Introducing the sippy cup

Getting my children to give up their milk bottles has never been easy. All 3 have been breastfed initially but at some point have moved on to bottles. With my eldest child I fed her for 9 months and then gradually introduced a bottle. She loved it and we had it until she was 2, and she continued to have a night-time bottle until she was 3.

She loved the comfort of sucking from a bottle and so we really struggled to get her to give it up. We tried to be tough a few times but she was so distraught that we didn't feel able to persevere. We managed to phase it out gradually by allowing a bottle in the morning and one at night-time but insisting on a sippy cup during the day. Getting rid of those last bottles were definitely a struggle, and the final night-time one had to be replaced with a loooong bed time routine of stories and songs.

My feeling definitely has been that it is more about the parents being ready and able to give up the milk bottle rather than the child! At least in our case we had to be prepared for an upset child, sleepless nights and a disrupted routine. As our second child was born when our first was aged 2 years and 4 months we weren't immediately ready to take on the challenge.

Our second child has just recently turned 2. He is equally happy and comforted by his milk bottle, and we are in the same situation with also having a 6 month old baby. 'Choose your battles' has become a parenting motto (see Choose your battles - teaching good behaviour). Yet with our 2 year old son now starting pre-school it seemed like a good time to try once again to introduce sippy cups. The pre-school teachers were definitely encouraging me to try, but I wanted to give him a few weeks to get used to that new environment.

 

I bought him a new sippy cup that he could feel was his own, but initially he refused to go near it. However his older sister, now aged 4, decided that the two of them should have a picnic together in the garden and set about preparing drinks for them both. She gave him the sippy cup with milk inside (showing some good skills of breaking into the fridge, using a large milk carton and screwing the lids on their cups!) and the two of them trotted around the garden together with their cups.

Can it really be that easy? Has my 4 year old successfully introduced the sippy cup? So far the signs are good. I sent him to pre-school with the cup these last few days and he has been totally fine. He is still having night-time bottles but this is great progress. So now I'm steeling my resolve to be firm and not let him go back to daytime bottles. Can I get my daughter to show him how to use the potty next???