Help! How Do I Get My Daughter to Switch to a Sippy Cup??

We use the cups with a straw instead of a sippee...I should say, my 2nd daughter did this. I switched my older daughter to a straw type cup when she finally learned to use a straw (she was well over a year old!) her baby sister liked the big cups better (the juice was less diluted) and taught herself how to drink out of a straw at about 7 mos. Since the sippee cup can cause issues with their teeth and speech development I thought the sooner she's off of that the better (mine were breastfed and never used a bottle) The only problem with them is since it is a straw they can't tip it up or they wont get anything-causes some frustration until they get used to it!

I read all the other responses and the only thing I want to add is that you have a lot of time before the other baby gets here. She doesn't have to take to the sippy cup right away so don't stress about it. She will eventually.

Don't worry. Your daughter is a little young to give up her sucking need, which is nurturing and is involved in brain development. If she were a breast fed baby, you would still be nursing at night and more perhaps. I did not start solids until almost a year, and my children began weaning themselves when they were ready, which was well after a year old. There is no need to rush them, as it will only hamper their development.
B. S. RN CCM

need to try hold her and hold the sippy cup, let her practice drinking from it. its sometimes hard for infant to adjust from bottle to sippy cup. if you are using soft tip ones since its similar as bottle its easier to adjust.

We have a 13-month-old boy and another on the way in February. I read in several places (like the book "Baby 411") that sippy cups increase a child's chances of childhood tooth decay because they direct liquids to the base of the child's front teeth. Also that sippy cups are very convenient for us adults because they result in less liquid mess, but they don't teach a child how to drink from a regular cup because they have to suck in order to get a good flow of liquid.

While my nephews use sippy cups, and while I don't think other parents are "bad" for giving them to their kids, we personally chose to wean our kid from a bottle directly to regular household plastic cups. He sometimes gets water or milk dribbles down his front, but really within a month (yes, the past month) he's figured out how to control the flow of liquid and how to stop drinking without getting liquid all down his front, and I think that knowledge will make it easier for him when he moves to holding the cup all by himself.

You could also try looking into clear sippy cups, or valveless ones. The First Years makes colorful "take and toss" cups that are dishwasher safe and come either with sippy lids or straw-hole lids. We just use the cups. They're very sturdy and attractive, and I think it helps our son to see the liquid through the cup. But he also does well with solid plastic cups.

My son (now 2) never really took a bottle. He pretty much went straight to a sippy cup. But it was a battle! He wouldn't just take a sippy. First we let him drink from a straw, which he loved. This was probably at around 6-8 months. Then we got a sippy cup with the soft straw in it with the handles on the sides. I can't remember the brand, but he loved this cup. Oh, and we only put diluted juice in it. He would not take breastmilk in it at all. After he got used to that we bought the Gerber transitions sippy cup that can be a bottle or a sippy cup. I hated this cup, mainly because the valve kept coming out, but he seemed to do well with it. After that, we just kept advancing the cups. Like I said, he never took breastmilk in a sippy cup, but after he turned 1, we started putting whole milk in it, with a little shot of chocolate syrup at first, and he eventually got used to that. I hope this helps!

Does she have an older cousin or one of your friends children that she looks up to? I use my niece (10 months older than my daughter) to get her to do things. I say, "Oh, Ella loves to pick up her toys", and Piper runs and picks up the toys. It doesn't work every time, but enough that I still use it!

K.,
The NubE (sp?) worked great for us. It's a soft tip so it's not jarring on her gum like lots of the sippy cups - get it at walmart. They are kind of a pain to put back together after washing but they last FOREVER! One note while you are transitioning, if you daughter has a tendency to throw things (like sippy cups), milk will go flying out of these cups from the impact. We definitely hosed down an entire aisle at the grocery store with one.

Hey K.,
Try only giving her juice in a sippy cup. Only put her milk in the bottle for the time being. Everything else, juice, water, etc. (anything she really enjoys) goes in a big girl cup. It will take some time, but if she really wants something other than her milk, hopefully, eventually she'll drink it out of the big girl cup. After awhile, hopefully you can move her milk to a sippy cup. You might also try getting a sippy cup of some sort with her favorite character on it. Lots of luck! T.

I would stick with one brand (dd like the nuby cups because they had a silicon spout) and go cold turkey, she'll have to drink eventually, she's wont go thirsty for too long. Or just try swtiching to a cup with a straw...maybe even just going to switching out of a regular cup for a while. Its going to be stressful, but she'll get it eventually...my dd was hard to break as well...I've heard that it's actually better for you to start with it about 8 months old and then it's not so traumatic. But, my SIL has a 28 month and a 2 month, the 28 month is still drinking out of a bottle almost all the time and they have no intentions of changing it...to each their own i suppose.
M.

Have you tried giving her a regular cup instead? My son started drinking out of a regular cup before we gave him a sippy cup, he always wanted a drink of what we had. We would share our water with him, then he started drinking out of one on his own. We started giving him sippy cups in the car after that.

It is fine however for a baby to take a bottle until they are 1, they sometimes need the sucking. If you're breastfeeding they would nurse until at least 1 year old and would continue getting the soothing effects that come with the sucking action (just like a pacifier or a thumb) she may still "need" the bottle.

I had the same problem. My son was 18 months old when my daughter was born and he still had to have his "ba ba". What I did was put water or something that wasn't too tasty to him in the bottle and all the things he really liked to drink in the sippy cup. He finally figured out that the good stuff was in the sippy cup and that did the trick. Hope this helps!

try different kinds
i love the first years but my daughter could not fig it out. i used the nibby ones and she likes them but to get her use to the hard ones my m-i-l bought one of the gerber graduates and she loves it. we are still not 100% off the bottle like my son was at 10mth but we are getting there if i can get daddy to stop with just giveing her one

my daughter stopped the bottle herself. i kepted a glass with a straw in the fridge and when i got a drink she would want one so after a while of that i got her the sippie with the soft straw in it and thats what she drank out of and then we went to a reg sippie. it was something i did and she wanted to do it to.

I tried 12 different cups... and my daughter wouldn't use any of them. I was frustrated and mad b/c all that wasted money. I finally decided to try one more, and she took it first time!! It's take-and-toss... 4 oz... and has finger grooves all the way around it, so it was really easy to hold. You get 4 for $3. You can get them at Babies 'R Us or WalMart!

have you tried giving her a regular cup. she may not want a sippy cup because her mommy doesnt' use them. it may be messy but it could be worth it in the long run.

Have you tried to take a small plastic drinking cup and like a 20 oz. bottle and let her drink out of it to see if she realizes the different's and of the drinking and that she will like it. bottle is there security,she needs a new security but she is ok so your baby is just natural on the bottle. it is that we have to try different things to get rid of the old things.after you get her used to drinking out of the sippie cup she will like it.after you try the two methods and keep going on that for a couple of weeks she will get the picture of the whole situation.