Why bother with a sippy cup at all?

[sadie427]

I came to this late, but I have a little different perspective.

Sammy is on mostly regular cups, I'd say 80-90% of the time, otherwise he uses a straw cup in a restaurant or on the relatively rare occasions when I give him water in the stroller, car seat or walking around. He has never had a sippy.

He is in a montessori daycare where they also do not believe in sippys for the reasons above, as well as because of the general montessori philosophy (haven't read this so I may be misquoting) that children should be given the opportunity to do things for themselves as soon as it is developmentally possible because they get such pride from these accomplishments.

When we started solids, we gave him sips of water from a small regular cup with the food. Around 11 months the daycare starts the process of weaning from bottle to cup, and they ask you to work on this at home, and not to introduce a sippy. It took 2-3 weeks to get him drinking from the cup (with me holding it) well enough to stop the bottle, which was right around his first bday. It really wasn't hard to do, I just offered him the cup at every meal.

Over the next few months, he progressed to the point where we can place a small regular cup (we actually use a heavy-bottomed juice glass) on his tray, and he will pick it up, drink and put it down. Sure, sometimes he'll spill, but there's no more than a few oz in there, and it doesn't run off the tray or anything. He tried deliberately shaking the cup exactly twice, to see what would happen, and when the milk splashed him in the face he cried, I cleaned it up, and he never did it again.

I didn't introduce the straw cup till he was really good w/ the regular cup, so that he wouldn't develop a preference for it. I don't generally give him liquids when he's walking around the house etc, since he has a meal or snack every few hours and some sips of milk before and after his nap, he gets plenty of liquids. As I said, he uses the straw cup if he does need water or juice in the stroller, or in a restaurant.

And BTW, Sammy is a regular average baby in terms of motor development, even a bit behind the charts. The other babies in his daycare all use the cup very well also.

So if you were at all interested, I would say you can go ahead and try the regular cup.

[kijip]

We use the take and toss straw cups (only we wash instead of toss) to prevent massive spills. However I have started giving Toby a regular glass at home meals with the expectation that it may very well be spilled. We give him a 6 ounce (juice sized) glass half filled (at a time-we refill) with water or milk and so far so good. But you have to not mind spills. Start with water! We axed the bottle at about 11-12 months.

[lisams]

We also give DD cups to drink out of at meals, and she's getting much better with the spills. We only put a few ounces in at a time and have a washcloth ready to soak up any spills. When she was a little younger, we just took her clothes off and she ate in her diaper, it was much easier to clean up. The only downfall is that she often refuses to use a sippy cup because she wants to drink from a regular cup like mommy.

Lisa

[squimp]

I was interested in a more leak-resistant straw cup than the Playtex, so I got one of these Munchkin cups. I like that they truly screw on with 2-3 overlapping threads, unlike the Playtex.

I took the straw out to clean it, and I cannot figure out how to get it back in there! Any suggestions?? Yes I feel like a complete idiot :P

Thank you in advance!!

[JElaineB]

I take the straw out and take the flipper piece out of the lid when I am cleaning it. I take the straw apart into 2 pieces to make sure I really clean it well. When clean, I put the straw back together then stick the flexible end of the straw back into the hole in the lid from underneath. Then I put the flipper piece back in on top, and then screw the whole lid into the cup. Let me know if you need any more help!

Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02

[hellosmiletoday]

Mine will start as well. ITs funny b/c I posted a similar question awhile back and it seemed like everyone used sippys, but on this thread its quite the opposite. I noticed a similar thing happened in your other thread for "exercising" ideas.


Mommy to baby girl 5.8.04

[madtowngirl]

We took the valve part out of a Gerber sippy cup & have Henry drink out of that. The water drips out so there's no sucking involved but less mess than if he were using a normal cup. It's worked pretty well so far. Would a sippy cup be ok in that situation or are they still bad for other reasons?