Seeking Advice on Best First Time Sippy Cup

Look in Montessori catalogs and order him a tiny cup to actually drink from without a top. It is sooo much better for oral motor development and vision to converge the eyes while drinking and giving him good oral motor for speech.

I started out with the Gerber NUK sippy cups. The spout top is very similar to a latex bottle nipple. I didn't have any problems with it. After a while, we moved to the Playtex sippy cups. Don't get discouraged if he isn't drinking a lot from the sippy cup at first. It takes practice and patience.

I've heard about teaching to drink out of a straw, but I've never really tried it with my daughter.

Nuby has a great one that's soft enough for them to get used to. You can get them at wal-mart, target, ..

Teaching him to drink from a straw and buying any kind with the pop-up straw is best. I keep a couple of straws in my purse (and diaper bag when I still had one) so that anywhere I go I know I can pop a straw into any cup and give him something to drink. I remember the nightmare of my first 2 kids who only drank out of sippy cups and I had to always remember to bring one with me everywhere we went.

We used the 2 handled playtex ones. We tried the Nuk ones but our son liked to bite on them (esp when teething), so that wasn't helping the already leaking on. He was about 9mo when we started introducing the sippy cup. With the 2handles, he was able to hold it easily. He was breastfed and even when he did use a bottle (when I worked) I don't think he ever really held it on his own. The other good things about the handles was it was easier with small hands to hold. Good luck!

Good for you to start practicing! we had a great transition to the sippy cup when we switched to milk at a year. We switched both at the same time and it must have been the novelty of it that helped make the switch. therefore i would suggest to feed anything but formula in the sippy cup so that will help with the formula to milk transition too. we started with the smaller and shorter sippy cups (nuk) becuase the contents were lighter and it was easier for drinking (didn't have to tip her head back too far). we moved to the hard spout later on once my daughter figured out how to invert the plastic spout and dump the contents everywhere LOL!

i highly recommend the use of a straw because it makes it much easier when you are out and about to pop a straw in a drink. it takes a while but this is a great age to start. good luck!

There should be a sippy cup swap. I have bought so many different ones trying to figure out what will work for my daughter. They are sooo expensive!

At first she like the nuk training cups but then I realized she was really only chewing on it and couldn't get anything out of the cup. We now use the Gerber Graduates 6 oz cups (my daughter is also 10 months) and the Gerber insulated. The insulated ones are heavier so she can't hold them as well on her own, she drops it and gets upset. I also had to take the spill proof piece out of the cups, my daughter is very small for her age and I'm not sure if that was the problem but she couldn't/wouldn't drink out of the cup at all, I took out the spill proof piece and gave it to her she drank a whole bottles worth of formula out of the cup no problem.

Those are what works for us and you can get coupons if you sign up on Gerber online. We get the coupons every month which is helpful.

We started on Gerber cups with 1 handle. Keep in mind to purchase cups that are PBA free. I also recommend using the brushes for the bottles - the small one - to clean the mouth piece. Goodluck. There are so many, u just have to see what your child likes.

My son is REALLY good at drinking from a straw. Took a bit for him to get the hang of a sippy - we got the take and toss ones because that way if we loose them they weren't that expense. Anyway, I gave him a drink from my straw at a restaurant the other day and he got it right away. I've seen some toddler cups with an attached straw.

Stay away from playtex, those leak, slowly.
Look for one made in any country but china, you
never know if it has lead in it.

I would train my little one to drink from it and then put it
on the table or a kids table and do not allow them
to carry it around, you will get spots on your carpet.

Good luck and Merry Christmas.

What works for one, doesn't work for others. I like the Playtex sippy cups, as I've found that Gerber tends to leak. It's really a matter of preference and trial and error. Buy one cup and see how it goes. You really only need one cup anyway to start with. Don't worry so much about the recommended ages...he'll figure out how to suck. They all do.

Hi J. - I originally started my daughter on the Avent trainer cups but they were very large for her little hands. Another mom suggested the Take and Toss 4 oz cups. They worked just great. My daughter was drinking from a cup full time by 11 months and now at 20 months we still use them (larger size). They are very inexpensive and dishwasher safe. The only issue is that they do leak if turned upside down for a few seconds. They don't spill if dropped, thrown from the highchair or tipped over. I also use the Playtex Insulator twist and click cups when my daughter will be walking around with water or juice. They trully don't leak and she loves them (started using around 15 months). Hope this helps.

Plastic contains bad chemicals for your kid!
Try a Kleen Kantine. They are steel. Or try a Sigg. Or skip sippys alltogether.

It's all a matter of personal choice, and sometimes the one to make that choice is the child! My experiance, don't buy more than one of any kind. Buy one, try it out, if he takes to it great, buy more, if not, try a different one. I wouldn't be in much of a rush for a month more, and yes one month can make a big difference.

PS when trying it out, make sure you put something he really likes in there, then you will know if it's the cup or not. Try not to get too discouraged if you go through a few. My daughter would only take the cups with a straw, my grandson would only take the Nuby cups from Wal-Mart, and another granddaughter would only take Gerber cups.