Moving From Bottle to Cup, Step by Step

Many families finish the move from bottle to cup somewhere between 12 and 18 months, and the easiest way is one bottle at a time. Drop the bottle your child cares least about first, keep the comfort around it, and let the rest follow over a few weeks.

Get the cup out early

If your baby already eats solids, a cup can sit on the tray at meals long before any bottle goes. A few sips of water with lunch is practice, not a drink to finish.

By the time you start dropping bottles, the cup is an old friend instead of a stranger.

Drop one bottle at a time

Pick the bottle that matters least. For many families that is the midday one, since lunch already fills that spot.
Offer the same milk in a cup at that time, at the table, with a meal or snack.
Give it a week or so. When it feels normal, move on to the next bottle.
Leave the bedtime bottle for last. It is usually the one most tied to comfort, and it is fine for it to be the slowest.

Keep the cuddle, change the container

A bottle is often less about milk and more about the lap, the chair and the quiet. You can keep all of that.

Sit in the same spot, read the same book, and hand over a cup instead. Some toddlers take the first cups more happily from a partner or grandparent than from the parent who usually gives the bottle.

Make the cup appealing

Let your toddler choose between two cups.
Use a small cup they can hold with both hands.
Drink from your own cup at the same time. Toddlers copy what they see.
Pour a little at a time, so a spill stays a small spill.

When it doesn’t go to plan

Expect a few rough days. Some toddlers drink less milk from a cup at first and make up for it with food or later in the day.

If one step feels too big, go back for a few days and try again. One hard week doesn’t undo the progress you’ve made.

Tell everyone the plan

Daycare, grandparents and babysitters all need to know which bottles are gone. One bottle at grandma’s can blur a week of practice, and nobody means badly by it.

Put the bottles you no longer use out of sight. A toddler who can see a bottle will ask for it.

Ask your pediatrician if you are unsure how much milk your child needs once the bottles are gone.