How to Transition Your Baby From Bottle to Cup at 12 Months
If your baby is turning one, it’s time to start thinking about weaning from the bottle.
This post is specifically about transitioning from bottle feeding to drinking from a cup. It’s not about deciding whether to stop nursing, or whether (or how) to switch to cow’s milk, although I have separate posts on these topics as well. You can also head over to guides to download a cheat sheet that breaks down how different alternative milks compare to each other.
Today, we’ll focus on the how of bottle weaning: the steps you can take, why the timing matters, and how to make the process smoother for both you and your child.
WHY stop the bottle?
Switching your child from a bottle to a cup is important for many reasons.
Protects their teeth: Prolonged bottle use, especially at bedtime, can cause dental cavities (because milk sugars stay on the teeth throughout the night).
The Pediatrician Mom Tip: Most often a problem for babies who drink cows milk before bed. As you work on the transition from a bottle, protect your baby’s teeth by brushing after their bedtime bottle.
Better nutrition: Milk does have nutritional benefits. But formula and breastmilk are nutritionally complete in a way that other milk products are not. And toddlers who are attached to their bottles sometimes end up filling up on liquid calories and missing out on nutrient-rich solid foods. In fact, picky eating in toddlerhood is known to be associated with drinking too much milk. Drinking too much cows milk can also cause anemia.
The Pediatrician Mom Tip: “Too much” milk here is defined as more than 16-22 ounces per day.
Oro-motor development: Sucking directly from a nipple is easier than drinking from a cup. Learning to drink from a cup helps develop oral-motor skills that are important for speech and eating.
Better sleep: Trying to create a bedtime routine that doesn’t include drinking a bedtime bottle is actually better for your toddler’s sleep. Use this opportunity as a chance to incorporate other comfort measures into your toddlers bedtime routine before their separation anxiety starts to peak at 18-24 months.
What about weight concerns? Speech delay? There are claims that prolonged bottle drinking can cause these problems. While it is possible, it can be hard to separate correlation and causation here. There simply aren’t enough robust randomized controlled trials to help us figure this out (yet).
WHEN to stop the bottle?
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends starting the bottle-weaning process around 12 months and finishing the bottle-to-cup transition by 15–18 months.
Ideally, you want to wait until your child can drink from a cup. Start offering milk and water in a cup around 6 months of age. If you haven’t started yet, start now! Babies can learn these skills faster than we expect.
How to stop the bottle?
Cold Turkey vs Gradual Bottle Weaning: Which Works Best?
There’s no one-size-fits-all method for transitioning from bottle to cup. Your baby’s temperament and your family routine will help you decide.
Cold turkey: Works for easygoing babies or parents ready for a fast change. Expect a few tough days, but the habit ends quickly.
Gradual approach: Start by dropping one daily bottle (often the midday feeding) and replacing it with a cup. After a week, remove the next bottle, and then the next. Usually, the bedtime bottle is the last to go.
The Pediatrician Mom Tip: Don’t overthink it! Most kids handle the transition better than you expect.
Tips to teach your child to drink from a cup
To make weaning easier, start teaching your baby to drink from a cup before their first birthday. I’ve linked some step-by-step tips here, but a few extra tips:
Introduce a straw cup, sippy cup, or small open cup around 6 months.
Offer water in a cup at meals so they practice daily. You can also offer milk in a cup so they become used to it.
Choose lightweight cups that are easy for little hands to hold.
Model drinking! Let your baby see you drink from a cup.
Step-by-Step Transition Plan
Begin with the easy feeds: Drop the midday bottle first (or pick one that is easiest to skip over). You may find that your baby needs additional calories or snacks to make up for likely less milk intake overall, or other comfort measures and distractors (eg: songs, cuddles, etc).
One at a time: After you’ve been successful with one feed, transition the next one. Most families follow this order: midday feed —> late afternoon feed —> morning feeds —> finally, the bedtime bottle at the end.
Slowly reduce the volume: For bedtime, you can also gradually decrease milk volume in the bottle each night before eliminating the bottle altogether.
The Pediatrician Mom Tip: If you’re trying to figure out how to transition to cows milk and how to transition to a cup, I recommend switching your milk type first. Offer the new milk in a bottle until your child is used to it, and then transition from the bottle. More info here.
Top Tips for Bottle Weaning Success
Commit! Once you start the weaning process, stick with it. Going back and forth between bottle and cup, or changing your mind and giving them back the bottle if they get upset is confusing. It will also make the transition longer and harder.
Get all caregivers on board: Make sure grandparents, babysitters, daycare providers, and anyone else caring for your child knows your plan and follows the same routine. Consistency is key.
Pick the right moment: Choose a time when your child is feeling well, and there are no other big life changes happening. For example, don’t do this within the same few weeks as starting daycare, or if there’s a new sibling or pet in the home. It is also ideal to complete the transition between 12-18 months old because the closer kids get to age 2 years, the harder these transitions can be.
Be patient: Some resistance is normal. Focus on progress, not perfection, and praise your child for every cup they finish without the bottle.
And most importantly, remember that we tend to overthink these things as parents. Don’t psych yourself out! Kids are more resilient and adaptive than we think. I often see parents who worry so much about these transitions that they put them off and make them harder than they need to.
To download a free cheat sheet that compares the protein, fat, vitamin D and calcium content of the common milk alternatives, head over to the “guides” section of my website!
Weaning from the bottle at 12 months sets your child up for better dental health, stronger eating skills, and a smoother transition into toddlerhood. Whether you choose to go cold turkey or take a gradual approach, the key is to be consistent, supportive, and encouraging.
You’ve got this!
