How did you get your baby to hold their own bottle/drink from a sippy?

[jerseygirl07067]

Sammy is now 1 and occasionally shows interest in trying to hold her own bottle and drink from it or a sippy (we're using the Nuby). But often she'll get mad and bat it away when I just place it in front of her, and just waits for me to hold her in my lap and give her the bottle myself. I find it quite endearing, but feel like she should have accomplished this task by now. Granted she has been BF'd too, (down to 2 small feedings a day now, I'm gradually weaning) so I guess it would be reasonable that she'd not be as experienced with this skill.

Also she is still preferring the bottle over the sippy too. I tried giving her the straw cup too but she hasn't figured it out yet. She often bats the sippy away but gets all excited when she sees her bottle of milk (pronounced "mee"). The weird thing is that she'll totally drink out of a regular cup, but I have to hold it for her too.

Any suggestions? I want her to master the skill by the time #2 comes!! It would be a big help!!

Marcy

[Chelsey333]

My ds is 8 mos. and he loves to drink out of a sippy cup, bec he loves juice. I give him 3/4 water to juice and he is in heaven. I started him with the Gerber cups with the handles. Maybe your little one would like it better if he had handles to grasp on to. Sometimes you have to try different cups to see what is his preference to hold. I also find cups without handles, but with indents on them are great for children just learning to hold a cup. Walmart sells some Playtex cups like this that are great. My 1st son wasn't holding a cup much until I bought him the Playtex ones.

[jbowman]

Have you tried the small Take n' Toss sippy cups (4 oz size)? They are inexpensive, have no valves, and are easy for small hands to hold. If you do a search in this forum, you'll find threads about the Take n' Toss. This is what we used exclusively until about a month ago.

I introduced the sippy cup when Ellie was about 5 1/2 months old. It took her awhile to get the hang of it--I put water in it for a long time and she started taking it well when I put a little juice in it (as a PP suggested). She still won't really take milk from a cup though (and completely rejected EBM from a bottle around 6 months).

Another suggestion is to give your daughter the regular cup (not sippy) and see what happens. Ellie loves drinking out of a regular cup--just sit your child in her highchair and let her practice. HTH!