Getting baby to drink from cup

[Anonymous]

My child turned one a few days ago. She has been combo fed breast milk and formula since she was about 8 or 9 months old (can’t remember exactly) but she stopped breastfeeding about two weeks ago on her own. We have been practicing drinking out of a cup since she started solids at 6 months old. She took to it pretty well after a few weeks of practice, and would have some water pretty much every time she had solids. Now that she’s one we transitioned her to milk we’ve been having a hard time getting her to actually drink it out of the cup. She definitely likes the milk and drinks it, but she only drinks a few teeny tiny sips. She also only drinks a few sips of water. I was committed to stopping bottles when she turned one but she has been getting really fussy between meals and snacks and I’ve been giving her bottles with whole milk. She has been having about 16 oz of milk total over 3 bottles depending on the day. If I didn’t give her the bottles I would estimate she would have had about 4 oz of liquids total per day. I know I need to get her off the bottles. Any tips for making her drink more liquids out of cups? We’ve used open cups (but only with water, she still sometimes dumps the water out), straw cups, and munchkin 360 cups. She eats solids pretty well but doesn’t have the biggest appetite ever. It’s only a few days after her first birthday so we’re both still adjusting but I don’t want to make the bottles a habit! Does she just need to get really thirsty?? I’ve noticed she’s been getting a little constipated with the milk so I don’t want her to not get enough water!

[Anonymous]

Why do you feel there’s some extreme urgency to getting her off the bottle? Bottles are only a problem for teeth if kids have them in their mouths all day for comfort and don’t brush teeth before sleeping. Pacifiers are the real deformer of palate and teeth, not bottles.

Why don’t you try a straw or stainless steel bottle with built in straw? That’s a much easier step than an open cup. Our kid’s Montessori school pushed the open cup thing for babies, but looking back I think it was stupid and a messy waste of time. By age 3 you won’t know who drank from bottles or straws or open cups at what age; they all get there.

[Anonymous]

Also, you can give bottles sometimes and straw cups other times for a months-long transition period. It doesn’t need to be ask or nothing.

[Anonymous]

My kids are teens now, but I remember worrying about this stuff. Then one day I realized that I knew kids with some really terrible parents including people with schizophrenia or heroin and meth addictions (I’m a psychiatrist.). And every one of those kids, no matter how bad or checked out the parents were, was able to drink from a cup.

You will figure it out. I promise. Try not to stress too much and enjoy your baby.

[Anonymous]

This is not a problem.. use a bottle, use a sippy cup, keep nursing, whatever… it will be fine. A 1 yo is still very much a baby. There’s no switch that flips on their birthday making bottles evil.

[Anonymous]

Haha, ok, I feel much better now. I just had my 12 month appointment and the pediatrician was like “make sure to get off bottles now.” She’s doesn’t go to bed with bottles and she’s not using them all day. When do babies usually stop using bottles altogether?

[Anonymous]

Read the solid starts page, they have tips on how to get them.using the straw cups...it took a variety of brands for my kid to get the hang of it. We started with water in them initially but switched to breast mill/cows milk at 12 m

[Anonymous]

When my kids were that age, they liked to have a sip out of my cup. I would hold them and they would drink water out of an open cup. A lot of the toddler sippy cups have strange anti spill tops and are not as intuitive/motivating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child turned one a few days ago. She has been combo fed breast milk and formula since she was about 8 or 9 months old (can’t remember exactly) but she stopped breastfeeding about two weeks ago on her own. We have been practicing drinking out of a cup since she started solids at 6 months old. She took to it pretty well after a few weeks of practice, and would have some water pretty much every time she had solids. Now that she’s one we transitioned her to milk we’ve been having a hard time getting her to actually drink it out of the cup. She definitely likes the milk and drinks it, but she only drinks a few teeny tiny sips. She also only drinks a few sips of water. I was committed to stopping bottles when she turned one but she has been getting really fussy between meals and snacks and I’ve been giving her bottles with whole milk. She has been having about 16 oz of milk total over 3 bottles depending on the day. If I didn’t give her the bottles I would estimate she would have had about 4 oz of liquids total per day. I know I need to get her off the bottles. Any tips for making her drink more liquids out of cups? We’ve used open cups (but only with water, she still sometimes dumps the water out), straw cups, and munchkin 360 cups. She eats solids pretty well but doesn’t have the biggest appetite ever. It’s only a few days after her first birthday so we’re both still adjusting but I don’t want to make the bottles a habit! Does she just need to get really thirsty?? I’ve noticed she’s been getting a little constipated with the milk so I don’t want her to not get enough water!

Give her a sippy cup.

[Anonymous]

We used the honey bear straw cups and the “pipette method”. My husband thought I was crazy but was amazed when our child actually picked up how to use a straw after a few demonstrations.

From Google: “To teach a baby to use a straw, start by using the "pipette method": dip a straw into a small amount of liquid like breastmilk or formula, trap a little bit at the end with your finger, then present the straw to the baby's mouth, allowing them to open their mouth and suck the liquid when you release your finger; gradually transition to thinner liquids once they grasp the concept of sucking from a straw, and consider using thicker purees initially to help them seal their lips around the straw.”

[Anonymous]

Give open cup of water (or sippy) with all meals so it’s there for practice. Give bottles on a schedule as usual and phase them out one by one. It’ll be gradual. Usually you transition off bottles one by one. For my first, she was still having one bottle per day at 18 months when we finally phased that one out.

[Anonymous]

I spent a lot of money on speech therapy solely because my kid wasn’t drinking from a cup at the time I thought she needed to. Total waste of money and time. Everyone learns to drink from a cup. Put it at the bottom of the list of things to worry about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I spent a lot of money on speech therapy solely because my kid wasn’t drinking from a cup at the time I thought she needed to. Total waste of money and time. Everyone learns to drink from a cup. Put it at the bottom of the list of things to worry about.

I’m sorry, pp. That makes me sad for you. I can relate because we wasted a lot of money and time and worry on similar things that got easier in time. My best advice to first time parents is to realize that all baby resources from blogs to books written by experts are written for the easiest, most average kids. SO much of the advice and milestones is wrong or may not apply. Kids must be off bottles by 1! They must eat solid foods of all textures and sizes by 10 months, no purées otherwise you need feeding therapy! They must sleep through the night by 6 months or they are autistic/have sleep apnea/you’re a bad parent! It’s all so rigid and unrealistic and sets parents up for failure.

[Anonymous]

My child just turned two and is only now reliably drinking from a cup without spoiling g it. Buy your kid a water bottle to drink from.

[Anonymous]

We used to start our kids on an egg cup for drinking. It doesn’t hold much, so spilling wasn’t a big deal.