LO is EFF and now that he's 6 months my doc said it's ok to give him sips of water and to start using a sippy cup. It's super hot out where I live so I've been wanting to give him some water, but he doesn't know how to use the cups yet. What's the best way? I got the Munchkin 360 and straw cup and he's clueless as to what to do with either of them. Any tips for teaching him? Or any cups that are easier for a first-timer wh doesn't really get it? I was staying away from sippy cups with spouts after everything I read about them affecting speech development but now I'm thinking maybe that's what we need. Any tips?
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I don't know when I started offering a straw cup but DD1 def figured out a straw cup way faster than a sippy!
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@snowjewelz: Hmm interesting. I thought the valve might be easier/more like a bottle. He just kind of chewed on the straw. Also it's one of those weighted ones which sounded good, but even I found it a bit difficult to suck from, like I had to work harder at it than a regular straw. Is that normal?
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We started offering water in a cup when our kiddo was 6 months. She couldn't figure out a straw cup or the 360 cup at first, but did great with regular sippy cups with handles. Our favorites were the nuk tread line learner cups:
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I started offering water to DD as soon as she started solids. We would still BF like normal, but when she was eating solids/purees, I would always offer water. We started with the Zoli straw cup. She didn't drink much at all, but I wasn't concerned!
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@Goldengirl: Her problem was she didn't realize she has to tilt the cup to get the water but learning to suck from a straw is probably 2nd nature since they learn to suck nipples?
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i was just reading something about teaching your baby to drink from a straw
http://yourkidstable.com/how-to-teach-your-baby-or-toddler-to/
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We started by holding a finger over one end of the straw to capture a little water, then releasing it with the other end in LO's mouth. He figured out what to do within a day.
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@Raspberry: we did this too
If LO still struggles, try mixing a little bit of apple juice (or in our case, prune juice haha) into the water. Once they get a taste of the "good stuff", they catch on pretty quickly
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I had this issue with my son. My ped told me to get the honeybear. It's on Amazon. You can squeeze the bear and it comes up the straw and helps teach them.
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@Raspberry: yep did this as well and it works like a charm. I think we did it at 6 months. There's a YouTube video showing it as well
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We use a weighted straw cup (Zoli) and a Nuk learner cup with our 6 month old. The Nuk cup is great because it is cheap and similar to a bottle nipple. A baby book I have suggested putting formula in the cup rather than water at this stage because babies are more motivated to drink that than just water so we've been putting warmed up formula in the Zoli cup with great success.
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Once their able to sit you can start giving them an actual cup to try out in the bath. This way they can learn how to drink out of an actual cup, but since they're in the bath it won't matter if they get wet.
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We used a hard sippy from months 6-8 (a bottle with handles would also work), then a soft sippy for months 9-10, then a straw cup. He didn't get the cup until 10 months or so. He used it to create noise
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The very first Sippy we gave LO to try was a Pura spout. He could use it like a bottle. He wasn't good at it and by the time we were ready for him to really learn giving him a straw Sippu was the best idea.
Not that it likely helped, but I drink from a straw to model for LO.
If the goal is to get your baby drinking water in the heat put the water in a bottle.
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@Pollywog: Haha, mine just threw his on the ground today and broke it! He literally does not understand what it is. Which I guess makes sense! also: what's a hard sippy vs soft?
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@Goldengirl: A hard sippy is one with a hard spout, like a take & toss or many other cheaper brands. A soft sippy has a soft spout, like a Nuk Learner cup.
We tried everything and LO uses them all. We had out best success with the Nuk Learner cup bc it was like a bottle, and then Take & Toss simultaneously with the 360.
I'd like to get him on the 360 exclusively but they're expensive and we need 4 a day, I don't like to refill (I lose track of how much he drinks) and I like to wash each night because they have milk in them.
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We used take and toss sippys with or without the lid in the infant room at a daycare I worked at. They worked well because they're really light and the water just pours out of the three little holes in the hard spout so even if you don't suck you're getting a dribble.
I gave my kiddo a green sprouts sippy at 6 months. They're heavy and kind of hard to suck out of (I tried), but she figured it out in about a month. I also put straws in open cups and held them for her and gave her sips just from a regular cup.
I started giving my daughter water for the same reason as you. It was hot outside and I wanted something extra besides breast milk but I give her. If they're interested they can figure it out fairly quickly. I haven't heard much about sippy cups negatively impacting speech development to be honest. Everyone I have ever known in life, myself included, has used a variety of different spouts, cups, nipples, straws, as a child and their speech has been just fine. Just throwing that out there. When things like bottles or sippy cups are used for a very extended period of time I guess it could cause issues-but most people don't use them for long enough to cause that.
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We are working on teaching my son to use a straw cup but it's been slow going. My daughter licked it up relatively quickly
We just use a small open cup (or shot glass) with meals. I hold it for him so he doesn't just dump it and he takes sips.
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@Miss Ariel: That is a brilliant idea! A loves to try to drink out of an open cup, but just dumps it all over herself and winds up soaking wet. Why did I never think to do it in the tub? Duh...
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It took W what felt like FOREVER to learn to use any kind of cup. We just kept offering and letting him mess around with them - both sippies and straws. For a long time he'd drink out of a sippy cup but wouldn't hold it himself, it was like feeding a baby goat because we had to hold it up for him and he'd just drink from it - when he was thirsty he'd just hand us a cup and yell until we held it up for him. We joked about getting him a big hamster-style water bottle. Eventually he figured them both out.
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@SweetiePie: @Goldengirl: another vote for the honey bear! https://www.amazon.com/Talktools-Honey-Drinking-Flexible-Straws/dp/B013RAKUQS/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1495113565&sr=8-3&keywords=honey+bear
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We introduced the munchkin 360 at 6 months and it took him about 6 weeks to really get it. We just offered it at all meals and showed him how to do it over and over. I wasn't worried about how much he got at that age. For the straw, we did what other posters said and used ourbfinger over it to get some and then put it in his mouth. It took him about a day to get that.
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@Mamaof2: Thanks for linking! I was at the airport solo with my 2.5yo yesterday so my response was brief.
ETA: they include straws with the honeybear but you can also just use a regular disposable bendy straw.
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You've got a lot of good cup suggestions, so I'll just add that at around 6mos I started always giving her sips of water from a regular cup at meals. She drank a lot more that way early on, before she got the hang of straw cups, and I figure if I keep it up, she'll have an easier transition to open cups once she's able to handle one on her own without spilling.
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For DS I had originally bought those straw cups that had a bite valve on them. Seems like most of the cups out there are those type. And he just didn't get it. And no wonder, when I tried it I could barely get anything out. I ended up switching to the Take n Toss ones because both the sippy and the straw cups are much easier to get stuff out of. And to help him "get" it, we gave him a juice box to try and squeezed it. He liked the flavor of the juice and because we could squeeze it, he figured it out.
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@ShootingStar: That's what the green sprout cup has. So hard to get liquid out!
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Have you tried just offering water in a normal cup you hold to the lips? That's what we did and then we moved to the 360 cup. My daughter got frustrated because she couldn't get the water out but after 3 weeks or so she understood. But I think she was closer to 8 months when we introduced the 360 cup and drinking in general. I helped her by pressing down the lip when she would hold it up to her mouth.
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@Goldengirl: my LO is 8 months and still hasnt figured out a straw cup so I give him water in his bottle
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Neither of my boys held their own bottles so they really didn't get cups of any kind until almost a year old. I want to say it started really clicking at 11 months for both. It coincided when they started rejecting bottles.
At 6 months I'd give them sips of water from my own glass at the table or siphon from a straw.
I also got take n toss straw cups and squeezed the water up the straw into their mouths. We also gave open cups to drink with in the bath. Months went by with no real success but it didn't really matter since they had milk.At 10 months-ish DS1 figured out straws but couldn't deal with sippy cups because he didn't know to tilt his head back. He also did not get bite valve straw cups so we used Tommee Tippee straw cups and Zoomi cups and now as a toddler he uses regular cups or Foogo and Contigo straw cups. He literally mastered open cup before he realized how sippy cups worked.
DS2 understood sippy cups better than straws - again around 11 months - but the weekend before his 1st birthday (as in last weekend), something clicked and he started pounding milk and water out of his brother's straw cups! And he does understand bite valves so he is using Munchkin weighted straw cups since they have handles and he still tips his head back like it's a sippy. I like them so much better than Zoli cups. He is also jacking his brother's straw cups fairly regularly but I can tell he still likes having a handle.
All this is to say, it's early and don't sweat it.
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DS1 did not get the concept of a straw cup. It didn't matter how many we tried, he just plain didn't understand what he was supposed to do. The nuk sippy cup with handles was far easier for him to use because it was similar to how he drank his bottle. He had to tilt it back, so he got that right away. He's 4.5 now and has never had any speech issues.
DS2 figured out a straw cup as soon as I put it in front of him. I think all kiddos are different. Not every kid knows what to do with a straw, and I think that's ok! Try the sippy cups and maybe you could transition to a straw cup later. I also love the idea of drinking from an open cup in the bath.
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Thanks everyone, lots of good info here! Hadn't even heard of the take and toss cups but seems like there's a lot of fans. I assume that's these? https://www.amazon.ca/First-Years-Count-Spill-7-Ounce/dp/B003NVVK4S/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby&ie=UTF8&qid=1495141100&sr=1-1&keywords=take+and+toss Although it says 9 months plus for some reason...
I do offer him sips right from my glass which is the only way he'll get water currently. Just wanted to start with a trainer cup but maybe it's still too early.
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Before DS could figure out the 360 cup, I'd either hold my finger on the edge so it would drip into his mouth, or just take the whole top valve off. This was pretty messy but it helped him learn to tip it up and let less water out than an open cup.
For straws we did the same finger and straw drip thing that others mentioned.
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@Goldengirl: yes, those are them! I don't know why it has that age, I assume because people don't recommend babies have water/that they don't need water until then?
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@Mrs. Goose: Hmmm no idea, seems weird! Although at least that makes me feel like I don't need to rush
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When DS started solids we gave him water in the take n toss cups with handles. When he got a bit older we switched to ones with no handles. He figured out the cup pretty easily. Straw cups he didn't figure out until about 14 months!
Eventually I got him a couple of the 360 ones just for the fact that they don't spill.
I liked the take n toss ones because they were cheap. I didn't worry about leaving a couple at daycare.
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@ALV91711: Can you send me a link to which ones you're talking about? I see some different types online.
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@Shantuck: we like the exact same cups.
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