How to Start a Baby on a Sippy Cup

Pediatricians recommend that babies stop drinking from bottles around the first birthday. In order for this to happen, parents need to transition their baby from the bottle to a sippy cup before the switch needs to occur. According to Baby Center, most babies are able and ready to drink from a sippy cup around 9-months-old. The age your baby is ready may be younger or older. Each baby develops differently. Flexibility is the key. Drinking from a cup improves hand-to-mouth coordination and a sense of independence.

Things You'll Need

  • Sippy cup - nipple-like spout
  • Beverage
  • Sippy cup - plastic spout *optional

Instructions

    • 1

      Choose a sippy cup with a flexible, soft spout resembling a nipple for your baby's first cup attempts. The nipple-like spout is similar to the feel of the bottle's nipple in the baby's mouth. According to Baby Center, sippy cups come with snap or screw on lids, with or without handles, and many different spout designs.

    • 2

      Fill the sippy cup with a beverage the baby likes. If the cup is filled with baby's favorite drink, the baby is more apt to attempt to drink it. Put a little bit of the beverage on the outside of the spout so baby will get a taste of what's inside.

    • 3

      Lift the cup spout to baby's mouth, inserting it a little between baby's lips if your baby doesn't object. Take your cues from your baby. You can attempt to stroke the top of baby's mouth with the spout to entice her sucking instinct.

    • 4

      Tip the cup into the baby's mouth. Make a drinking or sucking sound simulating sucking from a bottle so the baby associates drinking from a cup with drinking from a bottle. Shake the cup so the baby notices the beverage inside. Tell her what is in the cup.

    • 5

      Leave the baby with the cup during playtime so he can investigate this new object on his own terms. He might bang it or throw it around. He probably will smell it and put it into his mouth. He might discover how to operate the sippy cup quite by accident.

    • 6

      Begin the routine transition by giving baby part of her formula or milk in her bottle, and then switching to the sippy cup for the rest of the feeding. Hold her like you normally do for the bottle. As time goes on, use the sippy cup for ¾ of the bottle-feeding, and the bottle for ¼ of the feeding, until baby is taking the entire bottle quantity of formula or milk from the sippy cup. Once baby has successfully taken the entire bottle measurement of formula/milk from the sippy cup, don't switch back to the bottle. Hide or store bottles out of sight so baby will not be reminded of her other options.

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