While on vacation last summer, Calgary mom Rada Howe pulled off the impossible: She convinced her two-year-old son, Mihailo, to give up the soother and weaned him off the bottle. At the same time. “We told Mihailo they didn’t have any in Kelowna,” she says.
“It worked!”

If only all parents of bottle-toting toddlers had it so easy.
Although most kids are able to drink from a cup by 18 months, not all are keen to forgo the bottle. Not only has it been a major source of nourishment, the bottle is often the
embodiment of handheld comfort, satisfying your toddler’s naturally
ingrained sucking reflex. But there are a couple of good reasons to bid that baba adieu. Used too often, it can mean open season for tooth decay. Also, kids who drink throughout the day could be getting too much of a good thing.

“Because milk is important, many parents have a misconception that their kids need a lot more than they really do,” says
Barbara Bartle, a public health dietitian with Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health in Ontario. If kids are drinking more than the recommended two cups (16 oz.), there’s a chance they’re not getting enough varied nutrition from solid food.

While duping the innocent might work, here are some other ways to switch your child to a cup.

TRY THIS: DROP ONE BOTTLE AT A TIME.

Weaning can take time. Start by replacing one bottle a day with a sippy cup and work your way down to the bottle your child likes best, usually the bedtime feeding. Or you can put water instead of milk in the bottle to make it less appealing, says Bartle. Make the transition easier for younger toddlers by screwing a sippy cup spout onto their regular bottle. Some bottle lines are made to do just that, and even include screw-on handles you can use to make it easy for small hands.

TRY THIS: SET A DATE

If you’d rather go cold turkey, make it a little easier on your child by giving her a heads up before hauling out the trashcan. Set a date with your child — perhaps a birthday or holiday — and then throw out the bottles together.

TRY THIS: BRIBE “EM

Okay, maybe it’s not actually bribery, but a little, er, incentive. “Let them know they’re going to give their bottles away to a baby who really needs them,” says Sue Wiens, a public health nurse who teaches a picky-eaters workshop for the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit. “But in return, they get to go to a store and buy
something special.” Maybe a comforting new lovey?

TRY THIS: CHANGE THE ROUTINE

The bedtime routine, that is. If you normally offer a bottle before bed, sit down with your child and have a light snack and milk out of a cup together instead. Then it’s off to brush teeth and have a snuggle. If the rocking chair and bottle used to go hand in hand, maybe the rocker can be put away and you can offer a bedtime backrub instead. If you’re consistent, you will be settled into a new routine in about two weeks.

TRY THIS: STOP WORRYING!

“She doesn’t eat much in the day, but at least she gets her big
bottle before bed.” If this sounds familiar, rest easy. Bartle says that if you actually look at your child’s whole diet, chances are she’s getting all the calcium and other nutrients she needs, especially if she’s noshing on yogurt or cheese. Besides, the too-busy-to-eat stage rarely lasts long. “Nutritionally, I wouldn’t be concerned,” she says.

Kira Vermond is a Guelph, Ont., writer and mom of two. Her baby girl won’t take a bottle but thinks sippy cups rock.