Only big boy cups for my 9mo old

[SusanaLaLoca]

Since DS started on solids at 6mos, he's been offered water from cups we big people use by everyone but me - basically because they either didn't have a sippy cup, or it was a hard cup which he hated. I was able to get him to take small sips from a Nuby cup which is soft, and was working on getting him o hold it himself.

Well... we went on vacation to visit family, and all my efforts went out the window. He now will only drink water from our cups, or his Dr. Brown's bottles which we use for formula feedings. He refuses all sippy cups, Nuby sport bottles, training cups with the sippy lid... I really want him to eventually use those training cups or sport-type bottles - I'd like to wean off the bottles when we wean off the formula - but I feel like at this rate it wont happen til he's school-age!

Anyone else encounter this, and what did you do?

[nextcommercial]

When my daughter was little, they didn't even make those sucky cups. They had lids on the tupperware, or sports bottles, but not the sucky kind. (I hate those anyway)

But, since they don't really sell the old style type, and he doesn't like the newer kind, what about a coffee cup? They have the sunken lids that let some out, but he can't pour it all over his face.

Or try a disposable water bottle with the old fashion sports top that he can get a big drink out of. I wouldn't go out and spend a lot of money on reusable bottles until you know he will use them. But, if he likes it, you can check target or wherever and find some cute colorful cups or water bottles.

[Ruthla]

A few thoughts:

1) Why is this a problem? Teach him to only use cups at the table, and not toddle around with a beverage. And he does take bottles, so you do have an option for "spill free" drinks when traveling. I personally think that sippy cups are nothing more than glorified baby bottles, and the whole push to "wean kids from bottles to sippy cups" is a ploy by bottle/sippy manufacturers to sell sippy cups to families who have plenty of bottles already. It's truly NOT a problem if he's still using baby bottles until he's 2 or so, especially if those bottles only contain water (which won't promote tooth decay.)

2) He's only 9mo and will learn lots of new skills in the next few months. My oldest never drank from a sippy cup until she was about a year old, and swiped a friend's sippy cup at a playdate. Until she saw another baby using it, she couldn't figure out what to do with it. Dd2 never had that problem becuase she saw DD1 using sippies. DS was very happy to drink out of the disposable plastic water bottles I was using for myself at the time. By a year old, he could use either a sports top or a regular water bottle without spilling. I no longer use disposable water bottles, but I'm sure he would have done just as well with the glass bottles (originally holding iced tea) that I use now, if he's seen me using them all the time and copied me.

[hakeber]

You know you can take the sucking mechanism off of the sippy cup making just a slightly less spillable cup than a proper cup. Maybe he would try that?

Or recycle those coffee to go cups with the lid that has a sippy hole to avoid the over spillage of a zealous gulper.

I think it's awesome that he is taking drinks from a cup...in fact you may even want to try giving him his formula in one...just as an experiment to see how it goes. (ETA: this coming from a mom who had to give EBM in a bottle when I went back to work and who didn't see the end of bottles until ds was four and half YEARS old! ...and he still looks longingly at his sister's bottles. The sooner you can say goodbye to the bottle the better!)

[tzs]

i'd say you're lucky!
not only is there no real need for sippy cups (we drink at the table!) but now you don't have to teach one skill (sippy cup) just to teach another one later (real cup).

we started with a real cup but to make it easier you can always use shot glasses or disposable shot cups (i know, sounds weird, but they're perfect size).
somebody suggested taking the valve off regular sippy cups and then the water just drips out. i think you can buy old-school non-sucky baby cups at the dollar store.

and yeah, i think it is a sippy cup conspiracy (maybe they're teaming up with the pull-ups diapers conspiracy!) in fact, at our last WIC visit they even lectured on NOT using sippy cups and finding a more old-school option.

[Drummer's Wife]

You could definitely skip sippy cups and let him use open cups. Shot glasses are also what we used - or other small, glass cups.

(We did end up also using sippy cups at times with all four kids - but as soon as they are sitting up and eating food babies are very capable of learning to drink out of a glass. It's all we had in my Montessori infant classroom.)

[SusanaLaLoca]

Yes, off the bottles is the main goal (not right now, but at least after formula days are over).

I feel like it's a, "I want to do what the grown-ups do" thing, because he's also now refusing baby food because we all give him table food - he sits there, arms flailing, going, "oooh oooh" until we do!

I guess it's not a huge problem, but I just feel like in a few months he'll be to big to sit there and wait for mommy to put a cup up to his mouth - he'll have the ability to do it himself, but just being too spoiled to want to do it. I don't want to encourage bad habits, kwim? That is, if it is a bad habit at all...

Thanks for the tip about the coffee cups. Maybe I'll steal a few from Starbucks next time I'm in

[SusanaLaLoca]

Drummerswife - good idea on the shot glasses! maybe I'll give that a shot too!

[Drummer's Wife]

Definitely let him try it himself - just put a small amount of water and maybe have a towel handy. I promise at 9 mos most LO's have the coordination to do it - they just need practice.

Also, you can skip baby food and just give him small pieces of what you are eating and let him feed himself. It's not uncommon to dislike pureed food by a spoon; he probably sees the real food and knows it is tastier.

[Dmitrizmom]

dd2 is 9 months old and won't do a bottle or a sippy... but she will do a sports bottle like this one

[ShwarmaQueen]

There's no reason he has to drink from a sippy cup. Just offer him water from a cup or regular water bottle ever so often. DD never used sippy cups.

[syd'smom]

I think it is great! You could try a straw cup as well. We love our thermos foogo. And no need to worry about the food either - there is no need for baby food/mush. Check out baby led solids! Sounds like your ds is like my dd was - she led us to a lot of great/logical places like baby-led solids and ec! Have fun!

[SusanaLaLoca]

Originally Posted by Dmitrizmom

dd2 is 9 months old and won't do a bottle or a sippy... but she will do a sports bottle like this one

That has a built-in straw thing, right? Did he learn to use it from observing you?

[hakeber]

Originally Posted by Drummer's Wife

Definitely let him try it himself - just put a small amount of water and maybe have a towel handy. I promise at 9 mos most LO's have the coordination to do it - they just need practice.

Also, you can skip baby food and just give him small pieces of what you are eating and let him feed himself. It's not uncommon to dislike pureed food by a spoon; he probably sees the real food and knows it is tastier.

[Dmitrizmom]

Originally Posted by SusanaLaLoca

That has a built-in straw thing, right? Did he learn to use it from observing you?

We just held it up to her mouth and she sucked on it. She loves to suck on anything she can get to her mouth.

[hildare]

we don't do sippy cups either. don't know why, i just plain old don't like them. dd at 8 mos. is doing fine, we got her a lightweight plastic cup that she's learning to use.

[carmel23]

Originally Posted by hildare

we don't do sippy cups either. don't know why, i just plain old don't like them. dd at 8 mos. is doing fine, we got her a lightweight plastic cup that she's learning to use.

We never used sippy cups at the table with my big kids when they were babies, and don't plan on it with my little one. They learn to drink from straws pretty quickly, too.

[craft_media_hero]

Slide-top lid cup? Kinda like the grown-up coffee lid kind. I believe they have smaller versions for kids, like in steel so you can keep water in the car or whatever.

I think it's great that he's drinking from a cup! Skip the sippies!

[Pookietooth]

ds hated sippies too and he was fully breast fed. We did straw cups until he could drink from a regular cup.

[Rhannie]

We skipped the sippies too (skipped baby food as well). DD started out drinking independently from small bowls and matcha bowls (easy for little hands to hold and see what is in them) and then graduated to sake cups and smaller tea cups. By the time she was around a year old, she could drink from anything without assistance. When DD was around 6 months we avoided breakage by using wood and stainless steel instead of glass/ceramic. Spills can be cleaned and drinks stay at the table

If portable drinks are necessary, thermoses or lidded coffee cups work as will canteens, sports bottles etc.