A few months ago I was riding on the bus... there's just something that seems strange about a 5 year old drinking from a bottle. This may be a European phenomenon (it may be financially based, or cultural....) But either way, it was in that moment that I decided my son would drink from a sippy cup... I was determined, by his first birthday.
I started trying to give him one at 8 months... no go. He just didn't get it.
A friend of mine suggested putting some juice and water in it... still nothing.
She also suggested buying multiple cups and trying different ones! Genius. Being a first time mom, I never realized that they were different! So on my next trip to the mall I bought 3.
I tried to remember to give him the cup at each meal time... show him how to use it... then just let him play with it... I read somewhere that it is common that they just play with them for a while.
Juice never worked for me. But when we transitioned him to whole milk @11mths... he drank! I guess that was the trick for our little guy... something in the sippy cup that he really wanted. I'm pretty sure that there are no 'magic tricks' and that each child is different but it sure did help to have the advice of others as I began the journey of not having a 5year old bottle drinker!
Here are some tips:
- try mixing juice & water (makes it sweeter and more appealing than water)
- try MULTIPLE brands & styles of cups (even if you are thrifty... splurge and buy 3-4!)
- let your baby play with the cup at first... it's okay
- try to your baby the cup at every mealtime
- try whole milk when your baby is almost 1year old
also has some great tips on Sippy cup do's and don'ts
Sippy cups ..............really i am knowing from you that there are some of these cups made only for our kids .Thanks for posting this .
ReplyDeleteWhen we moved to Czech there were no sippy cups in Europe and people would openly stare and ask questions when my boys had one on the tram or bus. I brought back sippy cups for all the Moms in our church after a trip to the states - and became famous! Seems funny now that everything is available there. I agree with you about it being weird to see a walking toddler drinking from a bottle.
ReplyDeleteGreat info about sippy cups!
Andrea Pitcher
Samuel didn't get the tipping it back and sucking thing from sippy cups, but caught on so quickly to drinking from a straw. He just used the straw sippy cup until we started teaching him to use a glass and it worked out great.
ReplyDelete