Transition to cups

RBXChas

Ok, so my son is 6.5 months old and eating solids 2x/day. I nurse him beforehand (he is not happy to sit and eat if I don't), and I nurse him the rest of the day.

I'm a SAHM until next August, so I'm here to nurse on demand. Because of that we've never had a need for a bottle. My older son was FF, so he used a bottle every day. I remember trying sippy cups with him around 6/7 months, but he didn't like them, and I admittedly got lazy. I tried reintroducing sippy cups around 11 months (because they're supposed to be off the bottle by a year old), and it was a disaster. I spent $$$ trying to figure out what sippy cup he would take (because those things are not cheap!), and after about a month he could handle a straw cup. He eventually took to both sippy and straw cups, then moving him on to an open cup was a task and a half. Being a FTM I beat myself up about not introducing cups early enough and not being persistent enough, and I worried that there was something wrong with my child for being a step behind his peers in cup usage.

Yes, all that stress over cups. Really.

So here I am again in a similar boat. I plan to wean at age one or sooner if he so chooses. I pump every morning now (because he's STTN) and get 4-6 oz. As such I have a decent frozen stash.

Because I nurse him prior to feeding solids, he has very little interest in a sippy cup (I haven't tried straw cups), and I use my frozen stash to make baby oatmeal for him (good for iron). I don't want to even bother with bottles at this point because he's old enough not to need one. I have a million different varieties of sippy cups, so if it's on the market, chances are I have it.

My question is this: how did you transition your baby onto a cup if s/he never got a bottle?

Thank you, ladies!

Edited for typos

redheadmommy

Since both my kid was exclusively breastfeed , and had no problem with transitioning to cup or sippy cup. Usually kids with no experience with bottle can learn any those things easier , because they have no comparison.

With my son, who is a gentle calm let's do thing slow kind of kid, I almost skipped the sippy cup phase. I started solid when he was 6 month old, but he was very slow with the solids and ate only very runny cereal and very liquedy pureed stuff for a while. He was almost 8 months when his solids actually started to be less liquedy and I needed to give him water. Because of the timing and his gentle nature I decided to skip the sippy cup phase. I bought those cheap IKEA plastic cups and I help him holding it first. He started part time daycare at 10 months old, and by then he was able to drink alone from a cup without mess. He is a super careful gentle kid by nature. The daycare people didn't believe that a baby that age can drink from a cup and insisted to send him a sippy cup, so I bought one for the daycare. For a while he screw off the sippy cup top and used it as a cup After a while he saw other kids in the daycare using sippy cup , and he copied them there. At home we never used sippy cup with him. I had one when we are on the go, but with him it was barely ever used.
Without the daycare , I am positive that he would have skipped the whole sippy cup phase altogether.

Now my little girl is a different story. She has a temper, and she is fast and constantly moving , wiggling her arms, never sits still for a second. She also exclusively BF until 6 months and we started with pureed apple and beef and she quickly progressed in solid, so I needed to give her water sooner. Because it was earlier and mainly because of her temper, I didn't attempted the cup. I gave her soft spout sippy cup around 6.5 months , and she learnt how to drink from it after a few times I helped. She is a little monster , and eating is a disaster when spoon, food , plate , sippy cup and everything she can reach fly in every direction.

I tried a training cup, which look like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-AVENT-Natural-Drinking-1-Pack/dp/B006GYLL8Y
It didn't go well for us. She figured it out how to drink from it, but also figured it out that she can push the top to pour the water out and play with it. She is not an easy kid to parent....
She also chewed and destroy like 4 soft (silicone) spout sippy cup, so I gave in and bought her a sippy cup entirely made out of plastic. The darn kid chewed on it so bad that I had to throw out. Now I got her stainless steel sippy cup/kid bottle with a super hard spout . I am not really fan of those as they can be dangerous if the kid moving while drinking from it. Also I am concerned about they affect on their teeth, but oh well I just roll with it.

She is 11 months old, and I am sure she would able to drink from a cup if we tried, but she would throw it as she throws everything when she finished with it. Because of her temper , I do not see giving her regular cup anytime soon. Maybe she is cute as a button, but she is just a little monster.

redheadmommy

I wrote a long post, but haven't really answered your question, hehe You just started solids, do not stress about it. I think your baby just not thirsty yet for drinking from anything. He only eats a very little bit of solids and his liquid need are satisfied with the breastfeeding. Once he'll eat thicker puree and/or trying finger-foods, he will be thirsty and he will drink from whatever sippy you gave him. Because he has no prior attachment to bottle, he will learn quickly whatever cup you decide to give him.

RBXChas

Thank you! That is helpful!

jls8209

Now my little girl is a different story. She has a temper, and she is fast and constantly moving , wiggling her arms, never sits still for a second. She also exclusively BF until 6 months and we started with pureed apple and beef and she quickly progressed in solid, so I needed to give her water sooner. Because it was earlier and mainly because of her temper, I didn't attempted the cup. I gave her soft spout sippy cup around 6.5 months , and she learnt how to drink from it after a few times I helped. She is a little monster , and eating is a disaster when spoon, food , plate , sippy cup and everything she can reach fly in every direction.

I tried a training cup, which look like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-AVENT-Natural-Drinking-1-Pack/dp/B006GYLL8Y
It didn't go well for us. She figured it out how to drink from it, but also figured it out that she can push the top to pour the water out and play with it. She is not an easy kid to parent....
She also chewed and destroy like 4 soft (silicone) spout sippy cup, so I gave in and bought her a sippy cup entirely made out of plastic. The darn kid chewed on it so bad that I had to throw out. Now I got her stainless steel sippy cup/kid bottle with a super hard spout . I am not really fan of those as they can be dangerous if the kid moving while drinking from it. Also I am concerned about they affect on their teeth, but oh well I just roll with it.

She is 11 months old, and I am sure she would able to drink from a cup if we tried, but she would throw it as she throws everything when she finished with it. Because of her temper , I do not see giving her regular cup anytime soon. Maybe she is cute as a button, but she is just a little monster.

You described my 13 month old daughter to a T! :laugh:

I think for most infants it just takes a bit of practice. Rose mostly played with her sippy cup for the first month or so, even if I tried to show her how to use it. One day she just got it. I gave her a straw cup around 9 months after I borrowed one at a friend's house and saw that she took to it right away. She also has the Avent cup redheadmommy posted the link for, and same here, she doesn't drink from it, she just makes a mess.

Now I'm trying to work on getting her to drink from a cup with a drinking hole, but the darn thing leaks between the cup and the top no matter how tightly it's screwed together. Ironically, it's called the "Truly Spill Proof Cup". http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=12968876

walleyclan1

My oldest transitioned flawlessly but my youngest refused bottles and fought the sippy. She did better with a cup/straw. Also, we spent a few days where we ALL drank out of sippy cups to let her copy us.

RBXChas

Thanks again for all the advice!

I have a few straw cups (that's how I got my older son off bottles), so I put a teensy but of water in them, and my baby took to them without a problem! He instinctively knew what to do with it.

Problem is, he sucks and sucks and sucks and doesn't stop to swallow, so water runs down his chin. I let him do this while I'm getting his food ready, so all this means is that I'll just have to help him out once I put anything else in the cup.

I'm just glad he's on to something here so that when he weans (partially or fully) he will be ok drinking from something!

RBXChas

I just wanted to update this post in case it helps anyone else.

My son is sometimes good about straw cups, sometimes not. I even spent $10 on a Doidy cup (tilted open cup), which was no better than anything else, so I decided to stick with straw cups.

I read some blogs and posts about this issue last week and hit on something inexpensive that I already had in my house, which worked beautifully.

Someone recommended the Take and Toss straw cups because they create such a good vacuum that you can put the straw in your child's mouth and squeeze the cup to get a little liquid into his/her mouth, then s/he is encouraged to continue sucking from the straw on his/her own.

It's worked great for us! With our pediatrician's blessing we are using very small amounts of cow's milk (less than an ounce), so I'm hoping that'll help him transition to that when the time comes.

These are the cups (even cheaper than I paid for them at Target): http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Years-Straw-Ounce/dp/B0054YZDWC

ETA that Amazon sells a 4-pack for less than $3, but I bought mine at Target for probably $3 or $4 for a 4-pack with a bonus cup (so 5 cups). My supermarket sells the same thing for $5 or $6, I think. I used these (and the sippy cup version) wth my older son, and I like that I could toss them when need be, nor was it a big deal if we lost one here and there.