How to teach ds to drink from regular cup???

[momof1squirt]

My son is 3 1/2 (4 in feb.) and he still is refusing to drink from a regular cup. He takes a sippy cup to bed, my rule if he wants water at night, and drinks from a sipper with a straw during the day. At preschool they have juice in dixie cups and he spills a lot. How can I get him to kick the sipper/sippy cup habit? Any suggestions of particular cups that are easy for him to use? At this rate he'll be in college and still using a sippy! lol
TIA,
Andrea W :)

[schums]

Just saw this, so hopefully you're checking back. We've done a couple things to get our DC to use regular cups. When we were first starting to introduce the cup, we'd have the sit on our laps and take little sips and praise them like crazy. Once they got the hang of what they were supposed to do (I'm sure your DS understands this already)and could hold a cup independently we started putting 1 or 2 small drinks worth in a small plastic cup (like the type you get with kid's meals at chain restaurants) and giving it to them. Usually we started with meals. One day, we simply told them that they couldn't use the sippy/straw cup with meals at the dinner table at home, and gave them their drink in the plastic cup. Yes it was a mess at first, but we have bibs with pockets so it wasn't too bad. We just kept refilling the cup when they asked, again only with 1 to 2 drinks worth. For awhile, we also limited what we put in the sippy/straw cup -- water was in the cups, EVERYTHING else went in a glass. This way, they wouldn't get dehydrated, but if they wanted juice or milk, then they had to use a "big boy" glass.

We now use a mix of sippy/straw cups and glasses depending on the situation. If they want a drink watching TV or outside, it's the sippy/straw. Any other time, it's a glass at the table.

HTH,
Sarah
Mom to Alex (3/2002) and Catherine (8/2003)