When do you wean a baby off the bottle?

Part of Baby Feeding Guides

How to wean baby off bottle starts with a cup, not with throwing every bottle out on one morning. Offer a free-flow cup from around 6 months. Finish bottles by the first birthday, because of teeth. Milk does not stop when the bottle does.

When to wean baby off bottle is that birthday line. Before it, the bottle is on its way out and the cup is on its way in. After it, the bottle is done. This page does not give a bottle count, an ounce plan, or a long lecture on sterilising.

A parent online will ask if a night bottle can stay as comfort. The line is still the first birthday. Comfort is not a second rule. The cup can hold the milk they still need.

How to wean

Keep the change small. You are swapping the container, one drink at a time, not cancelling milk. A free-flow cup is a cup where the drink comes out when they tip it. They sip. They are not stuck on a teat for every swallow.

Start around 6 months, with a drink they already have. If they are formula-fed, that drink is still first infant formula through the first year. Put some of it in the cup. Let them hold it. Let them spill. A spill is practice. You stay with them so the cup is not a toy they walk off with full.

This is not a three-day ladder and it is not a chart of ounces. If they refuse the cup, offer it again at another feed. Keep a bottle for the feeds they still need while they learn. Do not sweeten the cup. Honey is not for a baby under 1.

Read How often should you feed a newborn if the question is still how often milk comes in the early months. Weaning the bottle is a later job. The early feeds stay feeds. You are not dropping milk to make the cup look successful.

A cup from around 6 months

Around 6 months is when the cup joins the day. That is the same stretch when solid food can start, if three signs show together: a steady head, food to the mouth, and a swallow. The cup is not the proof they are ready for food. The signs are. The cup is for drinks.

Use the cup at a meal or a milk feed, while they are awake and sitting. A high chair is for a baby who can sit with a steady head. It is not a place to leave them with a drink and walk off. You stay. You stop when they turn away.

A free-flow cup can be messy. That mess is the sip. A cup that only works like a bottle teat is not the point of the change. You want them to tip and sip. If milk floods out faster than they can manage, pause. Wipe. Offer again. You are not training a perfect pour.

A parent online will ask which brand of cup. This page does not name one. It names the job: free-flow, from around 6 months, so the bottle can be finished by the first birthday. If a cup has parts, the manual for those parts is the cleaning guide. Not a guess.

Done by the first birthday

When to wean baby off bottle has a finish line. Bottles are done by the first birthday, because of teeth. By that day, drinks are in a cup. A bottle at bedtime is included. A bottle in the night is included. You do not keep one "just for sleep".

If the birthday is close and the cup is still new, use the days you have. Offer the cup more often. Move one bottle feed at a time. Do not wait for a perfect week and then hide every bottle on the morning of the party. The line is the birthday. The practice starts around 6 months so you are not starting from zero.

A grandparent may still offer a bottle because it is quick. Tell them the cup is the plan, and the bottle is finished by the first birthday. The milk can be the same milk. The container changes. You are not asking them to withhold a drink.

If they fall asleep with a bottle, the bottle does not stay. Move them to a firm, flat cot, on their back, when it is safe. A car seat, stroller, swing, carrier, or sling is not for routine sleep. Those seats are not the sleep place. Inclines over 10 degrees are unsafe. The cot stays clear: fitted sheet, and for the first year no blanket, lovey, or soft toy. A bottle is not part of the sleep place.

Teeth

The birthday line is there because of teeth. The usual start is the lower front teeth, then the upper front teeth. The rest follow, and the order varies. You do not wait for a full set before you drop the bottle. You do not wait for teeth to fall out. This page is not about cavity treatment.

Brush when the first tooth is through. Use a smear of fluoride toothpaste. That is the amount. Not a stripe you would use for yourself. Brush the tooth that is there. The lower front teeth are the usual first ones. Then the upper front teeth. Keep brushing as the others arrive, in whatever order they come.

A bottle parked in the mouth, especially as they drift off, bathes teeth in milk for longer than a drink they finish while awake. That is why the bottle ends. The cup is a drink they take while they are up. Then it is done. You brush. You do not send the bottle to bed with them.

If their mouth seems painful, or they seem ill, call a doctor. Teething can disturb sleep. This page does not give a gel or a dose. Teeth are the reason the bottle ends. They are not a treatment plan.

Milk still happens

Finishing bottles is not the same as stopping milk. First infant formula is the milk drink through the first year. Whole cows' milk is the main drink after the first birthday. You do not need to switch to a follow-on formula on the way. The cup can hold first infant formula before the birthday, and whole cows' milk after it.

A parent online will pour ordinary milk into a bottle at 9 months and call the bottle weaned because the powder stopped. That swaps the wrong thing. Whole cows' milk is not the main drink before the first birthday. The bottle is what you are weaning. Formula stays until the year is up, if formula is their milk.

Solids around 6 months do not replace that milk. Food is added when they sit with a steady head, bring food to the mouth, and swallow. Fists, extra milk, and night waking are not those signs. Solids do not make them sleep through. Extra milk is a reason to offer milk, in the cup as they learn, not a reason to keep a bottle past the birthday.

If they refuse the cup and also refuse the bottle, or they seem unwell, call a doctor. A weaning plan is not a reason to let drinking fall away. The cup is a change of container. The drink still matters.

Bottles in the dishwasher

Bottles in the dishwasher are a short question. Only if the bottle manual allows it. If it does, use the top rack. If the manual does not allow a dishwasher, do not put them in. The manual wins over a habit.

This page does not walk through sterilisers, boiling times, or a second appliance. Take the bottle apart the way the manual shows. Wash what the manual says you can wash. Let it dry. If you are still using bottles, keep doing that until the first birthday. Then the bottles can stop. The cup has its own manual too. Follow that one for the cup's parts.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Fact-checked

• NHS. How to start weaning your baby.nhs.uk
• NHS. Safe sleep advice for babies.nhs.uk
• NHS. Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).nhs.uk
• American Academy of Pediatrics. Sleep-related infant deaths: updated 2022.publications.aap.org

Reviewed 2 November 2026. The cup from around 6 months and bottles finished by the first birthday are the weaning line. Sleep-place facts use the NHS and AAP pages linked above.