Sippy Cups

[jeggink]

OK, DS is 1 yr 2 weeks now and will not drink out of a sippy cup. He will drink out of a bottle and will drink out of a cup/glass as long as we hold it for him.

We have tried several different sippy cups including the nuby type, which work the best for him since he likes to bite it. The disposable also work well and we have tried to make a game of it, I pretend to drink, then he drinks / bites. Occasionally I get a sip out of him, but that is it. I am not trying to force the issue either.

Several of my friends have babies in that age range and they all drink out of sippy cups. Since he is completely onto regular milk now, I want to try and get him onto regular sippy cups to make life a little easier.

The other thing is that he won't even bring a bottle to his mouth on his own, he wants us to hold it for him and won't do it by himself. He will just whine and cry until he gets what he wants, which we have let go as long as 1/2 hr, even with the bottle sitting in front of him.

We have also tried straws and no go there either. He just wants to bite them. We have even taken the end of the straw and let some liquid dribble into his mouth and he loves that, but won't suck on it.

Anyway, the questions are
1. At what age did your child take to a sippy cup?
2. How did you get them to do that?
3. At what age do they start using regular cups?

Thanks!

[Marisa]

My son wouldn't drink from a cup until he was around 18 months old. Well, ok, he would, but he wanted us to hold a 'real cup' up for him.

Once he decided he would drink from the cup, he took to the Nuby style or straw cups. (We have about 18 other styles that we tried from the time he was 12 months... :))

It was actually my MIL who helped with the sippy cup, we were having dinner with them and put his cup in front of him (not thinking he'd actually drink any), but she said, "Go ahead Joe, have some water, wash it down..." and he DID! It's like something clicked for him, and now if we say "Wash it down" he'll take a sip of his water. :)

[cece]

i've been offering my son a sippy cup since he was about 8mos old. he's now 13mos and still thinks it's fun to chew on and play with. he will drink water out of it sometimes, but never milk. we have the avent ones, but he's not crazy about those even though he drinks from avent bottles. the one we've had the most luck with is blue with 2 red handles on either side (can't remember who makes it). we've also been offering him the playtex cup with the straw, but he won't have anything to do with that either.

my girlfriend said to offer him milk in his sippy and if he doesn't drink it, then he doesn't get any milk. she tried this method and had her daughter drinking milk from her sippy in 1 day. i may take that approach eventually, but not yet.

they all do things at different rates, so i wouldn't worry much about it.

*c

[melmatsu]

DS Noah wouldn't use a sippy cup regularly until he was 13 months old.

We tried to give Noah his milk in a cup for quite a while but he refused. My peds office says no bottles after 12 months, so we really starting trying at about 9/10 months, but he just couldn't/wouldn't do it.

My advice would be to keep trying to encourage it, but don't get upset if he won't do it just yet. He'll do it in his own time.

Noah will be 2 next month and he still uses a sippy cup. He can drink a little bit from a regular cup but not enough to trust him with it on his own just yet. He refuses to drink from a straw.

[katnbug]

Our DS is just over 12 months and drinks out of a sippy cup, but only water and juice. He started using it around 9 months. He won't drink his milk out of it so we still use a bottle for milk.

My nieces pediatrician told her to just try a regular cup with a very small amout of milk to see what she will do. We're going to try that next. I'm sure it will be pretty messy. I think it's great that your DS will drink from a regular cup.. hopefully soon he will start to hold it on his own. I know kids get just as addicted to the sippy cup as they do the bottle - maybe you will be able to avoid the added addiction!!

[Koala_Gurl]

DD won't take a bottle or a sippy cup (well, she is 7 months). BUT she wants to drink out of a regular cup (of course, with us doing most of the work!)

The only "sippy" type cup I have been successful with is a tupperware one. It doesn't have the valve that requires the child to suck. Perhaps taking the valve out of the sippy for a bit, to get your DS interested in it??

[HGMorgann]

My daughter is 7 mo too and will take sippys if the valve is taken out of them. She also likes the Nuby soft spout one - chews on it mostly.

Your DS is fine though! He wont be on a bottle forever. :-) He might just go straight to a real cup.

[beevo12]

BUMP

Any tricks on how to get them to tip the cup back? My DS does fine with the straw cups but I want him to learn the real sippy too. TIA

[vjel]

BUMP

Any tricks on how to get them to tip the cup back? My DS does fine with the straw cups but I want him to learn the real sippy too. TIA

I used the First Years starter sippy cups after trying w/ the reg. sized ones. They are shorter (4-5oz.) cups which I think helped (they don't have to tip as far back to get a drink). I would also just keep trying to show DD how to tip it back and eventually she got it.

[allyray231]

My son will take a sippy cup for water-the Gerber one.

At 14 months he will not drink milk out of a cup.

We have been trying to get him to take it out of a cup but he proceeds to throw it across the room. I have tried Nuby, straws, etc.

I am not pushing it yet but I wil keep trying.

[smilewithme]

My DD is almost 1 yr. and wants nothing to do with the sippy cup. I tried the one with the hard spout first and she did not like that. Then I got one with a soft spout and she loves to chew on it, but not drink. I was so happy to find this thread and hear that this is kind of normal.

I too have friends whose little one's use the sippy like a pro so I thought I was doing something wrong. I will just keep offerring it to her and I love the idea of taking the valve out of it so she kind of gets the idea that there is something yummy in there! ;)

Baby steps, I guess!

[wildcat]

We started offering DD a sippy at 4 months and by 5 or 6 months she loved it. We started with the Gerber nubby ones (I think that's what they're called, the colored handle/top and clear cup). She really liked drinking out of a straw, so we got some with a built in straw that flips and down which she really liked. The only problem with those is that they don't work if you tip them and she doesn't know NOT to tip, so when it gets 1/2way gone, she can't get anything....so those might be a good option for the kids that won't tip! At 12 months, we bought some of the advent ones and she loves those (dual handles, but open on the bottom). Also at 12 months, she really likes to drink out of adult cups which she's pretty good at, but we pretty much just give her little cups in the bath to practice and we'll wait until she has it mastered to do real cups full time. Daycare does start with real cups at 2 years old.

[MaryTX]

I'm trying to make the hard switch to the sippys with my boy. He's 11mo and has gotten very good at ignoring, slapping, throwing or screaming at the cups. We've tried both the rubber tip and hard tip (no straws yet).

He still gets a bottle at bedtime (for now), but the cup battle has had me questioning my abilities as a mom, it's been so rough at times.

These posts seem to echo everything else I've read or heard online or IRL, but I hope something clicks for him soon so it gets easier for both of us ;)

[Pink_Converse]

Take & Toss Little Learner Spill-Proof Cups by First Years

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41FxrePePRL._AA280_.jpg

After trying tons of sippies, these are the only ones my 13 mo. old will take. you don't have to tip them back far at all. They are the tiniest little things ever!

[Rancid13]

1. At what age did your child take to a sippy cup? About 5.5-6 months

2. How did you get them to do that? He would watch us drink from glasses or soda cans and reach his hands out to grab them from us. He tried drinking from a water glass but spilled everywhere and one of us had to hold it for him. I got a Nuby sippy (with the soft top/spout) and put an ounce or so of water in it. DS got it after a few tries & spills. We still rely on the bottle/bb's for feeding, but give him the sippy a couple times a day for practice. I also got some of the Take & Toss sippys from Target but haven't tried them yet.

3. At what age do they start using regular cups? Haven't gotten there yet. Our next step will be to ease into using the straw-sippy cups also and see how he does with those.

[MaryTX]

Take & Toss Little Learner Spill-Proof Cups by First Years

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41FxrePePRL._AA280_.jpg

After trying tons of sippies, these are the only ones my 13 mo. old will take. you don't have to tip them back far at all. They are the tiniest little things ever!

Holy moly - these worked for us. He doesn't think they're the greatest things ever, but he didn't scream at the sight of them, and actually had about 3oz of juice in one go, a record.

I don't think he has to work as hard with these as he does the other kinds of cups, that must make all the difference for him.

*thank you* for the suggestion!

[Pink_Converse]

That's awesome! We have struggled so much with the sippy that when I found these I started showing EVERYONE! SO glad it worked out for you so far!

[jesseybell]

We use the small take and toss also. So much for the other 6 kinds of sippys I bought.....I have gotten her to take some water, diluted juice she will inhale 2-3 oz. Formula we are still working on.

[cateacher]

My DD loves the Nuby sippy cups with the straw but I have had a lot of problems with them leaking! I thought the first Nuby had a crack in it because it was leaking so I bought a new one. It turns out the new one is leaking too. Has anyone had the same experience? Thanks!

[mgrace]

bump

[miaclear]

Thanks mgrace!

[Sophia]

We've also had some luck with the small take n toss cups.

Just recently DD started liking the Nuby cup, but then I noticed the spout was tearing and had to stop using it. I found replacement spouts (http://www.babybungalow.com/nusosigrcupr.html) online (for the tall gripper cups), but I need the larger diameter ones for the squat cup with handles (http://www.babybungalow.com/nu10oznospcu.html). Anyone know if they're available anywhere?

[GiaGia]

We introduced a sippy cup at the same time we introduced non pureed solids, so 6-7 months old. We would show her how to drink out of it, then set it on her highchair tray. The first few times she ignored it or turned it into a drum, but after a couple of months she was deliberately taking water out of it, and it wasn't soon after that she was actually swallowing the water rather than letting it dribble down the front of her. It's still a struggle at nearly 2 to get her to drink milk out of it. She'll also drink juice out of it but we don't make a habit out of it so it does throw her off sometimes. Oh, we use the 6oz take and toss ones most of the time but she'll also take others now.

~Gia

[rosa727]

What's up with the Nuby sippy cups? My DS chews on them, so I think maybe they are tearing. They also leak. Does anyone else have this problem? Any good recs on sippy cups that actually DON'T leak!?

[EJH]

Hey Rosa,

I have found that we've gotten some great, non-leaky Nubys and others that just tend to leak. It's funny, even with that issue we've stuck to those sippies over any others!!

We have an Elmo one that I think we just picked up at a Marshall's when DD was going through an Elmo phase, I haven't the faintest idea what the brand is but man, that is a nice cup. Not a soft spout though....

Oh, here's the Elmo one we have...it has never leaked, ever.

http://www.learningcurve.com/product/detail/Y9095A4

Not sure if that's helpful, but there ya go!

Erin

[Pink_Converse]

I love those sippy cups EJH posted about! They have them in different patterns at BRU and Target. They are First Years brand. No valves and no leaking. If I would have known about them before I never would have bought any other kind of "big boy" sippies. They aren't really for young babies though because they are hard. Even if you can't use them now Rosa keep them in mind for the future.

[cosmic]

We have two of the Nuby cups and we still use them, but my son also loves his Elmo sippy. And it doesn't leak! It's great because the whole thing is hard except for the spout which is rubber-y.

[rosa727]

EJH: Hey there! Nice to see you around here! Thanks for the advice! And if you get a chance, come visit me on LJ (same user name).

Pink Converse: Thanks! I may have to look into those.

cosmic: Yeah, the babies seem to love those Nubys, but they sure are a mess!