When to Switch From Bottle to Cup (and How to Make It Easier)

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends offering your baby a cup around 6 months, when solid foods start, and finishing the move off the bottle sometime between 12 and 18 months. You don't have to do it all at once. Most families get there by swapping one bottle at a time.

Why move off the bottle?

A bottle is perfect for a newborn, but it becomes a habit that's harder to break the longer it lasts. The AAP points to a few reasons to make the switch on time:

• Teeth. Sipping milk or juice from a bottle all day, or falling asleep with one, bathes teeth in sugar and can lead to early tooth decay.
• Appetite. Toddlers who fill up on milk from a bottle often eat less at meals.
• It gets harder. Resistance tends to grow the longer a bottle sticks around.

Straw, sippy or open cup: which first?

There's no single right cup, but guidance from pediatric and dental sources leans the same way:

• Skip soft spouts if you can. Dentists generally prefer a straw or a hard spout over a soft-spout sippy cup, and NHS feeding guidance notes that spouted lids encourage a tongue-forward posture.
• Straws are often easier to learn first. For some babies, straw drinking clicks sooner than an open cup.
• Practice with an open cup too. Small sips from an open cup, with your help, build the control kids need for a regular cup later.

How to make the switch, step by step

1. Start with practice, not replacement. Around 6 months, offer a little water in a cup at meals. Expect most of it to end up on the bib.
2. Drop one bottle at a time. Pick the easiest feeding first, often the midday or morning bottle, and offer that milk in a cup at the table instead.
3. Give it a week. Let each change settle before dropping the next bottle.
4. Save bedtime for last. The bedtime bottle is usually about comfort. Keep the rest of the routine (bath, book, cuddle) and offer milk in a cup with dinner instead.
5. Cups at meals, water in between. Offer milk with meals and plain water between them, so the cup doesn't become an all-day snack.
6. Make it a team effort. Drink from your own cup together, praise every try, and make sure every caregiver follows the same plan.

Common bumps (and what helps)

• "My baby refuses the cup." Try a different style, a different time of day, or a different person offering it. Babies often accept from a grandparent what they won't from a parent.
• "It's so messy." That's the learning. Start with small amounts and a bib.
• "They only want the bottle at night." Very common. Swap the bottle for extra snuggles or another story, and give it a few nights.

Want the full roadmap?

Our free guide, Sip by Sip, walks through every stage, from the newborn suck-swallow-breathe reflex to confident open-cup sipping. It covers how cup choice can affect tongue posture, the "last sip" problem, and when to move from straw to open cup. It's interactive and printable, and it's free.

And when your little one turns 3 and is ready for a big-kid cup, Poki Yoki grows with them.

This article is for general information and isn't medical advice. Talk to your pediatrician about your child's needs.

Sources: AAP, HealthyChildren.org: Discontinuing the Bottle · KidsHealth: Weaning From the Bottle · NHS Royal Wolverhampton: Choosing a Cup