How important os switching to a cup at this age?

[nelliestar]

My DS is 14.5 mths, great eater and very healthy. He has a bottle of cows milk on waking and one before bed.
I know we should be thinking about moving to a cup but how worried should I be about this? Have we got to do it soon?

DS lies on his baby bouncy chair (which we don't use for anything else but this now! ) and feeds himself a bottle as soon as he gets up in the morning.Before bed either me or my DH feed him lying on cushions on our bed as we have done since he was small. He enjoys his bottles and we all enjoy the nightime routine we have.

I bought a sippy like the one he uses for water but in a different colour and was thinking of offering this in the mornings - I can just imagine his face! He is usually frantic for his bottle at this time! I chickened out this morning...he is very touchy lately..think more teeth are on the way.

Someone give me a good talking to about bottles v sippys please!!
 

Nell xxx

[lilisuze]

nell, I was really dreading it, but it was easy. One day i just decided enough was enough with bottles (and i was fed up sterilising all the time) so just made up the milk in a sippy one morning. It was one that required quite a suck to it, (boots bottle to cup trainer) I bigged it up and said "look, here's your milk, all ready for you in this big boys cup" and he took it! We have never looked back.

I keep giving milk in the trainer cups, and for water/juice he has the straw cups now most of the time.

I kept the nighttime bottle for a bit longer (mainly because i thought if he had no bottles at all my baby would be gone) and yes the little baby is gone, but replaced by a beautiful independant feeding boy!

Be brave! and do it, (but have a bottle on standby just in case!)

lili xx

[nelliestar]

Eeek! Ok Lili. Tmrw morning is sippy time...watch this space!!

Nell xxx

[We Three]

We didn't go the cold turkey route...just offred the sippy when she was in her high chair for snack or whatever.  The morning bottle and the bedtime bottle stuck around for a long time after that, with sippys during the day.  then the morning bottle became a cup, and the bedtime bottle stuck around for quite a long time after that, more because *I* wasn't ready to give that up!    

For us, once the sippy was familiar and she had it mastered, it was simple to switch over a little bit, one bottle at a time!

[nelliestar]

DS  has a sippy during the day for water and fruit tea and i did put milk in it one mealtime just to see what happened and he spat it straight out and held the cup up to look at what the heck was in it!!!

Funny that he drinks milk fine in a bottle and as soon as its in a cup its a no-no!
Tmrw morning will be interesting...

Nell xxx

[*Becky*]

we went cold turkey with the am bottle at 14 months and kept the pm bottle until about 2 days ago (he is 16 months) Much easier than I was expecting tbh. I use an Amadeus cow cup and it took him a little while to get used to it but once he did there was no problems at all. I was very nervous about the pm bottle as it has always been a big part of our bedtime routine but he had no problem with it.

[M2M]

I can't remember too well, but my DS liked to cuddle with me at night when I gave him his milk in a bottle.  I replaced the bottle with the Gerber sippy cup and held it the same way or he did (can't remember) and he took right to it.  I didn't tell him anything was different, I just acted the same.  luckily, he didn't mind!  Good luck!

[nelliestar]

DS was up 3 times last night very upset and we are all tired today. In the end I gave him a small bottle of milk for comfort at 3am and he settled.
 This morning we gave him the sippy and he said"Wow!" and took it and laughed. He held it but would not put it to his mouth and I didn't push it as he was tired and we had to go to Nursery. I gave him a bottle and he had 1 oz and that was it. Not much breakfast too so something is going on with him - teeth maybe. He didn't have enough milk at 3 to affect his morning intake I don't think.

So I was encouraged that he didn't cry or get angry when we gave him the cup but I will wait to try again until he is more himself I think.

Thanks for all the advice guys!

Nell xxx

[Peek-a-boo]

Check out this FAQ:  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=67786.0

[nelliestar]

Thanks Bethany!

Feel a lot better now!

Nell xxxxxxxxx