How Do I Get My 10 Month Old to Drink from a Sippy Cup?

C.,
Sounds like she might not be ready for the sippy cup yet. You have 2 whole months to work on this. I would recommend you stop trying so hard for now. I know with my son, the more I want him to do something, the less likely it is to happen. Hang in there. She may be more likely to take the sippy cup at daycare than at home as she will want to do what the other kids are doing.

C.,
I've been having the same problem with my 9 month old son. It seemed the only thing he wanted to do with it was chew on the spout (he's also teething). I tried the "Nuby" cup from Walmart that has the soft spout. It has worked wonderfully because even if he chews on it, he still gets some liquid. He has become more interested in it, loves it to death now, and actually drank a whole cup of apple juice today for the first time. It costs less than $2. I hope it would work for you. Good luck.

I had the same problem with my son William. Try sippy cups with straws. If that does not work put it off for a couple of days and then try again. You may not be able to fully wean her off the bottle by 12 months. Forcing the issue only makes it worse. Try to make it a fun choice for her by letting her pick what cup she wants at the store.

Dear C. L. When my children were small I just put them on a reg lure drinking cup. It takes a little doing but works just find.
I hope this helps. C.

I was on the WIC program when my kids were little and they suggested to just skip the 'skippy' part and go to a cup. So I would say loose the lid. My kids were starting to drink tiny bits from a cup as young as 6 months (yes, I was holding the cup and watching to make sure that it was just the right amount). By a year, they were almost independent at it. And then I never had to worry about the weaning from a sippy cup! (After they had learned to drink from a normal cup I did occasionally use a sippy cup if spills were an issue.)

Probably not ready yet, the one year mark doesn't work for all kids, keep offering it once or twice a day but don't force the issue, when the baby is ready they will figure out how to work them, my kids would figure them out between 11 months and 14 months at the latest, there is no reason to stress you or the baby out over sippy cups, the reality is that they are just a different form of bottle, and can be as bad as a bottle if not worse, our DR and Dentist told me this.... unless the cup is going to only be used for meals and drinks during the day and not at nap and bedtimes then there is no real reason to force the issue, the main reason to remove a child from the bottle at a year is to prevent tooth decay, but a sippy cause allows the same damage to be done, if not more so because the sippy cup "nipple" doesn't sit as far back in the throat, and then they advised proper oral care. I don't know if this helped but good luck!

We had a similar issue and ended up getting about four different types of sippy cups. In the end, she had one that had a soft spout (unfortunately I can't remember the brand) and that worked. Also, on the harder topped cups, we tried taking the little plastic thing out of the inside of the top. This meant it spilled easily but she also didn't have to work as hard to get the drink out and that seemed to ease her into it. Good luck.

I had some luck with the Nuk brand of transition sippy cups. These have a rubber nipple much like a bottle, but are shaped like a sippy. We just kept offering those first and my daughter started using them more and more often. She still insisted on a bottle first thing in the morning and at night. After a few months I got rid of the bottles and bought regular sippy cups. THEN she only wanted the Nuk in the morning and at night. We are now on regular sippy cups. This whole transition took about 5 months.

She may not be ready yet. Don't give up, try to give it to her the same time every day (such as starting her meal with it). Try it a couple times then put it away without making a big deal of it. Eventually she will surprise you and want to drink out of it. Consistency is key just as introducing new foods to your baby. It can take up to 20 times for a baby to like certain foods. Good luck!

I tried multiple cups and drinks with my son with no luck. At his one year birthday party his friend had a sippy cup with the straw. His mother said she had bought it the day before and he loved it. I said what the heck I'll give it a try. He caught on right away and loves it. I have went back to the other sippy cups mentioned above and he still won't take them. I think the straw is easier. We still do a few bottles but he uses his sippy cup all day long and loves it. Give them a try if you haven't. Maybe you will be as lucky as we were.

Give it time. Try Nuby sippy bottles. Try Avent bottles. The nipple transitions into a sippy. Try cups with a straw. Give lots of positive reinforcement. Have her pick out a sippy cup at the store.

Try taking the stopper our until she gets the idea and then put it back in. This worked with my oldest.

I have a 15 month old still in love with his bottle,so he gets one or two a day. He never did well with sippy cups, but caught onto the straw concept VERY fast. So we buy the cups with the straws and love them. The nubies are good too.

Hi-All three of my children did the same thing-pretty much only played with the sippy cups. They all began drinking out of a sippy cup after the breast was taken away, because it was their only choice. Once it was decided that they were to be weaned it was a really easy process. And they did not fight the sippy cups. I did start with the plug out so that the liquid would drip out instead of needing to be sucked out, but that did not last long and soon they were on the sippy cup.
Good luck.

You are getting a ton of responses and I didn't want to read all the way through everyone elses response so I am going to put in my 2 cents and hope i am not repeating someone else. What we did that worked great on our kids is we started out with water and since the days are getting hotter you cant go wrong with water. We took the stopper out totally so if the kids put the spout in their mouth something came out. It made a mess but it was only water so it never concerned me that it was spilling. or try to make a smoothie something that is a little thicker and put her in a high chair where the mess is easier to clean up and let her go to town on it. It didn't take too long without the stopper because they realized that stuff was in there and they would try to just tip it and eventually sucked it out.

Try a cup with a straw instead. My son took to those much easier than a sippy for whatever reason. The "take n toss" kind are great, super cheap and can be used over and over and over. Plus they are no spill for the most part.

At walmart there are transitional bottles that I used for my dd, by the time she was 13 months she forgot about the bottles and transition bottles and went straight into sippy cups. The transitions had a straw like top by NUBY. The cupsI used for her had a straw with it and she loved them. It is common for infants to gnaw on the nipples of them because of there teething. I hope this helps and gl.

Hey C.!

I always started my babies at about 6 months when I started the solid food and they figure it out pretty quick, because I used the Avent soft spout sippy cup. I used only water at first and then I started using a little juice in it. I use like 25% juice to 75% water. They chew on it and the liquid comes right out. If it is a little sweet for them they want a little more and after awhile they just figure out that they need to suck, like on a bottle or a breast to get out what they need. My baby is now almost a year old and he is taking to the hard topped sippy cups pretty well, so we are going to get away from the soft top. He likes to play the uh-oh game where he throws it on the floor and says uh-oh and the juice comes out on the floor when it hits and if it sits there for any amount of time, it will leak! Good Luck, I hope that helps a little!

I finally had to cold turkey it. I also bought el-cheap-o sippy cups, the disposable ones? Playtes or something like that. They're the ones that are orange, red, yello, purple, green and blue and have corresponding lids. Winco, Walmart, Target...,anywhwere has them. She really does well on them. They don't leek (much)and don't have a "sippy" element if that makes any sense.

Try the Nuby brand with the soft, silicone nipple. It still took my kid until he was 12 months to really drink out of a sippy cup, but this was the only brand that worked. Also, try starting your baby on a small regular cup (plastic). Show her how to hold it and bring it to her mouth. My son was a pro with a regular cup by 12 months!

I know you have gotten several responses about sippy cups and I feel your pain. When my (now 3 year old)daughter was in childcare they took the bottle away from her at 12 months. No exceptions. They started all their 9 month olds with a shot glass. They never used sippy cups. I only use them when we go to the store or away from the house. My now 2 year old never used sippy cup (to learn).She went straight from bottle(breast)to cup. You may also try putting more water than formula/milk in the bottle. She may not like it as much as the full amount in a cup/shot glass. I know it may sound harsh for a childcare center to do such things but they do it all the time and we parents just coddle our kids too much. They become independant sooner than we think.

Why are you seeming to rush your child into this? I think you need to relax, your daughter will learn and it will come naturally - I don't think my daughter used one til she was 1 and no difficulty when she started. Your daughter obviously is curious and that is great. I would suggest the sippy cups with handles, and there are ones that are 1/2 the size of the regular ones - lighter to hold up. I would keep her water in one and keep it available to her - she can test it as much as she wants and when she figures it out she will not want the bottles anymore. My daughter was pretty much overnight from bottles to sippy cups as soon as SHE figured out how they worked. As much as you want her to use them, she has to do it on her own. Now that my daughter is three she has graduated to cups without lids, again, they have been around but she decided when she was ready. Good luck!

I wouldn't stress out too much about having her off the bottle by a certain age. Sometimes kids need the comfort of the bottle or breast and you will stress yourself out trying to force her onto the juice cup. Keep offereing it to her every now and then and when she is ready she will show you. One thought is that you might get the juice cups with the straw. My one year old really likes those.
Just don't take away the bottle all of a sudden with a child that young, wean her off it gradually. Try sippie cups just at meals maybe to start. Good luck.

They have the sippy cups that have a soft tip that helps the kids drink from. That is what I used for my son who is now 4 yars old. We have all kinds of sippy cups that I used. We also had one cup that had the straw in it. Good luck I hope you can find something that works for her.

We had to take the valve out of the cup at the beginning. My son was a breast baby only and not used to anything else. It seems like he wasn't getting enough out of the sippy cup and would get frustrated. Once we took out the valve, he got water right away and could suck easier. He was over one before he really took to it.

My daughter is 10 months old also and will also cry and fuss until I give her a bottle - but only when she's super hungry. If I give her the sippy in between when she's not starving, but not full either, she usually finishes whatever I put in there. I've given her formula a couple of times, but she didn't drink that nearly as well as juice or water. I think it was because she's used to getting the formula from a bottle. She does pretty well with the sippy now, but still drinks her formula meals from a bottle. My other kids went cold turkey at 1 and I also switched from formula to whole milk at that time, so they learned very quickly that if they didn't drink from the sippy, they weren't going to get any milk. They have always used them pretty well. Good luck

We use the Avent sippy cups and I would just put water in them (I didn't want to clean fermented juice or curdled milk)and I just made sure to leave the sippy cup where my kids could get to it, and eventually they just figured it out and the sippy cup was the new best friend. :)

if you haven't tried it yet try the Nuk sippy cups that have a soft nipple lid. It is still spill proof and if they chew on the nipple they get something out of the cup! It's been working for my daughter and the soft nipple imitates the feel of a bottle... best of luck!

I think the main reason our 10 month old likes her sippy cup is because her dad always drinks out of either a water filled plastic bottle or a coffee filled travel mug, both of which look like an adult version of the sippy cup! He has given her tiny sips of water since she was a couple months old and so when the time came to have her own, she liked it. It might work if she sees you drinking from something like that, especially since she likes to drink from your regular cup, which our daughter also likes to do. We don't really believe in putting sweet stuff in there to get her to like it, although I know other people do, but that's just us.
Oh - and at first we just took out the little plastic regulators so that the formula pretty much just dumped out, which was messy, until she got the hang of it and then we put them back in so she had to try harder and actually suck to get it out!

i had the same problem with my lazy baby...I suggest that you find a sippy cup that has a soft top. Then instead of the first bottle in the morning, cuddle the baby with the first morning sippy cup with a soft top. Babies are so hungry in the morning they don't care how they have their morning milk, AND that soft top feels like their nipples from their bottles. Then in the morning with her cereal, give her a sippy cup and not a bottle. Do that all week, but let her have her bottle in the afternoon and evening. On the 2nd week use the sippy cup in the morning like you have been doing, and make sure day care uses it into the afternoon, and then in the evening when you are home use a bottle...and over the next 2 weeks cut down her bottle time. Our baby was SOOOO stubborn we went through a cycle of this twice, but it was the only thing that worked. Walmart has the VERY soft top sippy cups for 1.99. Try those and we will try it.

I have 3 kids & 2 of them figured out the sippy thing right away & 1 of them had trouble. I breastfed her for a year, but started weaning at 11 months. I'm sure that this same method would work for bottles. Each week I would drop one feeding from the breast at I would give her a sippy instead. She may or may not get much from it, but I let her have it for a while anyway. I was concerned and talked to my pediatrician. He said that when she felt like she needed the liquid, it would motivate her to figure it out. He was right. I just stayed on that plan & replaced one feeding a week with a sippy until that was all I ever gave her. Once she realized it was the only way she was getting what she wanted, she figured it out really quickly. Once she took that first suck & got something out of it, it was never a problem again. By the time she was 1, she was using a sippy and nothing else. Good luck!

I didn't read everyone else's responses but thought I would add my 2 cents. I started my daughter with a straw cup and she got that much easier than a sippy. I captured some water in the straw and then dripped it into her mouth so she had figured out that if she sucked, she would get more. Then I slowly transitioned her to sippy cups.

Good Luck!

I had the same problem with my 12mo old at the time. I just bought the playtex straw sippy cups - they are great and she loves them!!! She drinks every drink she has now from a strew sippy cup. Even now (at 17mo's) she doesn't really like the sippy cups without the straw.

Try it - I think it will work for you.

Good luck!!!

I haven't read any responses since there are so many, but with my first I used a sippy cup but they are hard to teach so with my second he didn't get the sippy right away I tried a straw and he drank from it the first time. So my vote would be to try a straw cup!

Hi C.,
She just may not be ready for it yet. Also be careful using juice as she may want only that in the cup, juice is one of the huge causes of cavities in young kids.
Good luck,
SarahMM

Our little guy did this to us. It took about $100 in rejected cups to find something he liked. He finally settled on the Avent transition cups and the Nuby fat, short cups with handles. After that he started the Nubys with the straw and then open cups. He also uses regular straws now. He thing seemed to be ease of getting the drink out without being flooded, and having a nice handle. GL! I know it's frustrating. She'll get it, though.

You can always try taking the valve out of the cup if it has one. That might help.

Lay her down in her crib with it when she wakes from a nap, it's easier for them to learn when they don't have to hold it tipped up.

I had a similar struggle when my daughter was around 10 months old. The sippy cup that she finally took to was the kind with the straw. I went off a recommendation for the Parents Choice cups at WalMart and they really clicked for her. I hope maybe this style will work for your daughter too. I guess I wouldn't be surprised if she took to it quicker at daycare than home. My daughter liked the Dixie cups when she started daycare at 17 months and that seemed to really erase any memories of the bottle. Good luck to you.

I have had great luck with Nuby's. They have a soft nipple on them and make it easier for them to get the liquid out. I know you have had many responses on this topic, but I wanted to tell you about this one. At my daughters 1 year check the doctor wanted her off the bottle as well so it is perfectly normal to get her off of it now. I also did not give her an option which you may have to go to. She will drink from it when there is not another option around. Just an idea! Good Luck...