Bottlecup

Looking at the sizes and shapes of various toddler sippy cups, I believe I have found the key to why it is so bloody difficult to ween a child off the bottle with what's available: the bloody size and shape! Forget all the different mouthpieces out there, I'm talking the size and shape of the container itself! Most bottles I've used with infants have one thing in common with each other: they are clear plastic, tall and skinny, smooth, and of symmetrical cylindrical shape. I've been browsing through pages and pages of all sorts of sippy cups, including so-called 'training cups', and haven't seen a single one that fits that description. They all have those stupid wing-like handles, or so-called 'comfort-grip' tapering or hourglass shape to them, and they're made of brightly-colored opaque or translucent materials. So not only is the poor child struggling to adjust to a different style of mouthpiece than what he's used to, the damned things don't even look the same or feel the same in his hands. Different mouth feel, different hand feel, different size, different look... it's a sensory overload.

My theory is that it would be a much easier transition from the bottle to the cup if he were started out with a cup which is identical to his bottle, with the ONLY difference being the mouthpiece. Once he's gotten used to that, then you begin moving to more traditional toddler cups, one difference (opacity, color, shape, handles, etc) at a time.

So that's the big idea. A line of training cups designed to mimic various bottle styles, and each style has a range of cups made with minor changes in style to be used in sequence.