How to Get Your Child To Stop Using a Bottle
Most pediatricians recommend that a child be weaned off the bottle by 12 months old to help prevent tooth decay. When a child falls asleep with a bottle in his mouth, the liquids from the bottle can corrode his new growing teeth. Sippy cups -- cups with a snug lid and a spill-proof opening -- can serve as a replacement for baby bottles. Sippy cups with rubber tips instead of hard plastic may be an easier transition for your baby.
Things You'll Need
- Patience
- Sippy Cup To Replace Bottle
- Time Limit
Instructions
The Gradual Transition Method
Introduce the cup at meal times and let it be the only option that your baby is allowed to use while eating. Have her take a couple bites of food and then give her the cup to drink with. You can try gently putting the cup to her lips and tilting it until she starts to get the idea of how it works. Let her play with the cup and get used to the feel of it. Switch all of her favorite beverages to the sippy cup after a week and put only water in her baby bottles. This way she starts to look forward to the cup for her milk and favorite juices, and the bottle becomes less enticing. Let her use the cup at snack time and introduce a new drink, such as chocolate milk, so she is focused more on the beverage rather than the container holding it. After another week start eliminating the bottles from the afternoon naps. Give her the cup before she goes to sleep and when she wakes up. Try the nap trick at night as well after a week of successful cups at nap time. Give her the cup before she goes to bed and as soon as she gets up, but no bottle. Start making the sippy cup the only option when going out to places. She will quickly realize that it is the cup or nothing. The Cold Turkey Method
If you would rather just try to eliminate the bottle in one fell swoop, you can try the Cold Turkey method and abruptly change to a sippy cup with no bottles whatsoever. The best way is to give your child about a week's notice ahead of time. You can do a fun calendar countdown to the day when he will get his first "Big Boy Cup." Each time you give him the bottle remind him that he has only a few more days to the Big Boy Cup day. Make it sound fun and exciting. Bring him to the store and let him pick out his new sippy cups. When you get home, have him help you collect all of the bottles and put them in a garbage bag together. Save one and hide it just in case the transition is harder than you anticipate. Make a big production of the two of you taking the garbage bag to the garbage can. Announce that is it time to say "Bye-bye" to the baby bottles and to say "Hello" to the new "grown-up" cups. Each time you present him with the sippy cup, be cheerful and upbeat, praising him each time he takes a drink from it.
