breastfeeding and introduction to sippy cup

[lindauer72101]

Hello, I am working mom who currently pumps 3-4 times a day and breastfeeds when I am with my dd. I wanted to know how other bf mom's introduced a sippy cup to their child. Did you just pump for the contents of the cup and not worry about supply issues? Or how did you handle it? My dd currently breastfeeds about three times a day and the rest of the time takes her milk out of a bottle.

I am just curious to know what others have done. My plan is to breastfeed for the first year but I have short term goals (ie-I promised myself to breastfeed for the first month, then extended my goal to the next month) to make it seem like I am accomplishing my goals.

I am just curious to know what everyone has done. I don't want to compromise my supply if I can help it.

Thanks,
Angela

[HHCs Mom]

DS is 8 months old and uses a sippy cup but not really to drink EBM from. I just put ice water in it right now and he uses it for practice more than anything. He doesn't use it in place of a bottle or nursing, just between meals as practice. I hope this makes sense! I have put EBM in it once or twice and he liked it just as much but he is not yet proficient at getting all of the liquid out. He doesn't have the ability to tilt his head all the way back to get the liquid out without toppling over backwards, so we just use the opportunity to learn about drinking from it. :-)

HTH!
Kim
~ mama to a chunky monkey named Harrison ~ 4.6.04

[californiagirl]

We introduced a sippy cup of water at about 4 months. At 9 months, she's proficient with sippy cups and straw cups (not always a good thing as she wants to drink anything I'm drinking with a straw). But she still thinks that there are three kinds of liquid in the world: mommy milk from the tap, expressed milk from a bottle, which she will not drink above room temperature, and water in cups (sippy cups, straw cups, big glasses, baby cups) which is extra exciting with ice in it. She will now drink what seems like quite a bit of water (although she also is just fascinated by the straw and takes mouthfuls and lets them dribble down her front, a great reason for limiting her to water) but it doesn't keep her from nursing 8 times a day. When she was littler she rarely drank more than a half ounce at a time.

[sntm]

I probably started around 6 months with a sippy, though jack had taken sips of water from my glass starting at around 5 months. I usually used leftover EBM from the last bottle of the day at daycare or else water, though I would occasionally use some extra from what I had pumped that day (e.g. if I had pumped 20 oz, would put 2 oz in a sippy and have my three 6 oz bottles for the next day). He switched to taking all of his EBM from a sippy (the softtip Nuby one) at around 8-9 months, and straw cups at around a year.
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shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03
mama to Jack 6/6/03
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_emerald_18m.gif[/img][/url]
Breastfeeding 18 months and count

[momma_boo]

I think I initially introduced a sippy around 8 mos with just water in it during meals or at various times. At the beginning, she spent more time just chewing on the spout part than actually drinking. We had better luck with The First Years Take and Toss Sippy Cups. They don't have a valve, so the baby doesn't have to suck so hard to get the liquid out. Once she really got good at those, we went to the Playtex Sippy Cups and introduced her to straws as well.

When we started introducing regular milk at 13 mos, we only gave it in cups, so that when she was fully weaned off the breast milk, she was no longer taking bottles.