Advice on How to Get 9 Month Old to Drink from Sippy Cup

He's 9 mo, let him be a baby. We had no sippy cup when mine were little, and I loved holding them and giving them a bottle. Soon, they will do everything! And you will wonder where baby went, that precious first year. You use the sippy cup and show him, and when he is ready, he will reach for it. Don't stress, doctors tell you things, they are not at home raising babies!

1 mom found this helpful

I remember thinking, there is no way my son is going to figure this out! But persistence did it. I also removed the valve in the cup (we had gerber sippies) at first just so he would figure out that there was something in the cup. He mostly just wanted to chew on the cup. One day it was like the light bulb turned on and he figured out how to tip the cup up to get the liquid. I think you are okay not to worry too much about it yet. Just keep offering it and one day he will figure it out. I don't remember the exact age my son figured it out, but it was maybe a month or two after the age of your baby. Also, I never tried any different brands of cup. I just kept persisting with the first one I bought, but I know of moms who swear by a certain type of cup, so there may be one that works better for you than others. But it sounds like since you have already tried different brands, the problem may just be that it hasn't clicked for your baby yet. Don't worry, it will soon!

Try the nubi ones with the super soft silicone tops. Thats the only thing I have been able to get my 11 month old to drink from. Plus there are no valves or little parts to mess with so its super easy.

Try a sippy cup with a straw, my two figured out the straw before a sippy. ( :

I had to train all the kids in my days care from bottles to sippy cups. If they are being stubborn, so not offer them the bottle at all. Only the sippy up. On one child I even offered it to them with out the plastic insert so it would flow out easy and make them more likely to use it. It made a mess, but they got the hand of it.

My 15 month old baby has been on a sippy cup since 9 months. They are too small at that age to use a straw. My son didn't use a straw until 12 months. They can't suck that hard yet. I tried every sippy cup on the market to get him to drink. I had countless moms tell me to use the Take and Toss sippy cups. They are available at Babies R Us, Wal Mart, Target, etc. They are cheap. The best part is that they are so easy to suck from. I have tried drinking from it and you barely have to suck to get anything out. I would try the thing that the baby is used to drinking most when first trying it. That way, they taste something familiar when they suck. The cups come in small ones and toddler size ones. I would buy the small size for a baby. My 15 month old is still using the small ones. Good luck! I know how hard this is...

Hi~
Have you tried to simply let him take a sip from a regular cup? Can he use a straw? The easiest way to teach the use of a straw is to get a straw full of liquid (hold your finger over the top) and let him have the drop from the lower end. If it's something he likes, he'll probably automatically give a little suck and suck the liquid out of the straw (it's also good that it doesn't contain enough liquid to choke a baby). If this works, then just put the straw back into the cup and let him suck the CORRECT end of it! You might try also giving a sip from a sippy cup with the rubber stoppers removed so he'll actually GET a taste of whatever it contains, for starters. I don't know that it's a rule written anywhere that kids must learn to use sippy cups. In fact, I've read on here (MamaSource) that some daycares require that they NOT use them past certain ages (like 3 or something)! I don't think I used sippy cups with my 2 older kids (now 29 and 31 -- and if I did, it was the old kind without the rubber stoppers), and they're fairly well-adjusted adults! LOL

Wean them from the bottle at THEIR first sign of readiness (only give one when they actually indicate that they want it), and ONLY let them have a bottle if they'll sit/lay down and drink it. Never let them start carrying it around WITH them, or you'll have a harder time weaning). I breastfed, and first (girl) quit w/o any fuss at 1 yr. Second (boy) WOULD NOT give it up til around 17 mo., then it was easy. They're all different and no 'hard and fast' rules work universally w/all kids.

I'd suggest just making a sippy cup available to him throughout the day. Also, when you are playing outside or in the kitchen where a spill is easy to clean up, I'd also introduce a real cup. Give him the opportunity to use both types of cups right now. That way, as he gets the handle of them, he can use the real cups at meal times and the sippy cups in the car or areas of the house where you don't want water spilled all over the floor all the time (and at other inappropriate places for constant spills, like a friends house, etc...) Don't make a big deal out of it, try and keep it fun and keep it available and he'll learn to use them in his own time. Truly, he will :)
Good luck and have fun!

If you havent tried them, try the Nuby sippy cups. They have a silicon nipple just like a bottle. My daughters never fliched!

Good Luck,
S.

My daughter started on a sippy cup at around 6 mos. She saw another child drinking it, and took a drink. I tried the sippy cup and she refused to drink out of it. So we stuck with the straw cup (no valves) until she was able to switch to a different cup. Good Luck!

My kids never got the hang of the sippy cup, so I went straight to the straw, my pediatrician said it is much better on their teeth than the sippy cup. Good luck. He'll figure it out soon enough!

A. B

We had trouble with that as well. But we just kept offering it up as a choice and finally he took to it. He did have trouble understanding that he had to turn the cup up and suck. We had to show him ourselves and sort of walk him through it a few hundred times(lol). So we would fill it full of water form him. He now drinks tons of water... by the way, he's 14 months old at this time. Patience, as always, seems to be the key to it all. Good luck.

It looks like you have tons of advice!
I'll add that your best bet is to try a straw. It worked great with my DD two years ago after countless sippy cups.
I did the same thing with DS at 6 months. It took him a couple of days and he was using it like a pro.
Best of luck!

Now is the time to expose your little one to sippy cups. Let him/her explore it. And be very patient; don't expect them to be drinking from it for at least another 3 months. Both my boys started using sippy cups at about a year old. My 16-month old still has a bottle first thing in the morning. Also, I recommend getting small sippy cups with handles to start with.

Try NUBY brand. They have a great selection of bottles and sippy cups. Many of the their products have a nice soft silicone straw/sipper. My daughter preferred this brand above any other. Plus, we liked that this brand has less parts, was easier to clean, offered a great variety of products in great colors, and was more durable. I would consider purchasing addition replacement straws/sipper. I know once my child's teeth started coming in, chewing on the straw device felt really good, and eventually a hole was created. Replacements aren't to expensive, and make it so that you don't have to buy a whole new cup. I highly recommend this brand.

Check out some of what they offer here: http://www.nuby.com/Nuby.aspx

J.,

I have a 10 month old son who is not only breast fed but uses a bottle as well as sippy cups. I have been giving him a sippy cup with water (more recently formula) at each meal for months. Every time I gave him one he'd just use it as a teething tool. I never thought he'd use it then one day he put it in his mouth and actually started drinking from it. I tried three different types of cups and he's been using all three without any problems. Be patient with him and work with him on how to use it. Don't get frustrated, in time ... when he's ready, he'll use the cup.

Good luck.

T.

When my own kids were young-long ago- we had cups with handles. When I worked in daycare most of the kids had cups with no spill lids and were skinny in the center with the cup also having texture. At the center most of the kids learned through seeing the others use them. Kids learn by example, so mayber if you can get your son around other kids that he can mimic, or use the cup yourself and he can mimic how you use it. Good Luck!

I did the straw cups after trying for about 3 months with no success on the sippy cup. I first took the straw with water in it and put my finger over the end and put it in his mouth. I let him suck the water out and he was excited by it, so I got him some straw cups and he got it right away. I love the Munchkin brand cups (something like good grips or mighty grips)- easy to hold, easy to clean, very little leaking, no valves, and BPA-free. I get them at Target or Walmart. I think mine wouldn't do the sippy cup you have to tip up b/c he was primarily breastfed with very few bottles. And I also use a straw pretty frequently, so he was able to copy me more easily.

Hi! Don't worry too much, he will drink from a cup. My son just turned 1, I tried around 9 months but he was not interested, then I just waited and tried again at 11 months, and he was interested. What I do is take the stopper out of the cup, this makes it easier for the juice to come out, it is hard for them to suck that hard at first and they don't understand how it works, it is different than a bottle. So take the stopper out and let him see that juice comes out of there, after some time, he will get used to drinking from it and you can put the stopper back in. Also try putting in the cup whatever is his favorite thing to drink.

Hope this helps.

All children are different. My oldest trained himself to a sippy cup when he had an ear infection that made sucking painful. I had already introduced him to the sippy cup at 7 months. But at 9, he refused the bottle and would only drink from a cup. My other two, I really don't remember, yet they are youngest. But I tried many, many cups. Most of them that are spill proof, are very hard to drink from. I would remove the valve to help. Offer the sippy cup at meals instead of a bottle. I found that the old fashioned sippy cups were the best. They have a primary color cup and a milky colored simple lid that only has a spout. If they are having trouble drinking from it due to the suction, you can poke a hole or two in the lid opposite from the spout to allow air in while they are drinking. I always hated the packages with straws, like the juice boxes and bags. Because if you or the child squeeze it even slightly, the drink squirts out of the straw and all over everything. Then there is a big mess to clean. Plus most of those drinks are loaded with sugar, except for the 100% juice boxes. But that still doesn't help you getting them to drink milk from it. After all, they shouldn't be drinking more than 4 or 6 ounces of juice per day. Juice is loaded with natural sugar and has citric acid that can upset their stomach. That is why many use a gentle juice like White Grape and/or dilute it. For those reasons, I would not recommend the juice boxes for that age.

I took the stopper out of my daughters cup so the liquid ran freely from it and she was able to get it easily...sometimes it's a little harder to suck from them versus a bottle. It can make quite a mess if it's left tipped over- but as long as you keep him in his highchair or watch him- you'll be good to go.

The only cup that would work for my child at first were sippy cups from Nuby. 4 years ago they were hard to find but they had them at Walmart. The Nuby cup sippy top is very different - if you squeeze it open the liquid comes out - it does not require the amount of suck/pull as traditional sippy cups. Hope this helps!

dont offer the bottle feed him his 3 reg meals and offer the drink AFTER. he will get the hang of it. only give him his bottle after he has eaten some and had some to drink from a sippy

J....don't sweat it! My children did not lose the bottle until after they were 1yr old. And my son kept his until almost 2yr. I started with milk, and since they change to whole milk at 1, it's much easier. I even kept the night time bottle for awhile with water, no milk, but eventually the only way to get rid of the bottle is to ACTUALLY get rid of the bottle! Give them away, box them up for the next child or whatever, but get them out of sight and out of reach. You'll have a couple of nights of screaming himself to sleep but you'll survive, just never give in! I do think it's too soon, right now. Doctors always have different opinions about things...I'm a nurse and I even have been taught what "not to do" and "what to do" but my most intelligent advice has been from my mother and mother-in-law. After all, they've done it 3 and 5 times! Good luck and hope this helps!

I started offering sippy cups to my son at about 10 months. It just takes some children longer to accept the cup as opposed to the bottle. Just be patient and keep offering it to him. He's still just a baby.

Hello J.,

Please make sure you make a good transition to the sippy cup. My grandma/aunt keep my daughter while we work. So at her babysitter she got change from the bottle to sippy cup before she turn one year old. Good luck with your nine month old. I was glad they did that also. But when it came time to give up the sippy cup to a child cup she did.
BE BLESSED
C. AUTRY

We used the Gerber NUK bottles, so when we transitioned to the sippy cup, their first sippy cup has a spout that is shaped and textured like a nipple. We didn't really have much difficulty, after that. I hope that helps, good luck!

Don't use a sippy cup. I started my kids on regular cups at this age. I started them on "cups" using the bottle caps. I would put a small amount of water in the cap and give it to them while sitting in their highchair. By the time they were 1 both my kids were drinking from cups. I used sippy cups when they weren't in their highchair, but that was after they already knew the concept of a cup. My sister-in-law also told me (and I followed her advice because she had 3 kids before I had mine) to make sure they could drink from a straw before taking them off the bottle so if you are out in public without a bottle they could still drink from your cup.

Hey there. I started my son on a sippy around 8-9 months. He enjoyed playing with it and holding it moreso than drinking from it... although he took sips from time to time. I offered it to him every day and he got better with time. Personally, I don't feel that there should be a rush, since your little one is still a baby. Just keep making it available to him (while showing him what to do with it) and he'll learn in plenty of time. Before my son's first birthday he was sippy pro and we never looked back. Good luck.

My son was using only a sippy cup at 8 months. As soon as he started getting teeth- we switched to sippy cups, because he was cutting through the ends of the bottles and then throwing them across the room - getting milk everywhere, so we switched to sippy cups to not have a mess in the room 3 or 4 times a day.

When we did the switch we used the Nuby Sippy cups - we got them from Wal-mart, I dont know if they sell them elsewhere. These seemed to help him transition into the cup very well, because the top is very close to a nipple on a bottle. Then about 2 days of giving him the cup once in a while - we only gave him the cups, and he did just fine.

Some Sippy Cups are made with a softer place to suck much like a bottle nipple and they have to suck to get the juice out, have you tried this kind? I don't know much more to suggest on that except keep trying. But I do know how to get them to suck thru a straw~ you get a juice box and put the straw in their mouth and then gently squeeze the juice box to make fluid come up the straw, they will then start sucking it because they want the juice, maybe this would help to use the kool-aid or mondo juices (they don't have a straw) just put them in there mouth and squeeze a little and this may help with them getting use to a sippy, too.
A.
Stayin Home and Lovin It
Health and Wellness Educator

We actually started our guy on a straw and it worked from day 1!
Using a juice box, put the straw in his mouth and then squeeze the box a bit so it comes out for him. Do that a few times and he should be sipping in no time.

I have to admit - we started at 12 months, and now at 18 months we are still on a straw. No sippy cup. It has its positives and negatives, but I don't mind.

I started giving an empty sippy cup to my daughter to let her play with it (she was a little younger than your son). Then when I wanted her to drink out of it I would wait until she had already eaten so that she didn't get frustrated as quickly while trying to drink out of it. After a little while she got her formula in a bottle and everything else in a sippy cup (I mainly did water with a splash of juice). Good luck!

Don't have another option. If your child knows that eventually you will give in, that's what he/she will opt for. Once a baby is used to something, its hard to break the habit, unless no other options are there. Then they love the sippy cup. I would recommend water or you will fight rotten teeth at a very young age.

Hello J.. We started with Nuby sippy cups b/c they most resembled a bottle (shape and nipple like spout). Both of my boys used these but wouldn't take a sippy cup at first.
If your child still doesn't like it, you could try only putting juice in it (white grape or apple) and only milk/formula in the bottle. Best wishes to you!

Hm, not sure why your doctor thinks there's a big rush on this. My baby is a year and a week old and he's never drank from a sippy cup, and life is good. And I think it's not really recommended for babies to drink juice so early, unless perhaps diluted halfway with water, but in any case, juice is another thing we've been in no hurry with. He does eat some fresh fruits, but not juice, because we're not really a sugar consuming family, so I don't want to get him hooked on very sweet tastes very early. But back to your query -- one thing you might try is a regular cup, or take the lid off the sippy cup and try to get him to drink from the cup part alone. (This is what we've done.) Granted, it takes patience to sit and hold the cup for him, and tilt it a little bit for each sip, being careful that he is actually doing the sucking and gravity is not forcing the liquid in too fast. It helps if the cup is clear plastic or translucent in a light color, so you can see the liquid moving in it, and if you put very little in it at a time. And be prepared for the first dozen or more sips he takes to come straight out again, until he learns to move the liquid back in his mouth and swallow. This has worked for us because he sees us drinking from cups and is interested in learning a new process. In fact, our challenge had been how to get him to drink water once he started solids. Before that he was exclusively on breast milk (both nursing directly and breast milk in a bottle at child care) and just refused to drink water from a bottle at the table. Once we introduced the regular cup, he would drink water out of it and be very proud of himself! But this didn't start until close to his first birthday. Maybe some people think sippy cups have an advantage because a child can drink "independently" from them, but at this age, I'm happy being involved in my baby/toddler's feedings. He certainly knows when he's hungry and when he's had enough, and I respect that, but his world is all about play and exploration now, and I don't necessarily want him to treat bottles, cups, sippy cups, whatever the food delivery system is, like a toy. Also remember all those warnings about how leaving a child with his own juice will be bad for his emerging teeth. ANYWAY I hope trying the regular cup is helpful for you, but whether it is or not -- the important thing here is that every baby is unique in his preferences and his development. (Incidentally I had a friend who advised me to start baby on a straw, because that worked for her kids, but my baby could not have been less interested.) Enjoy feeding times and all times with your baby, as every stage he goes through will pass quickly, and don't feel pressured to conform to what your doctor THINKS your baby should be doing at any particular time. Only baby knows for sure what works for him, and there really is no worry that he will end up in seventh grade without being able to drink from a cup!
(PS That mom who wrote about screaming himself to sleep a few nights -- I cannot imagine why that would be a good idea. It seems to me that when an adult, whether it's a doctor, a mom, a grandma, whatever -- when an adult makes this kind of timing decision for a child whose only means of talking is making sounds and crying -- then it is a RANDOM decision, usually based on what is convenient for the adult, or some misguided idea that all babies should be on the same developmental schedule. Babies and toddlers really are capable of making these transition decisions themselves peacefully, and they WANT to transition, because it's fun for them to grow and change and try new things. I think it's our job to make their little lives less stressful than ours were, so they can grow into self-confident and successful adults.

Try tasting it first and show him how. Put something he likes in it like milk or favorite juice. Praise him and tell him how big he is getting every time he tries.

J., first and foremost remember to do what is BEST for YOU and YOUR family.
With that being said, you could just give it to him empty and you have one empty and then make a game out of it. He will soon copy what you do. Then after he does it, another day, but an ounce of water in it and do the same thing, or whatever you choose. Play it everyday frequently especially when you are eating. You may also need to consider to throw away ALL the bottles so that he doesn't see them. That way that is the only option he has or hold a cup and let him slowly drink from it with your help of course.

Just some idea's for you to ponder. If a child is on a sippy cup or takes a bottle for long it can and will effect their teeth.

Hi J., the answer is simple. Consistency and exposure. It's still new, so it's foreign and he doesn't want it compared to the soft bottle. With exposure, he'll start liking it more. You also can't give in and give him the bottle if he demands it instead of a cup. If he feels he can get the bottle instead, the transition will take longer. Good luck, it will happen!