Sippy Cup Struggle...help?!

[akc]

Hi all -

I'm looking for some advice. My DD (will be 1 yr in 2 wks) will NOT drink from a sippy cup. We've got EVERY kind made - the Magic cup from Avent, Gerber, Ansa, Evenflo, I mean ALL of them! I KNOW she can hold them b/c she does that all the time - and she gets it to her mouth and will (sort of) suck, but won't tip it up so no liquid comes out. She was bottle fed from birth, so it's not that she was more used to breastfeeding. And, she isn't teething (has eight teeth - four top, four bottom).

The thing is she won't hold her bottle up either, so that translates to the sippy cup as well. She just acts like a little bird - opens her mouth up and wants us to hold it for her. I've tried to just leave it (reasoning: if she wants it, she'll figure it out), but after about 10 min she gets so worked up b/c she's hungry and now wailing! She does like to try to drink from a real cup - kind of slurps it in and is reasonably successful. Does that mean she'll just want to go to that instead? What a mess!

Am I just stuck waiting it out? She's going to whole milk now and drinks juice once or twice a day, so I'd really like her to drink it herself! If anyone has any tips for me, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks!

Alexa

[August Mom]

You might try a straw or the Playtex Drink Up Cup. http://www.playtexbaby.com/cupsandmealtime/products/bigkidcups.asp#drinkupcup However, you still have to tip the Drink Up Cup so that may not work. One of the little girls in our playgroup won't tip her bottle or cup back but she can and will drink from a straw. Playtex also makes some cups with straws and Tupperware makes a cup with a lid and an opening for a regular straw. HTH Goodluck.

[Karenn]

Hi,
You might try sticking with a regular cup for a while. Colin was a reluctant sippy cup drinker too. When he was first learning to drink from a sippy, I did give him a plain cup at first. I had to tip it for him, but it helped him learn that there was something yummy inside. It was messier, but it seemed to help him grasp the mechanics of drinking. Now, when he drinks from a regular sippy, he still doesn't always tip it up enough, but he realizes that something is "wrong" when nothing comes out and tries to fix it so that he gets some liquid. Another thing that helped was giving the cup to him without the valve. That way, all he had to figure out was to tip the cup up. He didn't have to learn to tip the cup and suck. Good luck!

[egoldber]

Have you tried a straw type sippy? I'm very fond of both the Playtex Quickstraw sippy (http://www.playtexbaby.com/cupsandmealtime/products/bigkidcups.asp#quickstrawbottle) and these by Rubbermaid (http://www.rubbermaid.com/hpd/consumer/product/detail.jhtml?prod=HPFG188200ISGRN&attributeId=HPATT2012&nextType=noValue¤tType=HPCAT02&locationId=LOC00001&thirdMenuIndex=10).

I got both at Target.

FYI, my DD NEVER held her own bottle and didn't start holding her own sippy until she was about 13 months.

HTH,

[Andrews Mom]

My son did the same thing. He drank from the cup just fine if I was holding it but wouldn't hold it himself. We tried all kinds of cups and he just waited for me. Occasionally, he would try to hold it but get very frustrated that nothing was coming out. Then he'd either throw it down or try to hand it to me. I tried showing him how to tip it but whenever I touched the cup, he let go and wanted me to do it. Then one day, instead of tipping the cup, I put my hand under his arm and lifted it up just a little so HE was tipping it. He's been happily doing it himself ever since. Maybe it was a coincidence and he was just ready to do it on his own, but it sure made me happy. :-)

Hope that helps.

Mindy

[cara1]

I say wait it out a bit. DS wouldn't do the sippy cup thing either, and even though we knew he *could* hold a bottle, he usually stretched out and waited for someone to "service" him. A few weeks after he turned one, though, with little prompting, he became a sippy cup expert * (Gerbers, with and without handles).

[brubeck]

If the only problem is how she holds it, then hold it for her (as if you were giving her a bottle). Do this for a couple of weeks, then start giving her the sippy and refuse to hold it for her. WHen she's thirsty she will drink from it.

You could also use handles to encourage her to hold it.