Sippie Cups / Cups with Straws?

My 10 month old daughter has two types of cups she will drink out of right now. It took maybe 6 weeks to get her to take a cup. The one she will drink out of both have handles to make it easier to pick. The first is a Munchkin, soft spout, handled Dora cup. The other is a Gerber, it is also a soft spout, handles cup, that I took the valve out.

Have you tried to drink out of it? Can you get anything out? When I tried, I had to bite down on most cups to get any liquid out. The most natural was the Gerber Nuk, but I would get a couple and try them yourself. Good luck.

My son wouldn't ever take a sippy cup either. We tried for months and he just wouldn't get it. One day out at lunch he wanted my water, so I held my finger over the straw to pick up and put some in his mouth, and he sucked immediately and knew what to do. So I let him try it himself and other than it being too fast for him at first, he had no problems. He was probably only 9 mos or so at the time and supposedly they can't do straws til later, but that was all my son would do.

I like the Munchkin brand. (Target,walmart, etc). They have the flexible straws and are BPA free. I also have one of those dishwasher baskets for bottles (also munchkin) that goes in the top rack with the little flip down straw holders on the sides. I put the straws in those, the tops in the top "nipple" part and the lids in the big part. I never have to hand wash, and I think I have the worst dishwasher in the world. I do make sure to never let milk dry in them, and if it does just soak them for a few minutes. My only complaint is that the straw holders on the baskets start to wear out and I have to replace the baskets every 6-8 mos. But they are only like $4 so the convenience is worth it. And sometimes if you put cold liquid in the cup and let it get to room temp, it will force some out of the straw and leak. They aren't totally leak proof the way some sippies are but they are much easier to clean and we only let water be drunk roaming around the house, milk is for meals.

The straws on the Munchkins aren't hard to suck, they are valveless. I did notice when I first bought them that sometimes they wouldn't separate easily for my son who was still very young. So I would just pinch them and that would break the seal of the plastic sticking on itself.

Don't waste your money on the cups with straws - it will take him about 10 minutes to figure out how to take them out and dump the cup.

My daughter started out with the Nuby sippy cup. It has a soft spout like a bottle. We didn't try the cups with the straws until later because she would still try to turn the cup upside down & then it wouldn't work! haha

Dr. Brown also has a sippy cup. We did have one of those for a while, but I think it was after the Nuby cup.

After she graduated from the Nuby cups, we moved on to just getting the cheap The First Years cups with lids. She HATED the cups that had the extra flow piece on the lids. She would hand it back & say it didn't work!

Hi A.,

We started using a REAL cup for our son when he was nine months old. He still was nursing and the occasional bottle of formula, but he was drinking water from the cup. It was a tiny cup, about 1/3 of a cup, that I filled only half way and he could hold the cup himself. It was my father's cup when he was an infant (my dad is 75 years old as of today). Anyway, it took a few tries, but my boy figured it out, and we never looked back. We don't even have any sippy cups in our house. Call me old fashioned, or just plain old, but think of it this way.... your parents and grandparents and great grandparents, etc. didn't have sippy cups and they learned to drink just fine. So, too, will your son. Good luck.

My 9 month old wasn't quite getting the hang of the sippy cup. I tired 4 different kinds and went back to the ones I started out with (Take N Toss, no straw kind). He eventually figured it out a lot better closer to 10 and 11 months. He was a pro by 12 months when I started weaning him from breast to whole milk in a sippy cup. Still using the Take N Toss. They're great except for with orange juice with pulp. The pulp gets stuck in the holes rendering it undrinkable. I had to stick a needle through the holes to open them back up.

We used a soft top sippy cup to transition our son from bottle to sippy (12 months). We had no problems getting him to take it, and he was able to easily get the liquid out.

Eventually we switched him to a hard top cup (16 months), because he figured out that if he turned the other cup up side down and pushed on it all the liquid would come out. This was a harder transition.

We just got him straw sippy cups (at about 20 months)...but they are terrible, I can hardly get the liquid out - I feel like I am sucking my brains out. But it may be just the type of cup we got.

we went throught a lot of trial and error trying to find sippy cups that didnt leak, didnt flow to fast or too slow, and also low maintenance (cleaning stoppers is not fun). We finally tried "the learning curve" sippy cups and we LOVE them. they are hard durable plastic cup and hard lid and spout, no stopper. They come in "Cars" "mickey mouse" and "Sesame Street" themes. We found them at Walmart in the baby section.

Platex ones....were my favorite. You could try a few different kinds, but get one brand in the end so the lids and valves you get are interchangeable or you'll go nuts trying to find the right lid for the right cup etc.etc..... Welcome to the world of plastic...ugh!

As far as straw cups.... I got a ton of different ones and now I just get those "throw away kind" but I dont throw them away . I love how they stack! Less room in the cabinets! I've washed mine a zillion times in the dishwasher, but I do hand wash the lid and straws.... again one kind and the lids and straws go into all the cups....:)

At his age, I wouldn't recommend any straws. If the liquid comes out too fast there's a choking hazard and if any gets into his lungs you could possibly end up dealing with bronchitis or pneumonia. (For the worst cases).
My son started with a real cup. He didn't like the sippy cups very much but I do like the Platex brand cups. They have the valve, after that I went to the Take-N-Toss cups. They're not as spill resistant, but they are really handy.
Just be paitent and he'll figure it out soon enough.