Advice About Introducing Sippy Cups

I would consider skipping a sippy cup and teach him to use a straw or drink from a normal cup. Sippy cups harbor bacteria and can delay speech development if overused. Plus, it's just one more thing to wean them from. We use toss away cups with straws and if we are out, I just hold the cup with him. It's only water, so it cleans up really easy.

Try the brand called Nuby. But don't get the 97cent ones. Go for the slight more expensive ones. I had the same problem with my son for a while, but I tried these and they worked wonders. The sippy part is extremely soft like a nipple on a bottle, but it is a cup. It taught him that he needs to suck to get liquid out and it doesnt have to be a nipple for sucking to work. He can now also drink out of a straw. If this doesnt work, he may just not be thirsty enough to drink out of it. Maybe you could wait until nap time and put his formula in it and see if that entices him more. Just be patient. All children develop on thier own, and you continuing to introduce it will help. Eventually he will be comfortable enough with it to accept it. Good luck. :)

My son is about 5 months now, but my cousin tried and tried to get her daughter off a bottle for months when finally the pediatrician gave her a wonderful idea. You first have to take away the pacifier...but you have to make it interesting for him. What she told her daughter was that since she's a big girl now another baby needs her pacifier, so she put it in this little clear jar and put it on the counter and made up a story about a "fairy" or something similar to a "tooth fairy". When her daughter woke up she checked the jar and it was gone. She was so surprised and excited to see it magically disappear that my cousin used the same idea for the bottle to sippy cup. She loved it. Told her that in order for the flowers to grow that she needed to give the dirt her bottle...well my cousin planted flowers in a pot on the patio so that when her daughter saw them she said ba ba flower pretty ma ma! I don't know...it really worked for her and she hasn't complained for a bottle or pacifier since!

My older son took to sippies with no problem. The younger one, however, was just over 1 before he would take it. I would keep trying, but don't pressure too much. I tried everything with my little one, even drinking from a sippy myself (seriously!) at the table. One day, he just decided it was time. He liked the kind with the straw sticking out, but I had to take the inside straw out; he kept tipping it upside down to drink. Good luck!

As for what to do during the day, I belong to a mommy group, Mommy & Me East. They have something scheduled every day, and they have playgroups, too. The website for the group is www.mommynme.org. If you are on the west side of Vegas, there is Mommy & Me West, but I don't know their website.

Most sippy cups have a plug in them and you have to suck pretty hard to get anything out. Try taking the plug out for a few days until he understands that something is in there and try putting the plug back in. Also I am pretty sure Avent makes sippy cup trainer cup things, and I just read in a magazine that Dr. Brown makes one that is suppose to help give the bottle up completely, when your ready.
Best of luck

My son is 13 months old and has really well with the Nuby sippy cups that have the soft silicone nipple. Someone else mentioned the Dr. Brown's sippy cup; my son ahs the Dr. Brown's bottles but the sippy cup was a waste of money! It was $6.00 and the liquid pours out like crazy!! The great thing about the Nuby sippy cup is he can turn it upside down, drop it, throw it, and the juice, water, or milk doesn't go everywhere. Works really well for us.

It looks like you have plenty of advice on the sippy cup; however I'll throw in my 2 cents as well. My daughter didn't care for the ones without the handles as much. So, I had bought her these Gerber sippy cups with handles. Now she has another one with a flexible straw with no handles and uses both all the time.
As for during the day, I am also a stay at home mom of a 15 month old and when it's sunny we try and get out for a walk (stroller) and go to the park. She also loves the beach (not sure where you live). Other days we read/look at books, pass a ball back and forth, play out in the back yard, and just stay active. To help develop my daughter I say things a few times like colors or numbers just so she understands I'm not just babbling. Gook luck and just enjoy them...they grow fast.

I just asked this question before my daughter turned one. Everyone on this site gave me wonderful advice. The advice I took was that a sippy cup called NUBBY. I got it at walmart for a dollar something. Now my daughter does not even think about the bottle anymore. I got rid of all the bottles and all we use now is the NUBBY cups. They are wonderful. Good luck to you. Give them a try:)
K.

I started my son on a sippy cup at about 10 months, and I had a relatively easy time switching. I started giving him the soft ones as well, but at the same time I bought my husband and I one, and we used it without the lids at the table with him and showed him over and over again how fun it was to use. Then I left water in it and kept one around the house down to his level so that it was accessable to him anytime he wanted a drink. About 4 days later I stopped the bottle and everytime he asked or reached for it I said it was "bye-bye" and that he needed to drink from his cup, and I would again show him with mine how to use it. About 1.5 weeks after my husband and I drinking out of sippy cups he had it down pat and never wanted the bottle again. Be patient it will happen, and don't stop trying. I love now the hard playtex skinny cups with the soft plastic blockers inside, they don't leak at all and I put them into the dishwasher and they don't melt or change shape from the lid. good luck and have fun with teaching your child new things, it will happen. My next step is potty training, so the sippy cup is your first easy step. :)

My daughter is 10 months and I had the same problem with the sippy cup until I took the plug thing out and then she realized that there was liquid to drink in there (only a little spills out at a time). She uses it all the time now at meals. I think it helped that she didn't have to "suck" as the cup was so different from her bottle.

My daughter loves the outdoors, the pool and the baby swing at the park. I got a taller table like activity toy and she learned to pull herself to her feet on that. She loves to play with a big bouncy boll - we roll it back and forth. You should see about joining a play group to get him around other kids his age. I am part of the SASSY SAHM of Frnech Valley (not sure where you live) but you can look up groups in your area on meetup.com

i would slowly add them to a meal and see from there

Hi i have 2 daughters and when they wore 1 yrs old i decided to take them off the bottle. so i took all the bottles away it was hard for the first 3 days they only took sips here and there but ater 3 days they started to drink in the sippy cup. so if i was you i would hid the bottles and only show him that u only have sippy cups.

I'm a stay at home with 2 girls... so trough out the day i take them to the lake, bike rides, let them go outside to play and summer time is almost here i have paint brushes so give them a little water and let them paid the floor and they enjoy that. also crayons and paper they love that. i put on kids music and we dance and sing. And repeat everthing that u say at least twice and point at things and say the name of it.. u baby would like that... i hope this helps... good luck and hang in there.

hi N.,
our christina just turned 9 months..shes not big on sippy cups either..she actually perfers to drink out of a cup straight but I dont like it cause she drips on herself alot that way..she did seem to take to the sippy cups with the built in straw feature on the side.shes been drinking out of a straw since she was 5 months old and it must make her feel like a big girl to have the straw on her cup.if your son knows how to use a straw,it might work for him as well. good luck hun.

Hi N.,
I was wondering, does he drink from a hard bottle, a nurser (like Playtex), or does he breast feed. I ask because my son was only ever given Playtex or breast. It took him until about 15 months to figure out a hard bottle/sippy cup. however, at about 9 months he did REALY well with a straw sipper. If your son is also nursed or given a nurser bottle, a straw sipper may be easier for him. -J

There is a great book called Brain games for babies by Jackie Silberg. The book only goes up to 12 months and they might have a book out for older babies but it helped me out a lot.

Since he is 9 months i wouldn't worry about the sippy cup. My daughter did the same but she ended up getting it. We did stay away from the ones with handles she seemed to play with it more. but make sure it's easy for him to hold if it gets wet.

I dont know when your son gets his pacifer. If he has it all day i would start to limit it to only when he sleeps. The sooner the better :) hoped i helped.

My son was the same way he just wants to chew on the soft ones. I found that the disposable/ reusable first years cups are his fav. It drips slowly but doesn't spill and it's easy to suck. The ones with valves and all that are I think too hard to drink from. He hated all cups when I first gave them to him he wouldn't even take a bottle, but he really liked those cups. And nice thing is they are cheap! I see your baby still takes a pacifier, I found a teether toy designed to wean babies from the paci and my son really liked it you can find it on babycenter.com it's made by Combi and it's the stage one teether.

Hi N.-
Most of the moms have the same advice. My son did the same thing. It took him about 2 months of me giving it to him everyday, until he finally started useing it regularly. So my only advice is it hang in there and be patient. Every one is different, but eventually, they get it. And now he uses both the straw sippy cup and the regular one.

As far as our routine- we watch Seseame Street in the morning together. Then I kinda do my own thing- get ready, take a shower and them put him in the bath, so he has time to play with his toys( not like his night time bath) He will play with his toys by himself and them I will sit with him and pick up different toys and repeat what it is about 10 times and do that with a few different ones, but the same ones for a week. Now if I ask him to go get his Monkey, he will crawl and get his monkey. We do that with colors and reading. i only show him the pictures and point out the objects, Like see Elmo, ball, red ball, Elmo has the the red ball. and point as I talk. Nathan also loves being outside, and now that its warmer, we try to go for a walk and let him see the flowers, birds, what ever we see, we stop and I repeat the words and colors.

have a great day and I hope everyones thoughts help you with some new ideas!