When should you take a child off a bottle?

12 months: By one year of age, a baby should have the coordination to use a sippy-cup, and getting rid of the bottle will decrease the chance of baby tooth decay.

See below: The sooner the better. Once your child can use a sippie cup, wean the bottle.

Yet, Sippy cups: keep the tongue forward in a primitive suckling position. SInce the same muscles used for eating & drinking are used for speech, tots with speech/language delays or low oral motor tone should use open-mouth, soft plastic cups with a semi-circle cut out for the nose, to promote lip closure. A neurotypical 8-mo.-old can drink from such a cup if mom holds it; by 12 mos . he can hold it himself.