Transition from bottle to cup for 16mo - how?

[titferbrains]

My lo is 16mo and on hi energy milk due to previous illness and slow weight gain.

How should I help her move from bottle to cup?

She has 2 feeds, first thing in morning and last thing at night. If she leaves any in the morning I offer it to her for before her nap but it's rarely more than 30ml.

It's a really special, peaceful time for us to do these feeds so I don't want to make them stressful for her. Shall I start with a morning sippy cup of milk or just go cold turkey and see how she does with a cup? She has taken sips from cups but not terribly effective, she doesn't have a really big drink and generally coughs a lot.

I did gradual with mine. I.e. more milk in a cup at breakfast and dinner.

Bedtime is more tricky as it can be a real comfort if they're tired. I started increasing the amount of milk in sucky cup at dinner and decreasing the amount in bottle at bedtime. And phased it out gently.

Get her used to sucky cups first and then do it. It'll take time but there's no rush really.

There's no perfect time to phase bottles out but you want to do it before they start trying to get their own from the fridge and throwing tantrums if they can't have it in my opinion. But that's a long long way away yet for you

I dont see that there is any rush to move from bottle to cup for these feeds. If it is enjoyable for you both just stick with it. She is obviously happy to use a cup for drinks during the day, so I wouldn't worry about changing anything just now.

But to be clear, does it impact development if she is using a sippy cup during the day re: teeth and also speech and language??

Just want to be sure that sippy cups are not as "bad" as bottles re: milk on teeth etc.

have I lost you all yet?

All toddlers use some form of sippy cup (I thought) and I don't think it effects speech? I thought it was dummies that did that?

Also I think it's bottles that can cause teeth decay? Isn't it?

Try not to worry or "think" too much titferbrains as you're doing great and your baby has been ill at the end of the day. Get them used to sippy cups over time with offering often etc and eventually phase out bottles once the sippy cups going well in my opinion.

Do what's right for your baby, as every baby is different x

thanks for advice. I will try holding back a bit of milk and putting it into a sippy cup and see if she'll take it.

cheers!

As I interpret it the problem with bottles is that they lead to tooth decay through prolonged contact of milk with teeth.

I don't understand this theory though - DS will snaffle a bottle of milk in about 3 minutes, if he has it in a beaker he'll be sipping and fussing with it for a good hour, and probably won't finish it. Surely that's more milk/tooth contact?

Maybe someone can explain....