It is very hard to handle this once the train of opportunity has passed. He should have been off the bottle at around 1 yo. So don't try a sippie cup, per se (like playtex style spillproof).

Try the ones that have the lids, that aren't necessarily spill proof. They don't require as much sucking to get the beverage out. This has to be a cold-turkey thing, and it won't be fun, at this late age, to get him off the bottle, but it has to be done. The bottle could be contributing to his speech issues.

And as long as he knows he'll get the bottle eventually, he won't drink out of the new cup. One day of cold-turkey won't result in dehydration, don't worry.

Why was he not transitioned off bottles at 12 months or so?

I know, we should have done it a lot earlier but no one stressed it until he was over 1 1/2 and we didn't anticipate it being this hard. I am sure its a factor in his speach delay. I think once the weather gets a bit kooler we will go cold turkey but for now in this heat he needs his fluids. Thanks for the advice! I think the ones we have are standard kinds that have the tip at the end. What are the ones you are talking about ? Anyone else know of a solution ?

Thanks again!

The spill-proof you know, because there are virtually no drips when turned upside down.

They require a lot of sucking.

The ones I have as an alternative, I found at K-Mart. They are plastic, have two handles, and a snap-on lid. But if held upside down, the liquid will drip out.

I can't find an example - looked online to try and find you a link - and darnit cant find it! But you could try using the cups you have, but remove the little thingy that makes it spill proof!

Of course, his drinks won't be as portable! Or try Minute Maid juice in a bag's. They let the child drink out of a straw. Not as good as a big-kid cup, but not as bad as a botlte, either! At that age, my DD and nephews could also handle supervised drinking out of a bottle of water.

lawn_man, I know nothing about your DS except that he has speech delay and won't use a sippie cup, so I'm not trying to say he as a certain disability or another, BUT...my son has Sensory Integration Dysfunction. Part of this is being "defensive" about things in his mouth - not liking to have things in his mouth. Brushing his teeth when he was a toddler took 2 adults and it was still like trying to brush a cornered racoon's teeth. Does you son give you trouble over teeth brushing or any other mouth-related things, like not liking certain textured foods? There is a ton of information on SID available on the Web, just do a search if you are interested. Good luck.

If he does have Sensory Integration Dysfunction then its a different kind because he has no trouble with things in his mouth, he even imitates us brushing out teeth and likes a variety of different textured foods although he is a picky eater so I am not certain its that. I do know the sippie cups that drip out and are not spillproof, may have to try them. I had him close to taking a sip outa a cup before but now he goes close to the cup when I hold it out to him, then backs away and laughs.
Thanks.

Another thought:

Because of the focus y'all have put on the cup 'controversy' (for lack of a better word), he may have keyed in on this as a way to get a reaction out of you. Kids can be that way! LOL

So just put the stuff there in front of him. Keep offering it without a word. If need be, offer it side-by-side with the bottle. Make it available, but non-confrontational. The less reaction the better.

(and they all can be picky! DD has gone days eating nothing but mac and cheese or PBJ's, but then it'll go away and she will eat anything I put in front of her. I simply never stopped offering food. And I made as little of a deal as possible about it. Most days, put the food there, and then went and busied myself washing dishes or chopping veggies, or something - watched her out of the corner of my eye, but to her, it appeared I was ignoring her. These were the times she ate best!! Seems like if you are paying too much attention, they tend to be dramatic and want to show off, and play with the food, or fight eating the food or whatever).

Mommabird has an excellent alternative that may be worth at least an investigation or call to the doc to check.

lawn_man, then it sounds like a simple case of the stuborns.

Guys are like that, LOL! I agree w/TREKaren, don't make it an issue and he'll eventually just use the cup. I have 3 boys and can attest they can be STUBORN!!!

Thanks all, momma bird you are right men are stubborn and he sure did get it from me! Its just going to be a battle of wills I guess but we are in such a heatwave that I can't apre him fluid if he is outside, 1 more month to go and plus his new daycare only does sippie cups so hopefully watching the other kids will make him try it.
The Doctor forgot to give me my owners manuel when he was born so its a little tough for us. LOL

Owner's manual? Don't I wish!

I only have one kid, and she has had so many mysteries along the way, that we have had to become detectives half the time!!!

Mommabird, I dont know how you do it with THREE!

I have two children, ages 10 and almost 12. Honestly, other than issues of tooth decay from letting your child go to sleep with a bottle, I don't know what the fuss is over the bottle. Frankly, I found them a lot less messy than sippee cups. I didn't stress over my kids and their bottles. I alowed them to have an occasional bottle per day until they decided they were too big for bottles. This happened at about age 5 for each of them. They became socially aware and realized they were way too old! I never made a fuss, I had bigger fish to fry. It was a way to institute a few moments of peace in the early evening before I prepared dinner.

Their teeth are great, never a cavity. They seem to have survived all of my early parenting errors rather nicely.

I think "monkey see, monkey do" may take care of the sippee cup issue at daycare. The herding instinct can be very strong!

perhaps pacifiers might influence a speech delay, because they walk around with them in their mouths.

But I can't imagine how drinking out of a bottle would affect a speech thing. I suppose if he walked around all day w/ it in his mouth, and it was physically in the way, it might make a difrerence.

But I'm w/ browntoestoo: I don't think it makes that much difference. Bottles don't drip as much, sometimes they're easier to transport. it's certainly not a moral issue.

As for the sippy cup, I agree w/ not making such a fuss over it. At day care, he only gets sippy cups, no bottles. He'll drink eventually.

And try giving him a regular cup w/o a lid--make him stay in the kitchen and not walk around, but try it. he's old enough that he can drink that way. Sippy lids only exist to keep us from doing quite so much cleaning.

My youngest figured out that he got more attention by not talking than he did when he did talk. So he quit talking for several months. Some of that could be at play here.

I guess the sippy cup is important because that is all he gets at daycare. I heard of others changing the bottle habit by cutting a large hole in the top of the bottle nipple--or gradually increasing the hole till the top was completely cut off. Then it just pours out and is not used as much as a pacifier. I never used bottles, so I have no personal experience there.

Talley Sue - when my DS was going to a private speech therapist, she said that using a bottle or pacifier (especially the pacifier) past infancy can strengthen the small muscles in the mouth and tounge in the wrong ways, which affects a kid's pronounciation. She said speech therapists HATE to see a toddler with a pacifier becuase they know it will be more work for a speech therapist later to work with the kid to build the muscles in the right way. I asked her why this info wasn't more public, and she said there were many reasons - no $$ to advertise this, no strong central agency for speech therapists(like doctors have the AMA to endorse things), no $$ for research projects, and that deep pockets companies make pacifiers and bottles and certainly aren't interested in publishing their adverse affect on speech development! I thought this was very interesting.

lawnman - any progress??

Mommabird,

A lot of doctors are now saying the same things about the playtex drip proof cups, that it develops the muscles in such a way as to cause speech issues.

It has made some news, but definitely not front page. Here's a copy of the article last May that my dad sent me. (it has annoying pop-up ads, sorry, but it's the only link I have found so far to the article)

Here is a link that might be useful: Dentistry Article

After reading the link TreKaren posted, I also remembered something else the speech therapist said about pacifiers and sippy cups. She said kids can develop a forward tounge carriage from using these items. My middle son had forward tounge carriage, which means this tounge laid on the top of his bottom teeth when he talked. It caused "sloppy s" and problems with "th" "r" "l" and "w". He only had to go to speech therapy for a year to cure it, but I'm wondering if I could have saved us all the hassle if he hadn't used a sippy cup at all.

Well he definalty loves his bottle but we are going to have to just limit it more once the heat is done with. I didn't know sippie cups also caused the tongue issue, all kinds of stuff to know. We have him in 1/2 day daycare for about 3 days a week so he is around other kids, we are lucky in that we have relatives watch him the other times and thats probably why he is so shy and having difficulty during "transition time" when they change activities but we do spoil him so that is expected, luckily the teachers at daycare are used to it and I know he is getting great care so hopefully being with all the other kids will help. Ove the last 2 months he has made great progress in pointing and memorizing, we can say a letter and he will press the letter key on his alphabet talking pad and some of the keys on the keyboard for his Jumstart Toddler so we are getting their, not much else we can do since he is 2 1/2
Thanks for all the suggestions/advice everone, it really helps.