Trouble with Sippy Cup

I remember having this trouble with one of my children. I think I put watered-down juice in the cup (which she had never had before) and then coated the sippy cup lip with pure juice. Once she got a taste of the juice on the lip, she figured out how to get at more of that sweet stuff. After that lesson, it became a novelty to drink from the cup and I never had to use juice again. Oh -- she hated the Nuby and couldn't really get the hang of it. I think we used Avent and then I switched to Playtex because I hated the leaking of Avent.

Are they are full so there is less need to tilt it? There are sippy cups with the straws that they have to bite down on to drink. Maybe he just doesn't like tilting his head back. I know my daughter that is 18 months old doesn't like to tilt her head when I wash her hair. Even though she would get less water on her face. It doesn't sound like this is the reason, but I have heard that if their ears hurt they don't like sucking really hard. Good luck!

You didn't say whether your son got breastmilk or formula. If he nurses, a sippy cup isn't really necessary. All his fluids come from you and that's all he needs. Water isn't important.

I used the same technique as EF - using a sippy cup that didn't have a spill proof top. The Nuby tops require that the child suck on the top get to the liquid. Gerber and playtex (and I'm sure others) have a removeable spill proof piece. I used cups with handles on the sides so he could grip. At first, he enjoyed sprinkling the water more than anything else, but eventually got the hang of it. I also kept him in the highchair when he had the cup and for my own sanity I just used water. I have a friend whose daughter would only take the Nuby -- my son however really preferred one that I think was made by gerber that had a rubbery type spout (but not quite as flexible at the nubby) - I think it was a gerber graduate with handles.

It is awesome that you're introducing it at 8 1/2 months! Continue to offer the sippy cup along with the bottle. When it comes time to wean from the bottle, he will know what the sippy cup is and how to use it. We would offer formula both in the sippy and the bottle prior to 12 months, then at 12 months we stopped using the bottles cold turkey. Because he had the opportunity to get accustomed to the sippy cup, he was able to switch without skipping a beat. Earlier on, however, if he drank all of his formula from the bottle and all that was left was the sippy, he would throw a fit and be frustrated.

I gave my kids a sippy cup without the thing inside to keep it from spilling. They don't know how to suck it out of the sippy cup. I would only give it to them in the high chair and allowed them to practice. There were a lot of spills but they figured out how to do it quickly then they went on to the sippy cup with the spill proof mechanism in it and had no problem.