Hi ladies,
My son is 10 months old and I've introduced him to a sippy cup for a couple of months now. But all he does is chew on the spout and then throw the cup on the floor. He still gets about 4 bottles a day. I would like to wean him off the bottles and into a cup. I was wondering if any one of you ladies have had this problem and if you have a solution for it. Thanks in advance for your advice!
I agree that 10 mos is early to stop the bottle. Closer to 1 year is much better. dropping one/week is a great process. Usually the "got to bed" bottle is the last to go. good luck
It might be the kind of cup you are using. I highly recommend the Nuk Learner Cup. Its a soft top sippy cup with a slower flow then other soft tops. I have found them in Walmart. They have handles on them which can be removed. Started my son on them when he was 6 months old and they were great! Here's a link to see what they look like. Love, Love, Love them!
http://www.drugstore.com/qxp165750_333181_sespider/gerber...
Forever ago when we taught our son, we took the flow valve out a few time for him to know that when you suck fluid comes out. That seemed to help.
Hi there,
My son did the same thing. What I did was dilute the milk in the bottles until it was basically water and put the real stuff in the sippy cups, eventually he realized that the good stuff was in the sippy cups and not in the bottle and voila bottles were history.
That being said, there is no rush to get them off their bottles before they are 1 , boys develop slower than girls so my son had his bottles at home until he was bout 18 months old. In public he would get a sippy cup or an adult cup wih a straw.
Also try different sippy cups,mine prefers the hard sippy cups that come in packs of 2's hey are insulted : http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=9870496
He also did well with the hard $1 dollar ones but they were not insulated so I upgraded to the insulated ones.
This way he could suck and get the milk out but not chew and get milk alloverhimself.
Just remember, like evrything else, this is a slow and painful process. Just be consistent and he will switch to the sippy cups.
Hope this helps.
Straws are better than sippy cups. But, consider not doing this until he's after 1 year old. He still needs that sucking action, sometimes even up to age 2. I weaned my down to 2 bottles around age 1, and completely at age 2.
If you are not still breast feeding and if your child does not suck their thumb, I reco that you NOT stop bottle just yet. At only 10 months your child is still soothing with the bottle. As long as you are brushing the teeth and /or gums you can keep the bottle until they are a year old or so with out it affecting their bite in front. Good luck. When you do decide to quit, drop one bottle feeding per week. When I got to the last week we made a baby box and put all her baby stuff inside. We colored and decorated the box. When she was ready to potty train we got it out and put her diapers inside too. Same with special clothing etc. It's great.
I nursed until my daughter was 18 months. She started on a sippy and straw cups at 5-6 months with water for practice and was completely off the bottle by a year. She was was also using an open cup by 14 months.
I found that a lot of the "spill-proof" cups required the same action as a bottle and wasn't really teaching my daughter to drink. She would just get frustrated because it took too much effort to get something out. I could only found a couple of cups that had really wide open holes so I took the disposable types and used a hot needle to enlarge the holes.
All that being said. Every baby is different and I find the best success by offering the option over and over without too much pressure.
He may be a little young. Our pediatrician always said 14-15 months. Keep introducing the sippy to him--he will eventually warm up to it--but don't take the bottles away for a few more months. Good luck!
He may just need a little more time with the bottle. If you can think that at first he will see the cup more as play and that eventually he will want to imitate you with a cup. My daughter drank from MY cup first and then when she wanted more independance she went to a sippy cup. I believe it is important not to rush or have power struggles over issues of nourishment. With some things, we do better with following our kids' leads. When my daughter was ready for a cup or a fork or to potty train it all happened very quickly...if I tried to make it happen on my time we were al uphappy. I wish you the best.
Blessings!
are you also putting his juice/water in the sippys? that helps. our son did better with water than milk at first. but we waited till he was a year old. he just might not be ready yet.
Hi H.
I would continue to offer him the cup but I would not be in such a rush to take him off the bottles. He is still kinda young and needs that nourishment-.....
good luck and blessings
I agree with the first poster. Babies nurse/bottle feed the first year or so. I introduced water and dilluted juice in a sippy at about 8 months or so just to give my son the idea of taking liquid in a cup. He continued to breast/bottle feed until his first year bday. After that I worked him to regular milk but used a bottle so there wouldn't be so many changes at once. He did well with a sippy at about 12-13 months for his water and juice and dropped his bottle completely at about 17 months. So unless you have some compelling reason, it sounds like him being interested in chewing on the cup is just fine for his age. Good luck:)
I didn't do it until my daughter was closer to 14 months. She was still nursing at 10 months...
Wait until a year. Sippy cups if used like a bottle can cause malformation of the palate (over bite, under bite) and speech problems in young children.
Sippy cups should only be used as a temporary transition to a real open cup.
When I worked for the WIC program, we handed out only open cups and told the moms to use it only as practice before a year old.
We always recommended to start around a year with a goal to have the baby weaned off bottles by 18 months. It should be a gradual process. Their are benefits to sucking from a bottle (mainly the reasons I stated above).
If you use sippy cups they need to be used like a regular open cup. I would strongly recommend you use both open and sippy cups and then when your baby gets the hang of an open cup get rid of the sippy cups.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2008/feb/24/sippy-cups-may-con...
Good Luck to you and your baby
