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months: Introduce a straw cup. We like to start with a honey bear straw cup (see recommendation below). You can squeeze the honey bottle to help move the liquid up the straw. This will allow your baby to become comfortable with a straw and learn how it works. The best time to start introducing your baby to a cup is during mealtime! You should offer your baby little sips of water with breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can start this process around 6 months of age. Here is the way we guide parents on HOW to do this transition at each age:
Teaching Baby to Use Cups + Straw Cups - Solid Starts Teaching Baby to Use Cups + Straw Cups - Solid Starts
BabyCenter's editorial team is committed to providing the most helpful and trustworthy pregnancy and parenting information in the world. When creating and updating content, we rely on credible sources: respected health organizations, professional groups of doctors and other experts, and published studies in peer-reviewed journals. We believe you should always know the source of the information you're seeing. Learn more about our editorial and medical review policies. The talktools straw hierarchy is great but I felt much more confident using it after watching the DVD about it (not cheap but they have been know to give parents a 50% discount at times if you ask nicely-even then it’s still pricey).Try using a very skinny straw to encourage baby to keep their lips sealed tight around the straw (such as a coffee stirrer). Yes, cup drinking is messy for a few days. But open cups are much easier to clean than sippy cups and straw cups.To introduce an open cup: When it comes time to choose a cup for your child, parents need to consider the effect that sippy cups have on speech development.
The Ultimate Guide to Transitioning From a Bottle to a Cup The Ultimate Guide to Transitioning From a Bottle to a Cup
When you are at home and have the time, practicing with an open cup will aid your child’s oral motor development. Although plastic shot glasses are a good starting point, you’ll soon be looking for a more sustainable option.In some therapy circles, the honey bear is an obvious adaptation that is used to help kids learn to drink from a straw. I was unaware of this great use of a honey bear for many many years, and it was kind of a “duh” moment when I learned about using it. You don’t actually have to use a honey bear, and I have used condiment squeeze bottles as well because I did not want to wait until I finished all of the honey and I could buy an empty picnic condiment bottle at walmart. Zoli Weighted Straw Cup: With a cover to minimize spills, and a straw that is sized “just right” for your baby’s mouth, the Zoli cup is a great way for children to get sips on the go. When you are out and about, you may want a more spill-proof option. These straw cups provide the right level of support that your child needs to learn to drink from a straw. Step 1: Bring the straw trainer with water, breast milk, or formula to the table and offer the straw to your baby by holding it in front of their mouth. Often babies who may have already decided that they hate straw cups will happily accept this cute little bear! The take and toss cups are brightly colored and fun as well. The goal in the 6- to 12-month age range is to practice the skills of cup drinking—not to replace the breast or bottle. Starting open cup practice early (ideally around 6 months of age) allows your baby plenty of low-pressure time to hone cup skills before transitioning off bottles or breastfeeds. If you’ve missed this window and your baby is now 12 months or older, all is not lost! Your 12+-month-old still has time to learn this skill! Which cup should I use for my baby?
BabyCenter Best straw cups for babies | BabyCenter
Honey Bear Cup: Originally designed for a therapeutic setting, the Honey Bear Cup is a great way to teach little ones how straws work. By pressing on the bear’s belly, you can help your baby drink from a straw before they have figured it out on their own. Once baby learns to use the straw, however, you may want to cut the straw tip to better fit baby’s mouth. AccessoriesChristine Mattheis, Group VP, Content & Brand Solutions at BabyCenter says that her daughter started using this cup at 6 months and got the hang of it immediately. "I love that the cup is truly leakproof -- she would throw that thing around and not a drop would come out of it," says Christine. While there is a broad range for when a child will achieve this skill, the American Academy of Pediatrics' Ages and Stages Questionnaire classifies independent cup drinking with minimal spillage as an 18-24 month skill. Expect occasional small spills even through 3 years old, which should further improve as your child's graded fine motor control and focus improve. That said, many children can independently use a spill-proof straw cup much earlier than this, closer to 12-18 months old if they started practicing at 6 months. When to seek help Like other weighted straw cups, this one dispenses liquid at any angle, which helps babies new to cups learn to drink more easily. But Dr. Brown's Milestones boasts a few features that make it better for travel than competitors. First, like Dr. Brown’s bottles, they're narrow, making it easier to fit into all the bags you're already using to carry around bottles. This also allows them to fit into your car's cup holders. He drinks water and milk and on occasion juice from his straw cups. He often drinks from our cups as well with no straw (it’s either we let him or he scream bloody murder lol) This may sound crazy, but I recommend introducing a cup at 6 months, or when your baby is able to sit independently, but you should definitely help your child transition to a cup before 12 months. By introducing the cup at such a young age, you will help your child to learn new ways of using their lips and tongue through natural learning opportunities (drinking!). And you will beat the teeth, avoiding tooth decay and dental problems caused by prolonged bottle usage. How To Transition from a Bottle to Cup
Honey Bear Cup - Therapy Fun Zone Honey Bear Cup - Therapy Fun Zone
Why do we ask parents to be off the bottle? For one it is really bad on the teeth. It allows the sugary substances to hang out in the mouth a little longer than they should. It is also thought that if once a child is older and feeding themselves that if they are walking around with a bottle in their mouth all the time they will not use their mouth to communicate.In its most basic description and therapeutic intervention level, the Honey Bear Cup teaches the child that liquid can come from the straw and into their mouth. If you are attempting to start teaching your child straw drinking on a conventional straw cup, but are unsuccessful consider using the Honey Bear Cup. The following can be referenced as a system for gradual exposure. 1. Initial Presentation:
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