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Healthy Drinks for Infants: Bottle to Cup Transition Made Easy
Cheers to your child’s health!
Click for handout.
The drinks you offer your child as a baby and toddler impact their growth, development, teeth, and overall health. Key health organizations and leading health experts recommend breast milk or formula until age 1 and plain pasteurized dairy milk and plain drinking water for ages 1-5. Download this simple handout to learn more about healthy beverages for your little one.
When does baby move from bottle to cup?
When your baby is developmentally ready to try food, begin to offer formula or breastmilk in an open cup during meals. It is important to start early, typically around 6 months of age, to enable an easy transition for baby to learn this new skill. Try to fully wean your growing baby off the bottle by 12-15 months.
Preventing early childhood dental decay
What you put in the cup matters when it comes to protecting your child’s teeth and beautiful smile!
At age 1, real dairy milk can be offered in a cup at mealtimes and plain drinking water in a cup with snacks. Even though children between the ages of 1-5 can be offered small amounts of 100% fruit juice in a cup, juice contains natural fruit sugar. Sipping on juice for long periods of time can result in dental decay. Prolonged use of bottles containing milk can lead to speech delays, fussy eating, low iron levels, tooth alignment problems, and even early childhood dental decay. Your child has bacteria present in the mouth that will feed on the “natural” sugar present in the milk and/or juice, and this leads to tooth discoloration, tooth decay, and premature tooth loss. Dental decay in baby teeth sets the stage for a lifetime of poor oral health. Therefore, prevention is key! It is best to offer milk or a small amount of 100% fruit juice in a cup at mealtime, since the child’s salivary flow helps wash away the natural sugars.
How to transition from bottle to cup
While transitioning your infant from a bottle to a cup is an exciting milestone, it can be tricky. Be patient as you help your growing baby accomplish this new motor development skill. Pediatric dietitians recommend starting with an open cup that is small enough for your infant’s little hands. Open cups help baby develop proper oral motor skills, fine motor skills, and coordinating hand and mouth movements. After your baby can take sips of water or formula from the open cup, you can offer a straw cup with handles. Remember that babies enjoy mimicking parents’ behavior, so be a good role model and drink milk or water from a cup with your meals! If you need help weaning your child from the bottle to the cup, please ask your child’s pediatrician for a referral to a pediatric dietitian.
Ellen Karlin, MMSc, RDN, LDN, FADA and Sara Karlin, DDS
Ellen Karlin is a registered dietitian and licensed nutritionist with over 3 decades of experience working as a nutrition consultant. She is an internationally recognized keynote speaker and has written CE courses for healthcare professionals. Ellen's passion for health and nutrition is unmatched. There is not a day that goes by without neighborhood walks, diverse eats, and ensuring that her patients, clients, friends, and family keep a healthy lifestyle at the top of mind. Follow her on IG @karlinldn.
Dr. Sara Karlin is a board-certified pediatric dentist working in private practice in Atlanta, Georgia, and as an attending pediatric dentist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Dr. Karlin is an author and an international speaker. Her zest for life shines in the dental clinic, exam room, in front of the microphone, and beyond her professional endeavors. In her free time, Dr. Karlin enjoys traveling the globe, hiking with her husband and their Goldendoodle, and indulging her guilty pleasure of reality television. However, her free time has been limited now that she and her husband have welcomed their first child, a sweet, precious baby boy!
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