My son is 6 1/2 months old, and at our 6 month check up, the doctor suggested that we start training our son with a sippy cup. The problem is that our son wants to chew on the cup (he is chewing on EVERYTHING), and will not attempt to suck on the cup to drink from. I know that we have just started a couple of weeks with this, but I was wondering if there is any suggestions on a great way to get my son familiar with drinking from a sippy cup. He now wants to play with his bottles and bite on the nipples so hard and then pull it out (which I'm sure feels really good to his little gums), but it's causing him to drink less of his bottle. I am hoping that he would drink more from a training cup if only I knew how to get him to drink from it. Any suggestions??
Thanks to everyone for the wonderful advice! I tried the Nuby cup and I was amazed at how he was sucking on it. Of course he still wanted to chew on it but not like the other cups. So, with a little more practice, I'm sure we'll have it mastered! Thanks so much for all of your advice!
You should try the Nuby Cups. We used them when my son was training on sippy cups and they worked great. They have a soft spout like a bottle which makes it easier for baby to drink. Walmart sells them at a very reasonable price too.
Try a nuby cup. It worked great with my lil one.
Hey K.! My youngest daughter who is now 20 months old when through this same thing when I started giving her a cup. What I did was remove the valve from her cup, so that she could see that there was something in it that tasted good. I only had to do this a couple of times and she understood what she had to do. The Nuby cups that Lynda has suggested are great but be careful with them when your son gets his teeth! I teach in a day care and see all the time where a child has chewed through the top on one of those and not only do they leak if that happens, but I have seen some children choke on the juice from them because they cannot control the flow. I have used these to teach some of the older toddlers to drink from a cup and it worked great for them until they started to chew on them.
Good Luck and I hope this helps!
When we took Julianna in for her 6 months check up her doctor to told us to try to start giving her sippy cup. at first she would just chew on the top so i tried giving it to her for two weeks with the same results. I gave up and two months later i gave it to her again and she started drinking from the cup like she been doing it for ages. Now she mostly drink from sippy cups unless i fix her a bottle. Good luck
The hard top probably feels great on his teething gums. It sounds a bit early to really worry about the sippy cup, generally these are introduced closer to 12 months and some introduce around 9 months. I will just give him a bit and let him play with the cup, he may chew on it for a while, but eventually he will learn that there is something in it and he needs to suck to get it out and he will adjust. It sounds as if your doctor is just trying to get him used to it so that by the time he is 12 months he will be off the bottle and not trying to start on the sippy. Good luck to you.
I'm glad I read this cause I might use those Nuby cups on my son later down the road, he's 7 months today! But my question is this....why the rush to put him on a sippy cup? At this age they are still trying to figure out how to hold the bottle by themselves. I know they say now days you should only give them juice in a sippy but I don't see the connection between the whole juice, bottle and sippy cup. Maybe my age and having a daughter that is 6 yrs old has me a little old school but I didn't start giving her a sippy till she was 10/11 months old and then when she got closer to turning 1yr I just stopped giving her a bottle and she had no problems switching over to a sippy. She even stop the binki a month later on her own too. And I'll probably do the same thing with my son when he gets older. I know all kids are different but that is just my experience.
S.
I would skip the sippy cup and let him drink from a real cup, with your help of course. He will get the idea that when you tip it you drink. Then you can reintroduce the sippy cup if you want. Problem with that, you have to wean him off a sippy cup evenutally too!
you can get the cups that are harder for him to chew on. I took the spill proof stopper out of the cup at first so that my son would know there is juice coming out. Then he learned to suck and I put the stopper back in. He chewed on the cup a little but learned to drink from them. He was breastfed so he didnt have a bottle so I cant help you with that one. Hope this helps. :)
Hi K.,
Don't worry, he is getting more teeth in. If you can cool off a teething ring prior to him using the sipping cup. His gums will not be so sensitive and he will begin to drink the from the cup. Also start winging him off the bottle. The chewing of the rubber isn't good for his digestion system. Only give him a bottle at night. He will get accustom using the cup. Good Luck and Happy Thanksgiving.
My daughter did the same thing at 6 months. I bought her nuby cups with a soft spout. She has been on those since she was 6 months so I don't have to worry about weaning her off the bottle.
We are in the process of transitioning also and we are using the following sippy.
http://www.nuby.platformtwo.com/index.php?option=com_cont...
I was having the same problem as you, but it got much better when I started using the nuby cup. The teachers at my sons daycare said that these are the best for transitioning. I am doing two bottles during the day (breastfeed at home) and then let him have about 2 or 3 ounces around lunch as a "snack". Once he is proficient with the 2 to 3 ounces I will move the bottles over.
Hope that helps!
Hi. My son took a long time before he gave up his bottles... probably he did after his 1st B-day. I tried to give him a sippy cup here and there, but he just refused to take it. So, I tried to find the reasons why he had to give up the bottles so soon through the internet. I was thinking that maybe it is bad for his teeth or something like that. However, I could not find any articles confirming my suspicion. So I did not try harder to push him a sippy cup. I thought nutrition is more important than anything else for that age. Finally, my son gave up the bottles and amazingly started to use a regular cup (skipped a sippy cup stage!). Anyway, your son will take the next step whenever he is ready. Don't be discurrage just because his doc suggested. Every baby is different and special!
kim
My little one did the same thing. But he'll start when he's ready. Maybe it's too soon for him. I know that we tried he didn't want to, so we left it alone. By the time he was 12 months he was totally on it. I took away the bottle at age 12 while he was drinking out of the siipy cup at age 11 months. He was doing both that way the transition wasn't that bad. Today he's 17 mos. and there is NO bottle(ever!!) He drinks out of the sippy cup at bed time and in the morning. During the day he drinks out of a small cup. Has been doing so for at least 2 months. Thanks to day care. He's even eating with a spoon already. I'm sorry I guess I'm a bit excited about all of his progresses.
