sippy cup help

[nina]

i know it's not a big deal, but DS is 8 months old and still won't drink a sippy cup. i've given him one with his meals since he was 6 months old filled with water. i use the Avent soft-spout, and he just uses it to grind his gums for teething!!

don't i need to eventually get him off the bottle and only drink with a sippy? i currently give him a bottle of milk about 30 minutes before his meals (3 meals/day)

any advice?

[shopaholic mom]

My DD is 1 yr and won't drink milk out of a sippy either. We started her with water at 6 months and it took a while...at first she liked to play with it, so I let her to get comfortable using it, but by abt 81/2 - 9 months, she was drinking a few ounces of water from it with her 3 meals/day (in addition to her 3 bottles of formula/day). I think he will eventually get the hang of it. The other thing to do is try a few different sippys - DD uses the Avent but not exclusively - we have just about every sippy out there in my quest to find the one she'll drink the most milk from. I know some people who replaced the nipples on Avent bottles w/the soft spouts from sippys as a transition which is a good idea, but it didn't work for us.

Yes, the goal is to eventually get off the bottles completley, but it takes a while - starting early is great and some babies take to it right away, but it takes longer for others. Plenty of 18 month olds still have bottles and they're fine - most doctors reccommend starting with cups by 1 and being completely off bottles before 2. Since DD got the hang of sippys w/water by 9 months, I tried with formula many times, but it didn't work - the most she will drink at a time is 2 oz. And now that I switched to milk when she turned 1, I thought she'd have whole milk in a sippy b/c its diff from formula, but no luck again.

Anyway, over the past 2 weeks, we've transitioned down from 3 to 1 1/2 bottles/day. She she will only drink 2-3 oz of milk from a sippy at a time. So, she has a few oz of milk in a cup w/bfast and then with her afternoon snack. And she gets milk in a bottle before bed time - usually 7-8 ounces, to make up what she missed during the day. We were told by our ped, that a 1 yr old who eats a good amount of dairy (yogurt, cheese and milk w/cereal during the day) only needs 10-12 oz.

Good luck. If anyone else has suggestions for how to get a 1 yr old to take enough milk from a sippy, I'd love to hear them!

Thanks

[egoldber]

I would try different types. Get one of several different ones. You may need to take out the spill proof valve until baby gets the hang of it.

I, and a lot of people I know, had great success using The First Years "Take&Toss" spill proof cups. These are meant to be disposable but can be re-used and are dishwasher safe. They do not have a valve but are relatively spill proof anyway.

HTH,

[Rachels]

We're sippy-cup-less, too. Abigail would chew on the spout whenever I offered her the cup with the valve in, and choke whenever I took the valve out. Now we just use a regular cup, and she loves it. It's CUTE, too!

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[Karenn]

I started Colin with a regular cup too. Then I used the same Gerber sippy cup without the valve, and then finally I put the valve in. That worked OK. I had better luck with the Tommee Tippy sippy cup and usually use that, but he still drinks the most water when I give it to him with a plain cup. (He seems to like to drink water better than diluted juice or formula.)

Karen
Colin 6/18/02

[parkersmama]

I second the Tommy Tippy cups. I used them with both boys until they were able to get used to drinking from a sippy cup. They have weighted bottoms (they land bottom down!) and angled spouts so that the flow of drink is easily controlled. They don't have valves. After my kids got the hang of drinking from one of those, they made the switch to the regular kind with valves pretty easily.

Denise
mom to:
Parker, 9/1/1997
Wesley, 3/9/2000
and #3 (a girl!) due 4/29/2003

[Karenn]

Hmmm, My Tommie Tippees have valves. They also have the same weighted bottoms. I'm wondering if they've changed their cup. I'm using what they call their "Tippy Cup." Is that what you're using?
Karen
Colin 6/18/02

[CherylT]

My DD wouldn't drink from a sippy at first either. I had her drinking water from a kids water bottle from around 7 months, but when I tried to get her to drink from the sippies it was a no go. It turned out she didn't like the amount of suction needed to extract liquid from the spill proof cups. I bought some cheap plastic cups with lids and spouts - not spill proof - and she had no problem drinking from these. I switched her to spill proof sippies later on when she was older. Also, my DD hates plain milk - she likes it with strawberry syrup. HTH

Cheryl (aka CT)
SAHM to Lilli 9/20/00 & Alec 10/21/02