Sippy Cups - Clarksville, TN

My daughter loves her bottles but has easily taken up using the sippy cups with the straws - I think it the nuby brand. They are spill proof and have handles on each side so they are easy for her to hold on to. Good luck!

My twins did best with the Nuby's at first because they have a soft spout that is shaped more like a nipple. From there we switched to the playtex cups with the handles and soft spouts, and now are on the ones for older babies. The soft nipples were too soft after awhile and my babies bit thru them. My babies are just now getting to the point where they will use the sippy cups with the straws. I wouldn't recommend starting with those- but it sounds like some have had good success with them. Each baby is different, and what they like best is different from baby to baby. Try one, and then get more if she does well with it. Good luck!

No easy answer on the sippy cup - everyone has thier own favorites so you will just have to try them out until she finds one she likes. As for sitting up - my son has low muscle tone and was delayed sitting on his own so the way I taught him was to sit him in the middle of my queen size bed, that way if he fell, he would not hurt himself. Once he was able to sit a little I would put my hands on mattress and push down to make the bed bounce, he would then have to learn to balance himself. He sits great now.

Another thing on the sippy cup - my Speech Therapist said that a sippy cup is just like a bottle with a little different nipple. She is having us teach our son how to use a straw. We are using an emptied and cleaned out honey bear with an aquarium tube attached to it. When we put the tube in his mouth we can puch in the bear's belly to get water in the tube and he just has to suck a little to get the reward. Do not do this until your child is over one since they can not have raw honey until then, better safe than sorry.

For a transition sippy we used the soft Nuby from Walmart. The spout is made out the same stuff as a bottle nipple but shaped like a sippy spout so they learn the different sucking motion needed. Later you can switch to a harder spout if you need. Just buy one of several different styles/brands until you find one your dd likes. She'll learn to sit well enough on her own. I never bought anything special for my boys (4yrs and 9 mths) and they both sat on their own around 6 mths. I would sometimes prop them on pillows right next to me on the floor or couch though. If your asking for helping her sit while trying the new cup- I started mine off in my lap. I'm surprised She hasn't gotten frustrated with the slow flow nipples yet. Breast-fed babies are actually used to the milk coming out fairly fast because it sprays from multiple spots. 6 mths should be old enough for fast or at least med. flow nipples. Get some and try them. If she spluttered and gags still after a few tries go back to slower ones and try again in a couple of weeks. Usuallu once they know they can get it faster they get frustrated with the slow ones.

My son uses the Playtex sippy cups and he has done great with them.

As far as nipples go, I don't know what kind of bottles you use, but we use the Playtex Drop-Ins. With those, you can either use fast, slow or variable nipples. We use the variable flow nipples so that the baby can control the flow himself.

I agree with the person before that said the baby could sit in a Boppy. My son did that until we got him the Bebe Pod (like the Bumbo).

With the nipples, buy the nuby fast flow or just sterilize a needle and poke some holes in the ones you have. The best cup for transitioning i think is the nuby softspout brand as well, they have two different kinds with a soft rubber spout like a nipple, but with a rubber straw and the other a sippy cup spout, in rubber. These are found aat walmart for like 2.oo but there are other cups that are like 8 that are meant for transitioning. Dont waste your money. Have u sat your baby up in aboppy? when mine were starting i had two boppy pillows i would stack on each other and put toys all around.
also, you could prop her up between your legs, or in the corner of the couch surrounded by pillows. hop it helps!

Hi A.,

To respond to the sitting up question, do you have a boppy? Once I was done using that for nursing, I would let my son sit up against that. Once he was sturdy and comfortable there, I put a pillow under it so it was a little higher. Right around that time, he became more confident with sitting up and it was easy to just take away the boppy and pillow and let him sit up on his own!

Hi A.... both my girls (now 2.5yrs old and the other 8months old) sat up on their own at 6.5months... just leave the baby loose a lot let her scoot and wonder and one day she'll just do it... my 8month old pulled herself to a stand 3days before her 8month ... they grow up really quick and their instincts plus your help is what will do it... crawl around with her let her see you sit... sit her up and let her learn how to get from sitting to her belly (be ready for face plants but its all part of the learning process) she may get frustrated but LET her its ok for her to get angry (you'll go through this with a lot of the milestones like walking, talking and such) sell your bumbo on craigslist or return it if you have the box and receipt thats just another invention that babies don't really need (like the diaper genie argh)... Both my girls started with the gerber soft spout that has the handles for them to hold at 6months it took them til about 8months to learn not to bite it and to just suck so it takes a bit...just give it to her to play with with maybe some water... email me if you ever want to chat...
V.

I am quite fond of the nuk learner cups. You can get them at walmart for about $6. They have a soft spout in the shape of sippy cups and a longer spout so the baby still has room for the tounge to thrust against. The recommended age for these is 6 months so you could start her on these. For her bottles, its probably OK to switch to a medium or even fast flow. With my son i think i switched around 3.5-4 months. It made a big difference in how fast the feedings went. Before they took FOREVER and after maybe 10-15 minutes. I'm not sure about the sitting up other than maybe play with her on the floor and set her in between your legs so she would have her back to your stomach. Then put some toys in front of her and let her play. Then when she get pretty good you can turn her around and play with her in front of you. Hope some of this helps!

I breastfed my first son and he didn't like sippy cups. They are very hard to get liquid out of if you ever try them. He did however like the "take and toss" kind b/c they did not have a stopper in them and getting the water out was easier. He eventually moved onto other sippy cups but he was closer to a year old.

My second son was a bottle baby. I changed his nipples somewhere around 6 months. Around 12-13 months, I started substituting one bottle with a sippy cup....he fought it, but I did not give in. Once he took that sippy cup of milk willingly I would switch another bottle meal to the sippy cup. Took about 1.5-2 months before he was all the way sippy cups. The last and hardest bottle to drop was the night time bottle.

She will sit up when she is ready. Sit on the floor with your legs spread and sit her inbetween your legs with her back toward your tummy and let her play...she will build the muscles to sit up soon!
J.

ALL 3 of my kids did great on Playtex sippy cups,they have handles, don't leak and are easy to clean. Plus they are NOT made with plastic #3,6, or 7

I found that when going to a sippy cup that the pop-up straw cups worked best for my son, he never liked sippy cups because they seemed more like a bottle because he still had to tip it up to get a drink, he learned to suck on a straw early and we went from there and there was no turning back. He loves his cup and it is so easy because I won't have to break him from it when we decide he is ready for a big boy cup. Just a thought that worked for me.

We used Avent bottles and it was easy to switch over to Avent sippy cups - the handles and mouthpieces fit the cups and bottles both and you're able to buy mouthpieces with varying amounts of holes as the child gets older.

as far as cups it is whatever she will use, we started with the nuby's with the nipple type lid on it. we used the bumbo with sitting up, but you can also use a boppy pillow around her our just towels. i never changed the nipple on my DS's bottle, he didn't seem to like it coming out any faster, he kinda got choked up a little with it. but he was off the bottle completely at 11 months.

If you are using store bought bottles there should be sippy cups by the same maker. Each of my three preferred different bottles/nipples/and sippy cups. Let her try some, she'll let you know what she likes and doesn't. Definetly try med/fast flow nipples first. To help her learn to sit up boppy pillows are great as are exersaucers (stationary walkers)
Good luck and enjoy this time while it lasts

You should be good to switch out the nipples now. If she has trouble with them wait a week and try them again. Some babies choke when they get more liquid faster some are fine. As for sitting up are you using a high chair to feed her? That would be my suggestion for getting her sitting up for using a sippy cup. If you are talking about sitting on the floor have you tried sitting her in the middle of a boppy pillow? That helps support them and catches them when they fall. She will figure it all out they all do some just take longer than others. I watch twins and they have done everything at different times. The little boy was 8 months old before he sat up he also hated the bumbo seat. His sister was 7 months when she sat up by herself but she loved the bumbo seat and sitting in the boppy pillow. The little boy on the other hand figured out his sippy cup much faster than his sister.

Hi A.. I tried several sippy cups before hitting the jackpot. NUBY's are great especially the ones with the straw-like spout. They have a similiar sucking motion as a bottle and my daughter loves them. I also tired sippy cups with a straw after some suggestions I actually read on Mammasource. Those worked great too. However, my daughter likes to bang her cup on the floor and it allowed for milk or whatever was in them to come out which is why I switched to NUBY. They advertise so spill; no so, they do spill. :) Just my 2 cents worth. Good luck!

When my daughter started sippy cups, I had to try a bunch to find one that worked, but finally we ended up with one with a softer rubber spout that was more like a bottle. It's from Nuby and I got them at Target in a two pack. We still have the others we tried and I'm sure will use them eventually, but these she has to suck from and the liquid doesn't just come out and it's a rubber spout with no stopper so she doesn't have to suck too hard. She didn't learn to use it on the first try, but you're probably doing a good thing by getting your daughter used to it slowly. As far as the sitting, I wouldn't worry too much, one day she's just going to sit up and you won't even expect it. Then you'll stress about crawling and same thing - one day they just do it by themselves! If you would like her to have a chair to sit in you can try one of the infant feeding seats that has the removeable tray that you can sit on the floor or attach to a chair. They are also great travel highchairs. We have one from The First Years and we love it. As far as the nipples, she'll let you know. It will get a bit more difficult to feed her and you'll notice that she has to try harder to get the milk out. You may find that you try switching to a higher flow nipple and it is still too fast. If so, you can wait until she's ready and try again later, or try a different kind of nipple. My daughter would only use one type and we ended up staying with medium flow until she stopped using bottles, so it's just trail and error unfortunately. Good luck!