Sippy Cup Advice

My daughter did the same thing at 7 months. It wasn't until about 9 months that she really got the hang of drinking from the sippy cup. Just give it some time and keep it close so that he can keep practicing. He'll figure it out before you know it.

This is an appropriate age to introduce a cup. The only reason for a sippy cup is to make a parent's life easier so we don't have to clean up a big mess. For a baby/child there is no reason they need to learn to drink from a sippy cup with a filter. When you remove the filter, even though your son chokes a bit, he is just learning how to control and tip a regular cup. A sippy cup is simply a glorified bottle with a different top. Let your child learn without a filter but only fill the cup with a very small amount of water or other liquid.

Good luck.

I had the same problem. I bought some Nuby Sippy Cups at Target and they helped our transition. The tops are silicon so they are very similar to bottle tops (suck friendly).

L., With all 4 of my kids I had the best luck with the Gerber sippy cups (their plugs are the best etc), but a close second is the Playtex brand - especially their stage one cups. Good luck...by the way, I am sure that sooner than later he will get the hang of how to "sip" from them - don't worry. :)

I think 7 months is still too young for a sippy cup. He's probably chewing the nipple because he's teething.

I would hold off on the sippy cup until he's 1 year.

it took my girls a few weeks before they figured out that the cup was for drinking and not for teething. we got the soft tipped ones so that they were comfy for both teething and sucking. the first ones we tried were by nubi. those helped because they feel just like the nipple of a bottle.

When I first gave my son a sippy cup, with the soft spout, he didn't really know what to do. So I sipped on it until the water came out. That way he didn't have to work too hard to get the water out. After doing that a few times, he got the idea and started to suck at it. He's now been on it for two weeks and even with the flow control, he still chokes most times. It'll just take time. I make sure I hold the cup for him and watch to see when he's had too much. Good luck.

around the same age, my son loved the born free (soft spout) and couldn't use the other types....similarly he would use them without the valve/filter and choke. Now he likes the Nuby because it releases the liquid when you kind of chew on it. Maybe that would help as others suggested. Hope you find something that works!

Hi L.!

I went through 4 different brands of sippy cups before my daughter took to the Nuby. It is simliar to the bottle nipple she had. I think she still wanted to have the "feel" of bottles, so the hard plastic sippys just would not work for us. It was a hard first week, but eventually she got the hang of it. Hang in there!

I can't remember the brand name, but there are sippy cups made for first time users to get the baby trasitioned. I think Advent makes one, but I am not possitive. Good luck, A.

Why are you worrying so much about introducing the sippy cup so early if baby is not into it? Wait a bit, and try changing the bottle he drinks milk from with another, in my case a smaller little one, he can hold in one hand and drink water from. My daughter loved this and then made an easy transition to the sippy cup. By the way, the first sippy cup I gave her had a very soft spout and she loved to chew on it. That was part of the fun. No big deal, a few weeks later she got a better sippy cup (mainly because she figured out how to squeeze all the water out of it).

My son loved his Nuby. Its a cross between a sippy and a bottle. The spout is soft like a bottle's nipple. You should be able to find it at Walmart.

I got my dtr to drink from a sippy cup by showing her how to do it. I'd pretend to suck and I'd make sounds of sucking in air through pursed lips. She got it pretty quickly.

try the Avent magic sippy cups the spout is soft, my daughter started with them.

Give him a sippy cup without the valve (i.e. start with one that leaks or flows easily) at each meal with a minimal amount of liquid. He'll get the hang of it. It will be messy & he may cough initially. One of my 8 mos old twins would rather just drink from a plain cup than the sippy so you might want to try that to.

My daughter was the same way. She would only drink from a toddler-sized Sigg bottle. Now she won't do that, and she'll only drink from a cup. She's 10.5 months old and pretty good at it now! Good luck!

The sippy cups that I had the most luck when my son was learning was Nuby brand. They are soft like a nipple and easy to learn on. My Son went right to them and never looked back for his bottle. Good luck!

Hi,
I got Born Free sippy training cup. It is used without a lot of suction, it works pretty well. Warning: it does leak

Be patient, he'll figure it out faster than you think!!

PS I've tried 4 different types and brands. The best ones so far have been the Elmo Sesame Street ones. No fuss, no valves, no drips!

I am a grandma of a 7 month old too; the sippy cup is really to give the baby the idea, and for her to learn to hold a cup; mine also chews more than drink with her 2 little bottom incisors. I find that spooning water into her mouth gets her to drink more liquid.
Lillian's grandma

Born Free makes a cup without the valve in it. Obviously it's not spill proof, but it does have a different style spout, so that she has to suck to get the water out.

I had a similar problem with my 3 year old. She was breast fed so most sippy cups were too hard for her. The Nuby sippy cups worked really well and once she got used to those we could give her the harder ones. With the Nuby cups it has a sort of nipple like a bottle, but is shaped like a sippy. My 7 month old like to gnaw on it. I think it makes her sore gums feel better. Good luck

Hi L.,
My first thought is that 7 months seems early to transition to a sippy cup. However, assuming that I'm wring on that, have you tried a straw cup instead (cup with a pop-up staw)? A feeding expert at CPMC told us to skip sippy cups and go straight to straw cups -- something about using a straw being a better oral motor skill for him to learn. However, our son has over a year old at that point. I actually tried to drink out of sippy cup once, and it's quite difficult! Those valves are absurd. You might want to try for yourself. I have a hard time imagining that a 7 month old could do this.
K.

Hi L.,

He'll adjust. He's trying to figure it out. So far, he's learned that if you take the inside out it comes out much faster. I suggest that you tip it up for him and show him how it works. Once he figures it out, he'll be good to go. Just learning how it works. It's normal for them to bite it first. You may have to do it many times, but he'll get it. Babies learn their shapes etc by putting things in their mouth. This is another thing he's learning. Good luck.
B.

I too think it is very normal for babies to not get it. It took my daughter quite some time to understand how it worked. I took the stopper out at first. The mess is frustrating. When I put the stopper back in I would try to teach her how to use it by tipping it for her and making a sucking noise and pretending to suck it myself. That seemed to help. And it had a bonus. It taught her that if she wants a drink she can make the sucking noise to tell me. It's so great to know when she's thirsty since she can't talk yet! Good luck.

my son did the same thing, he loved to chew on the nipple and couldnt figure out how to suck. We kept at it and introduced him to a straw, which he did much better with, the straw taught him how to suck sitting up and now he prefers his sippy cups to bottles and we are having a very easy transition (he will be 1 on the 22nd)

good luck!
Kryssi

Hi there :)
I highly recommend NUBY grip n' sip. It is a straw sip cup and has handles on the side for them to easily hold on to with their little hands. My son started using them at 8 months and still uses them. He'll be 3 in April. My daughter, who is 8 months, has figured out how to use the straw sip cup as well. She can easily hold on and sip out of this cup. It really is the BEST SIP CUP EVER!!!!! good luck!!
M. :)

Perhaps it's a bit early to introduce the sippy cup? Most products I see on the market don't recommend it until about 9 months. And having two boys of my own, they weren't very receptive until they were closer to a year old. Of all the sippy cups, I found that Avent and First Years were most effective.

We had a similiar issue which is why we moved to the Straw sippy cups.

Hi L.,

I experienced the same thing! I discovered two things:
1 - Give it time - one day it wont work for your child the next day it will. Don't push it, just offer.
2 - Nuby gripper sippy cups!!!! ($1.47 at Wallmart) My daughter loved this cup and had no question what to do with it! She even decided she liked it so much, that I was able to wean her from nursing when I decided to because she was so happy with this cup.

Good Luck,

D. and Layla - age 2

My daughter was the same way with any of the rubber tip sippy cup... we actually began using the Take'n'Toss cups. They are completely plastic with no valve and the mouth piece is big enough that they actually want to suck, not just chew. They come in different size to accomidate more liquid as they grow and the smallest size is indented of all four sides for easy grip. And the best part of all, is they are called take'n'toss for a reason, they are cheap enough to replace when they get lost (or hidden under the car seat with milk in it :) ).
Good luck!

Hi L.

My husband made the holes a little bigger in my son's sippy cup so he was able to drink a little more faster and not make a mess.

gerber worked best for us, maybe demonstrate for him. I tried the advent ones and I think they were hard for him, every child is different.
They do really ahve to suck on it, that is why you should stop use at age 3, so their speech is not a problem.

You may want to try the old Tupperware sippy cups that we grew up on. They don't have the filter in them so it is not as hard to suck the water through, but the "nipple" of the lid still regulates the amount of water coming through. It's worth a try. And I think the one of the malls (westfield or sunnvalley) has a Tupperware kiosk in it or you can order online at www.tupperware.com I think too.
Good Luck!
K.