Transitioning Your Baby from Bottle to Sippy Cup

When your baby gets a little older (typically around 9-12 months of age) you may want to start weaning him off the bottle and get him to start drinking from a sippy cup. Transitioning your baby to one of these no-spill cups can sometimes be a challenge. Here are some tips to help make the transition as easy and successful as possible for both your baby and for you as the parent.

First of all, you need to choose what kind of sippy cup you want to transition your baby to. It will help to use the same brand of sippy cup until your child is comfortable with it. At that time you can change brands, or even use various brands. During those transition weeks, though, it's best to be consistent.

When you are choosing what brand of cup to use, a great type of transition sippy cup is one that has a soft tip, which will mimic the softness of a bottle nipple. These silicone tips are flexible and often easier for a transitioning baby to get used to. One of the most well known brands that has soft tips is Nuby. Nuby brand sippy cups have a soft tip and do not have any sort of valve system as many sippy cups do. Be forewarned, however, that Nuby brand sippy cups do leak much more than cups that use valves. If your baby throws his sippy cup onto the floor, it's very likely that some milk will come squirting out.

When you first start transitioning your baby, offer her favorite drink in the sippy cup. If it's breastmilk, formula, juice, or just water, offer it, at the preferred temperature, to see how she reacts. She may start drinking immediately, or it may take several tries to learn how to drink. Just keep offering the sippy cup consistently until she gets the hang of it. Always praise her when she does get some liquid out. Tell her what a big girl she is and how proud you are of how well she is learning.