How to Get My Child to Take the Sippy Cup

My daughter was the same way. I finally found a sippy cup that she likes called Nuby. The spout is very soft like a bottle nipple. If you havnt tried it I definately recommend it :)

I have two kids -- a 3 1/2-year-old and a 21-month old. Neither of them were much for bottles, so I introduced them both to sippy cups around 6 or 7 months. With both of them, what seemed to work best was to put an ounce or two of apple juice in it, then fill it the rest of the way with water. After 2 or 3 weeks, I stopped putting in the apple juice and gave them straight water. Both of them drink water extremely well now and know that juice is only for a special treat.

The advice I got in teaching a child to drink from a sippy cut is to give them the cup with a meal and/or after they haven't had anything to drink for a while. If they are thirsty, they will drink. Also, if you are eating at the same time and drinking out of a cup, they will watch and will probably eventually drink, just to imitate you.

You don't have to have him drink from a sippie. If he will sip from a real cup just let he keep trying that, or let him have a real cup with a straw. They make sippies with a soft straw that hides away those may be an option. You may also try the sippie cups that feel like a bottle top.

Be consistant though. Don't give in and let him have the bottle when he cries.

Patience...it sometimes takes a little time. Milk was the last thing my little girl would drink from a sippy cup. Juice and water she was fine with but milk she wanted in a bottle. It really didn't take long at all before she was drinking everything from a sippy cup. It seem like forever while you're going through it. Before you know it, you'll be through with sippy cups and onto Big Boy cups. Now we're onto potty training. Talk about needing patience!

If he will sip from it with the top off, why not just try to get him trained to drink fro ma regular big boy cup? He isn't too young, and if you maintain a strict "two hands and only while sitting policy" it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Yes, there will be messes, but that's just part of toddlerness. And in skipping the sippy cup it means you only have to fight this battle once, rather than fighting the battle from bottle to sippy now, and then from sippy to big boy cup later. Wouldn't that be nice? And I would agree with the posts saying get rid of the bottles. Just because he's crying, don't give in. If he's thirsty, he'll drink. If he doesn't drink, then he really wasn't all that thirsty and was most likely just doing it from habit. He'll get over it faster than you think if you are consistent. Good luck!

Oh! And by the way, if you are using a hard sippy cup and really don't want to teach him to use the grown up cup yet, try a nubby with the soft, clear tops. They are very much like bottles and yet not. You can get them pretty much anywhere.

Oh, I wouldn't worry about this, as he is still young to be hving a Sippy Cup. My son didn't get off the bottle until he was 3 years old, & he was on Fomula too. He stopped taking the bottle when he went to day care, seeing other kids without their bottles. You can save yourself a lot of stress & worry if you just let him alone. At times, you can leave out the Sippy Cup with Milk, & he may surprise you, & drink.

My middle child was very stubborn and we tried the sippy cup with a straw. You can get them at Wal-Mart or pretty much anywhere, this seemed to work better because the sucking of the straw to them is similar to sucking a bottle but not dangerous to their teeth. Also, he is old enough unless it is just a personal decision on your part which I am not questioning, I just thought he might be old enough to have some juice in the sippy cup. However, you are the mother, not me. Anyway the straw cup worked really well with Andrew who is now three years old.

Get rid of all of the bottles dont let your baby even see them. I have three children, from 21 to 12 and am helping to raise my 1 year old neice. With my first i was so scared not to follow the rules set down by the parent class i followed everything to a T. This helped me because i didnt feel i knew everything. The Nurce (with 5 children) said no child should ever hold there own bottle or keep a bottle after 12 months of age. I never had a problem getting rid of the bottle with any of the 4 children. They did not get attached to it and boy did that help. I have familly members who thought i should let tmy children hold there bottle and that i took it away too soon. My children never even asked for there bottle and i took it away all at once for each of them. All of my friends and familly members who complained to me had issues with there children being attached to the bottle. Beleive me i said "I told you so!" (Just kidding) But I surely did feel like it. The biggest problem was they let there children go to bed with there bottle.. BIG mistake!! They had a terrible time put them to bed.

At 13 months your baby shouldn't be too attached.. If the bottle is gone your baby will drink fron the sippy cup. It wont take anytime at all but if you prolong this change for much longer it will get very difficult.

Hang in there!
M.

Hey J.! I am working with my son on the sippy too. My son is 9 mos old and he LOVES his bottle. He wouldn't take it at first but I just kept offering it to him. It seemed as though if I gave him a cup to start the day off he was less likely to be whiney about taking it for me. I also took the lid off. I would just leave the cup laying around with the milk in it and do not give him the choice. You are making it easy for him and hard for you. Just don't give him the bottle. He will eventually see that you will not give in and will drink out of it. My first son was off the bottle at 9 mos. His own thing. not mine. He just quit taking it. My 9 month old right now only gets bottle at bedtime. That's it! I just kept giving it to him and he was mad and cried but he eventually got hungry and thristy and took it! Good Luck!

T.
www.EnhancingYourWayOfLife.com

Hi J.. Just have patience and stay persistant...it takes a while to get them used to it. I had the same problem with my oldest son. He just didn't want to let the bottle go because it was comforting to him. Your little boy will eventually want to be a big boy and will take the sippy cup. Good luck!

Do you think it is the type of sippy cup you are offering him? My son didn't like the cups that had the no drip devices. I started buying the NUBY brand at Wal-mart because the spout was more like that of a nipple. It was easier to transition. Once I started on those he was off the bottle rather quickly. Good luck and just be patient, it will happen.

I know this sounds terrible but have you tried giving him a little coke or orange crush or grape crush in his sippy cup so that he will want to drink out of it. Get him use to that and then slowly move toward what you want him to do and cut out the soda OR give him a reward of juice or a little coke if he drinks his milk out of the cup.

If you really don't want to go that way then what I would probably do is not give up the bottle totally. I would put the sippy cup out during the day. When he gets thirsty enough he will have no choice but drink out of it. For him to get his milk, give a bottle one time a day so he can get his milk. Soon he will ween himself off of it.

Another option: He may have a problem betwee warm milk and cold milk. Will he want what you have? I would let him sample my milk so he will know that is what grown ups do.

Hope this helps.

Have you tried a sippy cup with a straw? Both of my boys did better that way. My 15-mo-old still won't drink from a traditional sippy, but he is entirely weaned to a straw. It's actually much more convenient to me that way anyway. Start with the kind that have a valve (Nuby makes one we like). You'll probably have to suck a little up yourself to the tip of the straw, but once he realizes it's something he wants, he'll probably figure out how to get it out himself. Worth a try anyway. :) I will say that I also don't give juice to my baby, but I did start him drinking from a straw with diluted juice so that he would be exceptionally interested in getting to it. Once he got the hang of it, the juice disappeared. :)

Have you tried different types/brands. I've had children who preferred specific types. (Don't know why.) The newer ones with the "nipple-like" spout seemed to help our 13 month old start the transition from breast to cup at about 11 months.

I also recommend to pick one meal to use the cup. Offer it as his drink with his meal, and no other drink. If he's thirsty enough, he'll get the hang of it. If you don't offer anything else to drink until the next meal, he might be a little thirsty, but not totally dehydrated. He'll figure out that if he doesn't want to be thirsty, he needs to use the cup. Good Luck!

Try a different cup. If the one you have is fast flowing like the Nubby cup (which is what I started with and my daughter did the same thing - drooled most of it out) then try a slower flow like the Gerber starter cup which is one she uses now and it changed everything. Another thing I noticed is before I stopped breastfeeding her before she was 1, she was not too interested in the cup at all but after I weaned her when she was one she took much more interested because she was thirsty!!! Try not giving him anything from the bottle. He is going to be thirsty. If you try a different flow just let him do whatever he wants with the contents for a little while for a few days. He may just be experimenting like my daugther did. I finally just let her spend 15 min in her chair sucking then spitting - just to see what happened...=)

i had a hard time trying to get my daughter to ween from the bottle to the sippy cup especially at nap time or before bed. i started out at naptime by telling her that all the bottles were dirty during the day and will be clean at bedtime. she would cry for couple of minutes the finally take the sippy cup. i did this for a month or two then i told her that i couldn't get the bottles clean and the only cup for milk was the sippy cup. she would refuse and cry again for a few minutes the decide she was thirsty. hope it helps

Hi J.

I hear your frustration and have been there :)

What I did was just replace one bottle at a time.
He would take 4 bottles a day. I took one of his afternoon bottles and made it into the sippy cup. He hated it! But I stuck to it. If he didn't drink it from the sippy cup, he just missed that bottle. Took DAYS for him to give into the sippy cup. Once he did that then I replaced a second bottle with the sippy cup. I did his night one last...took me about 6 weeks to get rid of the bottle but we did it.
Good Luck to you.

Find what he will take water out of and then you know he will drink out of that sippy cup...then stand firm when you start taking away one bottle and replacing it with the sippy cup :)

J.