and he is passionately anti-spout), what were some tips and tricks that helped your LO adjust?</p> <p>Also, we didn't plan on giving her juice because it doesn't have fiber like raw fruit, can cause cavities, and might make her less likely to drink plain water. But I'm wondering if we should go back on that and try a juice/water mixture to entice her to use the sippy more often. Or would we be shooting ourselves in the foot because she'd just learn to demand sugary stuff in the sippy? </p>