Is it okay for a three-year-old to drink from a bottle?

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Why guide a baby from a bottle to a cup?
Learning to drink from a cup is the first step to weaning from a bottle. The longer a baby uses a bottle, the easier it is to refuse to give up the bottle. Long-term use of baby bottles can lead to a series of problems.

The first is dental health.
Milk and fruit juices, which are rich in natural sugars, ferment carbohydrates that can be digested by oral bacteria into acids, causing enamel erosion and tooth decay. Babies who sleep with a bottle and drink all their drinks from a bottle will drown their little teeth in "unwashable" plaque, and oral bacteria will enjoy being demonized, increasing the risk of tooth decay.

There is also a risk of crooked teeth. A 2015 study in Beijing examined the characteristics of 734 children aged 3-6 and found that children who were bottle-fed for more than 18 months had a 1.43-1.45 times higher risk of developing vision and dental problems. Whether it is small, dark, or irregular teeth, it may have a small impact on a child's overall appearance.

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The second problem is delayed speech. Long-term bottle-feeding does not allow the baby to develop strong swallowing skills, and the development of the tongue and the ability to speak orally is not sufficiently exercised, which may be detrimental to the child's speech development. Although children learn to speak well sooner or later, parents often worry.

There is also a lack of nutritional support. Children often use a bottle to suck milk and juice during the day, and it is likely that they are not hungry and do not want to eat at dinner, which can easily cause frustration among parents; And if the child can eat normally, then he uses a bottle to eat outside the meal which is another additional source of high-quality calories, which can lead to obesity in young children.

Finally, there may be other issues to worry about, such as the higher risk of otitis media when bottle-feeding (as opposed to breastfeeding), developing a habit of sleeping with milk, etc.

Often, guiding children from a bottle to a cup is not only for the purpose of helping children learn skills, but also includes other benefits and health benefits.

When can a child learn to use a cup?
The Centers for Disease Control recommends that children start learning to use an open cup at 9 months of age and can hold a cup with both hands by age 1.
The new edition of "Child Development Milestones" published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2022 also states that children can drink water from an open cup that you hold by age 1, and can drink water from an open cup on their own (sometimes with a little effort) by age 1 and a half.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, it is most healthy for children to drink from an open cup by age 2.

Different children learn to use cups earlier and later, but most do so by the age of one or two. As mentioned earlier, a child can gradually transition to using a cup at six months of age, and it is not that a child direct moving leads email list can learn to use an open cup after six months (of course, even a gradual transition is fine), many children need to gradually transition to an open cup.

This is where sippy cups, sippy cups, and sippy cups can be introduced.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, start giving your baby a cup as soon as they start eating solid foods (usually around six months of age), using a sippy cup as a transition between a bottle and a cup. Given the difficulty of using a cup, a sippy cup is often the best choice.

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Duckmouth cup: soft and smooth sucking mouth, sucking principle and bottle are the same, easy to change but can not do better exercise oral mobility.
Sippy cup: A narrow mouth for sucking, exercise lips, cheeks and tongue related to muscle groups, children can get used to the proper intake of drinking cups or open cups.
Sip cup: Children can suck on the side of the cup, and it is not easy to spill when drinking because of the pop-up design similar to the lid.

Parents can choose the type of cup change according to the child's situation, not necessarily in order, some children switch directly from a bottle to an open cup, and some children's bottles change from a sippy cup to an open cup, which is normal; There is no need to say how long the child uses each cup, let nature take its course, according to the appropriate start to try the next type.

In any case, the ultimate goal for a child is to learn to use an open cup, and they can always learn, parents shouldn't worry too much.

How to guide children to develop cup use as quickly as possible?
A baby used to using a bottle or directly breast milk, suddenly replaced with a strange, difficult cup, will not be able to adjust or even resist. While there is nothing wrong with taking it slow, proper guidance can help make the transition natural.

A "Time" principle can be followed here:

T, "change gradually."
Don't have children "today with a bottle, tomorrow can use a cup" expectations, which