Infant and Baby Needs

By the time they are about 9 months old, most children, have the motor skills needed to drink from a regular cup.

If you think it’s time your baby makes the move from bottle to sippy cup (you know the cup with the top with a spout), try filling a sippy cup with a little water and let your child try and drink from it.  Your baby will probably drool, spit and dribble a bit on the first few tries which is fine and will probably delight him! But within a few weeks and lots of practice, your baby will adapt and be willing to take all his drinks from the sippy cup.  He’ll most likely be a sippy cup pro by the time he’s about 14 months old.

Since the longer a baby stays on the bottle, the tougher it is to get him to move on to a cup or sippy cup the earlier you start the transition from bottle to sippy cup the better (not at birth though). If the bottle has become a security object for your baby, choose one with a special favorite animal or character to help increase his willingness to try and use it. 

Another thing “Bottle rot” is common concern for parents of children who drink from bottles. A child's teeth are susceptible to decay if he’s always drinking a sugared drink from it — formula, milk, or juice.  If giving your baby juice try and use a sippy cup. Natural bacteria in his mouth feed on these sugars and attack the teeth for 20 minutes every time he takes a drink. What that boils down to is this: if he's taking sips from a bottle every few minutes for an hour, his teeth are exposed to the sugars for at least 80 minutes. Over time, that causes tooth decay, or ‘bottle rot.’ If he falls asleep, tooth-decay causing sugars can pool in his mouth for hours. Children are less likely to nurse drinks for long periods of time if they're offered in sippy cups. It is easier to relax and go to sleep with a baby bottle in one’s mouth.

The best way to avoid bottle rot is to give your child his drink and have him finish it within about 20 minutes. Then use a toothbrush or washcloth to wipe his teeth clean. Never put a baby in his crib with a bottle or sippy cup. It is also recommended that you don’t serve your baby juice from a bottle. Only milk and water.?

Finally, consistently emphasize what a ‘big boy’ or “big girl” your baby is by drinking from the sippy cup instead of the bottle.  Soon your baby will reach for his sippy cup more and more.