Breast to Sippy Cup? - Langley,WA

My 9 month old would never take a bottle. I have a babysitter one time a week and she started giving her pumped breast milk out of a sippy cup at 2 months. The Nuby cups work really well. I wouldn't worry about it interupting interest in breastfeeding. Also, my daughter started drinking water out of a SIGG bottle (not plastic) around 6 months. The spout doesn't look like a little baby would be able to drink out of it, but she loves it.

You've made it this far and if you don't mind pumping I bet he won't mind the cup. I just did the same thing a few months ago. Since my son was already at the table for breakfast I would give him a cup (playtex soft top with handles) with 2 oz. of breast milk. He enjoyed throwing it,biting down on it, and eventually drinking from it. He now gets 4oz. with his meal and it's a nice break for me. I am partiaL to the playtex cups, because both of my boys went from breast to cup... with very few bumps. Good luck.

Both of my kids went straight from the breast to a sippy cup. Neither one of them would take a bottle. I never tried breast milk in a sippy though.

Ah! I have the same problem, except were almost 8 months old. We bought a few 'nubby' sippy cups from wally world. They have helped a lot. The one that comes with 3 different types of tops/nipples.(around $8) He is slowly learning how they work. Give it a try. :) Good luck.

at 5 months old i dont think he will start to prefer sippy cups over straight nursing. My daughter always preferred nursing over bottles or sippy cups but would use the sippy cups while out running around. I think it would be best if you can to go straight to cups vs bottles because i see too many children who wont give up their bottles and they are older (around 3). You just may have to hold it for him if his grip isnt too good.

Hello!
I say go for the sippy cup and bypass the bottle. My daughter is also breastfed and took to a sippy cup with pumped milk at around 6 months. We didnt have any trouble at all with still nursing as we are still nursing at 18 months old. We had great luck using the platex sippy with the soft spout and big handles. She was able to grasp the cup really well and the inside spout was easy to keep clean.
Good luck to your lil fella!

I wouldn't even bother with a bottle at this point. I think L was about 5 months when she had her last bottle and she's now 13.5 months and still breastfeeds really well. She has never had milk from a sippy, only water. You might even consider just teaching him how to drink breastmilk from a regular cup.

My daughter started a sippy cup at 4 months so we could avoid the bottle. There was never any confusion between nursing and the cup. Mommy was for mommy milk and the cup was for water and formula the couple times she did get it.

My son never took a bottle. He went straight to the sippy cup at around (5.5 months). We had breast milk and water in them till he was 10 months. Then at 10 months I would occasionally put a treat of diluted apple juice.

He is 13 months now and still breast feeding. At meals and snacks he has his cup.

I did find that the Gerber cups worked best for us as we started with the ones that have handles and then moved to the handle less ones. Plus they have a little more solid nipple, so he wouldn't try to chew on it.

I would skip the bottle. My 19 month old, that I'm still breastfeeding has never had one... :)

I read once (I think in a Dr. Sears book) that premies can't suck, so they drink out of little cups--flexible ones, but just open cups. So I have never used sippy cups: one less thing to wean off of later! You of course have to run the cup for the first few months, but I think all of my kids had it pretty much figured out by about 12 months. Of course, it does mean that when there is an accident (or when the child is full or bored), the mess is much faster and more spectacular, and I understand why lots of people like the liquid-control factor of a sippy. The kids do get sippycups at one grandparent's house (SIGH); when visiting her, they see them as a treat/a chance to pretend to be a baby/a chance to be 'babied.'

Just thought I'd drop the sippy-alternative thought your way, in case it might be of interest.

When my daughter was 6 mo we took a trip. Instead of buying bottles we bought sippy cups. She took it ok. I continued to nurse her until 14 mo. She only had sippy cups occasionally or one fill a day until about a year but it didn't decrease her interest in nursing.
WE started with a sippy cup with handles and a soft spout to make the transition easier.

My oldest never used a bottle and was happy to use a sippy cup, a straw, or sip from Mama and/or Daddy's cup! (And it didn't interfere with nursing one little bit! I weaned him when he was TWO - and goodness knows how long he would have kept nursing if I'd left it up to him!)

I tried to introduce the bottle to my son a little later and he absolutely refused it. At around 6 months he started to drink a little breast milk out of a sippy cup when I had him in day care for a few hours. He made that progression easily and is now 26 months old and still won't give up breast feeding! I think that even though a bottle/sippy cup is easier, there is no real substitute for the real thing.

My son totally skipped ever having a bottle. I breastfed him for a year. He started taking sippy cups around 6 months. It never seemed to make him not want to nurse. They still have to suck fairly hard on sippy cups. Harder than a bottle I think, so your son should be fine.

My son never had a bottle. He went straight from breast to sippy cup at the age of about 8 months. I continued nursing until he was 11 months with no problem. (I stopped because I found out I was pregnant again.) He enjoyed drinking out of a regular cup as well, with help of course. Until he was about 11 months, I stuck to water in the cup because I didn't have time to pump and I occassionally gave him an ounce or 2 of whole milk, and then when I stopped nursing, I started him on whole milk all the time. It worked great for an easy transition.

I thought about doing the same thing with my 9 month old, but with your child being so youg, right now will might not be the right time, even with the interest of cups, that is just being curious that is all he might what the foo though, with that you might want to start him on some 1st food that might be good, not the suppy cup that might cause nipple confusion for him in the long run speically if you would like to contiune to breastfeed.

no need for either bottle or sippy cup. no need to pump. just continue to breastfeed and enjoy! at some point when he's much older he can have a sippy cup with water, and I also recommend Kleen Kanteen, don't give him plastic!

I know kids who never had a bottle and the sippy cups never interfered with breast-feeding. Because he is so young, it'll probably take awhile until he understands how to use it, but there's no harm in introducing it. In fact our pediatrician had us start introduce one with water only when our daughter was 4-months old.

Also, he'll probably be able to drink from a regular cup easier at this age. Sippy cups were designed for the convenience of parents - not babies. They're made so kids can have their drinks on the go without much mess. So they do take learning on how to use them. Drinking from a regular cup (with your assistance) is a natural reflex that even newborns can do.

I started giving my daughter Nuby sippy cups with the soft straws when she was 4 months old. She's now 29 months and still nursing 5-10 times a day with no problems.

My son started on a sippy cup at 5 months. It took awhile to find the correct type for him... we settled on the straws. I was actually thankful that he never took a bottle... saved us from trying to wean from the bottle. He did not, however, take breast milk from the sippy cup. He continued nursing until he was 18 months old. This all worked so well for us, that I do not think that I will get my 2 month old on a bottle, either. What's the point? Except for the occassional panic that something may happen to me, and he may need to learn a different way to eat, it really has worked better for us to do it this way.

I would go straight to the sippy cup. That's what I did and I could not have been happier. I actually found that my son prefered a sippy cup to a bottle (he refused a bottle completely after one sip, but took right to the sippy cup). Must be because the bottle is more similar to the breast. I have never known a child that didn't prefer a breast above all, so I don't think you will have to worry much about that. I weaned my son at 17 months and he would have continued if I had let him. Going right to a sippy cup you will save yourself the agrivation of constantly cleaning bottles with a bottle brush, buying nipples because he chews through them, buying liners if you go that route, and ultimately weaning from both bottle and breast. I think my son was about 5 or 6 months when I started him on a sippy cup. I would give him water in it with his meals when I started solids. Now, he likes water better than anything else! ...even milk.

My 3rd daughter is now 6 months and just started with cereal and a couple other solids. We are introducing a sippy cup (the Dr. Brown's kind that doesn't require strong suction to get the water out). I haven't noticed with any of my children or numerous nieces and nephews that they ever had trouble because they didn't have a bottle. If you always nurse, there's really no need for a bottle. They learn that nursing is from you and for other snack/mealtimes they have a cup. No big deal. Nothing can really replace that close intimate breastfeeding time, which is about so much more than just milk.

In my experience, three kids who all went straight from breast to cup, they ALWAYS prefer breast to anything else. I always figured that we would have to wean them off of the bottle eventually, so why even get them started.

HI,
I would personally by pass the bottle if you are strictly breastfeeding. I only breastfeed my two little ones and they took to regular cups and my second did a sippy cup really well. Then you only have to ween the breast and not the bottle! Good luck.

I'd offer a sippy cup with water. That worked well for me. I still breastfeed my son who's ten months old, but he's not interested in bottles, only cups and sippy cups. If you bi-pass the bottle, it's better for their teeth!

I introduced my daughter to the sippy at 5 mo. since she wouldn't take bottles. She still didn't like to drink formula or expressed milk from the cup, but she did drink water from it just fine. (Which I offered when it was hot out, but obviously not as a sub for milk.) I was concerned she wouldn't drink cow's milk when it was time, but by then she was ready and already used to the cup. So the transition was easy and I never had to wean from the bottle. Just the breast which she did better with than me. :) Which we didn't wean until 13 months so the cup interfering with breastfeeding was never a problem. Hope all goes well for you too.

I think the answer is unanimous! All the answers you've gotten say to skip the bottle and I agree. My now 2 year old never had a bottle and went straight to a sippy cup with no problem whatever. I had one other thought to add. I've recently discovered that you can get stainless steel sippy cups made by a company called Klean Kanteen. They're much healthier since they don't have all the synthetic hormone stuff that's in plastic. Just a thought as you make the transition to a sippy!!

Yes, bypass the bottle if you can! The bottle is very hard to wean from, so if he's interested in sippies or regular cups, I say go for it! I had one child (my daughter) who used a bottle and one (my son) who went straight from the breast to a cup. Okay, actually, he did both breast and cup - he finally left the breast behind the week he turned four. He used cups at the table and out in public, and nursed during "quiet time" at home.

My daughter, on the other hand, had to be pushed pretty hard to give up the bottle (which she had used part time since infancy - she also breastfed until she was 2 years 10 months) because it was very easy to drink from, while cups made her work harder, and she didn't want to do that.

Neither of my kids had diminished interest in the breast because of either the cup or the bottle. But, as you can tell from how long they nursed, they were both serious milk-munchers and I never had any issues with milk flow or supply, even when I pumped.

If you can avoid bottle use, I think you may make life easier for both you and your son.

Kids are smart. Sippy cups are MUCH EASIER. Just because he is showing interested doesnt' mean you need to give him one. If you still want to breastfeed, be careful of the bottle as well, it way easier too.
Remember that *sucking* is also beneficial to a baby's development, so don't give him a cup too soon.
If you introduce him to a bottle, don't be the one who gives it to him. He has to know that if momma feeds him it is coming from the breast.

My little guy, now 16 months never took to a bottle either. He really liked drinking from his cup with a straw once it was introduced around 6 months. He still nurses just fine, and it never interfered with his desire to nurse. I think it allowed me to skip having to wean him from the bottle which is nice. The only thing I do notice is "bottle" and "b" sounds are not ones he really says since we really didn't say them much. :D Good luck!

My daughter would never take a bottle and went straight from breast to sippy cup. The sippy cup in no way reduced her interest in breastfeeding. She's 12 now and there is no indication in her development that she never took a bottle. (She sleeps through the night now, too.)

I have 3 children and never gave them a bottle. They went straight from breastfeeding to a sippy cup. I actually gave them a sippy cup (of water only) at around the time they starting having an interest in food. The reason I did that was because at around 6 months they shouldn't really have anything to drink besides breastmilk or water.

My kids are now 8, 6 and 2 and they all love water. And no it didn't change our breastfeeding cycle at all. I nursed each one about 16 months.