From Bottle to Cup in 3 Steps
A practical guide for the baby bottle transition
You've made it through the early months! Baby is sleeping better, discovering solids and exploring the world.
Now comes the next challenge: teaching baby to drink from a cup.
With our son, we weren't quite sure how to approach this. Watching him suck happily on his milk bottle, we could easily picture how upset he'd get if we ever tried to pry that beloved bottle from his fingers.
Through trial and error (and lots of spilled water and patience), we developed a three-step approach that worked for us:
Step 1: Straw cup with water (~6 months)
First, baby needs to learn to drink from a straw.
Use a dedicated cup for this transition so baby can form an association. And start with water, not milk. It's less messy and a lower hurdle for baby as they won’t have to break their milk bottle attachment just yet.
💡 Tip #1: Use a clear straw so you can see if baby is actually drinking.
Offer the straw cup consistently and practice regularly. Eventually they'll understand: this cup means water time.
Step 2: Transition one milk feeding to straw cup (~12 months)
Once drinking water through a straw is well established, it's time to move to milk.
Use a separate, dedicated cup for milk during this stage. Start small by replacing just one bottle feeding per day.
💡 Tip #2: Replacing the morning feeding works well since baby is hungry and more motivated.
Be patient if they resist. Just keep trying.
Step 3: Introduce the open cup (~18 months, or earlier if baby’s motor skills allow)
Eventually, as baby becomes a toddler, they will naturally get interested in copying everything adults do. Including drinking from open cups. Ours did.
Remove the lid from the straw cup and let them try with small amounts of water! Expect spills, accidental or otherwise. (Our son thought hurling water on the floor was really funny… 😩)
And just like that, your bottle days are behind you!
Along the way, we also learned that you can skip these popular items:
Sippy cups - Pediatric experts say hard spouts can adversely impact oral development.
360 cups - Biting the rim increases microplastic exposure.
Squeezable silicone straw cups - They create dependency on squeezing rather than teaching natural drinking skills; plus children outgrow them quickly anyway.
The whole transition took us about a year, but breaking it into these three phases helped make it much more manageable for everyone!
What's been your biggest challenge with the bottle-to-cup transition?