Parent tip
Set out plastic cups and water before inviting your toddler in so the first minute feels smooth.
Tiny Sip Tasting Tour
Throughout the day, offer your toddler tiny sips of cool things from a real open cup — water, diluted juice, milk, smoothie. Builds cup confidence with low-stakes practice.
Activity details
Instructions
- Fill a small open cup with about one or two teaspoons of water.
- Offer it to your child mid-morning. 'Tiny sip time.'
- Help them tip it gently to their lips. Praise the sip, not the swallow.
- Pour the next tiny amount — maybe diluted juice this time.
- Offer it again mid-afternoon. 'Tiny sip time.'
- Vary the contents during the day: water, milk, smoothie, weak squash.
- Aim for six to ten tiny cup moments across the day.
- End with the bedtime cuddle sip from the same cup — the rhythm is now familiar.
What success looks like
Intense focus, even briefly. Watch for the small ‘aha’ moment when they figure out how something works.
Spread small open-cup practice across the day instead of asking your toddler to drink whole cupfuls. Offer a tiny sip — barely a teaspoon — of water at one moment, a small sip of milk at another, a sip of diluted juice mid-afternoon. Each sip is a low-stakes win. By bedtime they've had ten cup interactions instead of one stressful one. Cup-drinking is a motor skill, and motor skills are built through frequent low-pressure practice, not occasional high-pressure sessions.
Why it helps
AAP HealthyChildren guidance is explicit that the transition from bottle to cup should begin gradually, ideally between 6 and 18 months, with cups offered at mealtimes alongside continued bottles before the bottles drop entirely. Spreading practice across the day reduces the cognitive load of any single sip and lets the toddler build the lip-and-tongue motor pattern without the pressure of finishing a whole cup. Many bottle-weaning struggles are actually open-cup motor failures rather than emotional resistance.
Variations
- Pair each tiny sip with a different snack (apple, biscuit, cheese cube) to build food-and-drink associations.
- Use a cup with two handles for better grip in the very early days.
- Have a sibling join in with their own tiny sip — toddlers copy older children eagerly.
Safety tips
- Use only small amounts each sip to prevent overwhelming spills and frustration.
- Have a tea towel handy — early cup sips will go everywhere and that's the practice working.
- Avoid sugary drinks at every sip — alternate with water to protect emerging teeth.
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