Sippy cup, straw cup, trainer cup ??

MegannJay · May 2012

DD (6 months old) has shown A TON of interest in drinking out of a straw or cup. Every time we have a drink she practically rips it out of our hands and tries to suck on the straw. She likes to suck the condensation off the sides of the cups too. So we've gotten out the sippy cup and she shows no interest in it. So I got her a trainer straw cup since maybe it was the straw she really liked. Well that one you have to kind of squeeze to get the liquid up and I don't think she has the coordination yet to figure that out (I squeeze but she doesn't suck it up at the right time). So I got her a regular straw cup but it has a valve so it doesn't leak and she couldn't figure that out either (I couldn't either initially:P). So I was going to give up and just keep offering the sippy cup but tonight while getting other stuff I just grabbed an insulated straw cup. She immediately knew what to do and started drinking. I just gave her some water to see if she could figure it out and she loved it (not sure she cared for the water much but she loved that she got to drink something- all smiley and stuff:))

So finally to my questions:P

Is there any reason I SHOULDN'T be giving her a straw cup like this?

I don't really want to give her much water yet and she's breastfed (gets bottles at daycare) so what do I give her in the cup? Should I be offering breast milk in the sippy cup?

How often should I be giving it to her? I know while we're eating she would enjoy having it but should I give it more often?

For what it's worth we just started introducing foods. Started cereal around 5.5 months and we're now on our 3rd food and I keep introducing new ones every 3 days at this point.

I feel ridiculous trying to figure all this out- definitely having a FTM moment!:P

MAK06 · May 2012

My boy was a bre.ast fed baby too and we went right to straw sippy! I don't think there is any reason as to why you can't - our pedi seemed impressed!

We started with the playtex one (which may be the one you are describing). While you can squeeze it to "help" them, it still works without squeezing it. This is the cup he still uses for all his milk.

Some of the other straw ones I've come across are hard for even me to suck out of for some reason. I ended up finding ones I liked at a local grocery store.

My son prefers to drink out of MY cups with straws but he is a little older than your DD. Just watch since our straws our so much bigger they can get a big mouthful!

At her age I don't remember what I gave in the cup. Probably just a little bit of water (he never drank too much that I'd be concerned) with meals. He drank out of the sippy for milk when I was away from 9 months on. FWIW, we never used a regular sippy. He drinks out of a big boy cup without a lid now (supervised or he may end up soaked lol) without a problem.

So I guess my advice is if she seems to like and prefer the straw, I say go for it! You just might need to shop around a little for the right one. I liked the playtex for that young of age and then one that we found at grocery store (believe it's nuby).

HTH

cbubbles2 · May 2012

G just had his 6 month appt and his pedi was completely fine with him having a sippy cup with a few ounces of water.

G does the same thing as your DD, grabs our cups, sucks on the condensation, etc. I got him the sippy cup because I thought he'd like to chew on the spout since its kind of rubbery-and I was shocked when he started drinking from it.

It's crazy to see your baby pick up a cup and drink huh?!

schoolsoutbride · May 2012

The first question my oldest's speech therapist asked was what kind of cup he drank out of. She said sippies are totally for convenience and was glad that he was using a straw sippy. She said it's much better fo speech development. So the straw is good!

My oldest never used the sippy you have to tip up and he figured out using a cup just fine.

I just let my BF babies kind of play with the straw sippies with a bit of water (didn't want to use BM b/c didn't want to pump that much or waste what they didn't drink.) Then as they got closer to a year, we used them more often.

Dochas · May 2012

No reason not to use a straw. I've heard the take and toss are easy to use. I would ask the pediatrician about how much water to give. I think when we started it was 2 oz a day. The straw is FUN and I can see them "overdrinking" lol.

Ali212 · May 2012

I've heard that it doesn't matter which you start them on, it's just good for them to get in the habit of learning to drink/sip from a cup. I think straws are easier in general for babies to use as well as I found both my girls learned very guickly with straw cups but took more time to figure out the sippy. In general, I give water in a straw cup and their milk (once they turned 1 year) in a sippy cup. That worked for us and I liked differentiating the two since the milk was given at certain times of day while the water is throughout the day in our house.

MegannJay · May 2012

Awesome! So glad I can just start her on the straw thing and its actually a good thing in terms of speech development and stuff. I guess I'll just do a couple oz of water since she only gets it in the evenings right now and its more just to play with. I too do not want to have to pump just to give her milk in the cup or waste milk because she decided she didn't want to drink it all.

Anyone use one of the new cups that are supposed to mimic a regular cup but are no leak (they have a lid but inside the rim so the liquid still comes out like a normal drink would)? They look pretty neat. Definitely not there yet but it amazes me what new stuff they come up with!

Thanks everyone!:)

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