Can you really wean to a cup at 12 months?

[jaxnp]

Kaitlin is nearing the 12 month mark, and although I don't think we'll wean right at a year, I do want to cut back on the feedings, but can they really get enough out of a sippy cup at this age?  David weaned to bottles at 11 month, and held onto them for a year, so I really don't have any experience with littler ones and sippy cups.  It just doesn't seem like a 12 month old would sit and chug 6-8 oz of milk in a sitting out of a cup.  Can they really get enough?

[LindseysMom]

I think they can.  Granted Lindsey has just now been given milk through her sippy but she guzzles watered down juice from it.   I started offering the sippy with meals at around 6 or 7 months and now she does great with it.

[Xavier and Erica's mommy]

We have started giving Erica soy milk in a straw cup since I am going back to work in a week.  She drinks about 12-18 oz a day.  We offer it to her throughout the day and with meals.  She may chug a few oz at a time and at bedtime before I nurse her, otherwise it's a sip here and a sip there.  She does not like juice, but does drink a few oz of water a day.  We are still doing 3-4 nursing sessions a day and will do that for another month or so depending on how she does with me going back to work.

[deenz]

Dd1 has never had a bottle.  At 1yr she dropped to two bf per day, and I introduced cow's milk out of a regular cup.  It took her a while to take to it.  I just made sure she was eating other dairy foods, and drinking water (she had been using a sippy cup with water for a few months).  At a year she also started using a straw cup for water which she loved.  So, yes, it is possible!!

[rachelle]

With kiandra, I didn't intro the sippy cup very early, and she did have a harder time getting it down.  But at 12 months, she actually did start getting enough out of it, and I switched her to the cup. She didn't learn to actually tip her head back and drink out of a regular sippy cup till 18 months, but she used straw cups or we'd help her and it was fine.

With kalli, I intro'd the sippy cup around 6-7 months and she got the hang of it right away.  She will totally drink down a cup of milk.  So, yeah it definitely can be done

[Noelle]

I think so too.  John was on all straw cups at 8mos.  Zoe uses her straw cup for her 3 meals a day right now and a bottle for the last one at 6:30...we'll be switching that in the next month to a straw cup too as we introduce regular milk.   

[jaxnp]

Hmm, okay, thanks!   I think I might try milk in that Nuby sippy everyone's been talking about.

[GraceKellysmom]

I love the Nuby - only one word of caution. My dcb bit through it!  :shock:  I only give him hard tip sippies now. Max has never chewed on his Nuby like that though.

His milk intake is better if given between meals.

[alligirl]

I recently started giving Z two sippies of formula a day.  He takes between 5 and 6 oz each time.  He also has the Nuby soft spout.   He won't take it if I set him on the floor and hand him the cup....he'll be off and playing before he gets a drop out of it.  So I put him on my hip, lean him back a little and prop the cup up (it's hard to explain, but it leaves me an arm free).   He'll chug it this way.  When I mentioned to my mom that this was the only way he took it, she said that it made a bit of sense because he's used to having all his feedings close to me.  Who knows....

Anyway, he never had a bottle, and only played with the sippy (I wasn't consistent with it) until about two weeks ago.  I decided once and for all that I was not going to nurse him at the 4pm feeding and I just kept offering the cup.  It also helped to tweak his schedule for a few days so that he was really hungry for that feeding and would actually be interested in the cup.  Once he got the hang of it, I dropped the mid morning nursing as well and replaced it with the cup as well.

HTH!

[jaxnp]

So how many milk feedings do you think they need at 1 year?  Right now I'm nursing at 5, 7, 1, 4, and 8.  At 1 year, I think I'd like to be down to 7, 1, and 8.  Do you think I should do a sippy of milk to replace the 4 pm feeding or should she just get milk with meals?

[jbepko]

I started my DD on a sippy for juices around 7-8 months (i think...she's three now) and weaned her from breastmilk bottles to breastmilk sippies by one year. THankfully her daycare started giving all fluids at snacks with sippies around 10 months so it was a smooth transition- she was getting consistency. Just stick to one kind of cups....its frustrated having Gerber, Playtex, and Nubby valves floating around....and they tend to confuse DH.

[jaxnp]

Just stick to one kind of cups....its frustrated having Gerber, Playtex, and Nubby valves floating around....and they tend to confuse DH.

Hee hee, my dh was just complaining about this the other day!

[Lilah'sMommy]

Lilah has used an old-fashioned free-flowing spout sippy for water independently since 9 months (we started to offer it at around 7-8 months), but when I introduced cow's milk at one year, she wouldn't take it from that type of cup.  We then tried a straw cup and she guzzles it, especially if I let her take her cup outside with us to play-- she'll play a bit, then come back for her cup, walk around and drink, then leave the cup and play a bit more-- she ends up drinking a fair amout this way.  We're still nursing first thing in the morning and right before bed.  She has never taken a bottle, so all the rest of her fluid intake is from cups.

[kim&savannah]

When I started dropping feeds, at first I did try to give milk at the same time as she was used to bfing--we just started with 3 or 4 oz. since that was what I could get her to drink within a half hour or so.  I have gradually just moved to giving her a cup of milk when she first wakes up which she usually finishes by the end of breakfast and then milk with her meals if she wants--we aim for about 60-20 oz. a day and then figure she's getting the rest in cheese and yougurt.

One thing I've found is if she's in the stroller or carseat, she tends to drink more, so if I haven't gotten much milk in her that day, I'll give it to her when we go somewhere.

~Kim