[fophyfam]

and do you have any advice on how to teach your little one how to?

Thanks

[Mom4Nicholas]

We started by giving the sippy cup with some water and taking the stopper out. That just made a mess. So, we put the stopper back in and after a few days he sucked on it and realized that liquid comes out!

After a few days we packed up all of the bottles and he was mad for about 24 hours, but we stood our ground.

He has not seen a baby bottle in 8 months!

There is no going back now!

[DPline]

My older son did much better with the straw style. He wouldn't suck hard enough to get anything out with the stopper in the regular ones.

[steph94]

My son at 8.5 months started drinking his juice and water from a straw cup. He now prefers these two items that way now.

[widgit]

8 months-practiced with juice and water in a sippy cup.

9 1/2 months-switched from bottles to sippy cups over the course of 2 days.

Here are a couple of tips that worked for us:
1) Once you find a type of cup that works, use only that kind of cup
2) Try cups with a soft spout. Playtex makes one.
3) Try putting something yummy in the cup, but not in the bottle (i.e. water only in the bottle) We used a little bit of chocolate syrup with DD's milk in the cup for 1 1/2 days. That was just long enough to get her familiar with the cup.
4) stand your ground as previously posted.

[CashCrew]

We started giving them a sippy cup with water really early, at like 6-7 months or so just to introduce them. By weaning time they were pros

[mommytoEli]

my ds was really easy. At 6 months we introduced it...mostly that meant he played with it during feedings. I never put anything that was not formula or milk into a bottle. By 12 months he had only a "good morning bottle" and everything else was in a sippy. On the morning of his 14th mo. bday I gave him a sippy for his morning milk...and he was fine, so I threw the bottles out. I think because we did it gradually, he was comfortable with the transition. My son is a thirsty little guy, so after about 8 months I could not use the little stoppers b/c he got frustrated and would throw the cup across the room. They are messy in the beginning....but it is so worth it. I would rather clean up little spills here and there than wash so many bottles everyday!

[Waiting4OURBOY]

Just my opinion, but for Ben I have found that the playtex sippy cups with the handles work best because the part he drinks from is soft which makes it more like a bottle to suck out of. He started drinking from his when he came home at 6 and 1/2 months and now at 9 months he is a pro and can hold it himself. I just extremely dilute the juice. Hope this helps!

[CashCrew]

I totally agree here! My kids' first sippy cups had handles. You just have to be careful when giving it to them that young that they don't get carried away and hit themselves in the mouth (especially if they already have a tooth or two). My kids did this a few times and survived though. It certainly doesn't hurt to go ahead and give it to them to introduce it early.

Originally Posted by Waiting4OURBOY

Just my opinion, but for Ben I have found that the playtex sippy cups with the handles work best because the part he drinks from is soft which makes it more like a bottle to suck out of. He started drinking from his when he came home at 6 and 1/2 months and now at 9 months he is a pro and can hold it himself. I just extremely dilute the juice. Hope this helps!

[dspakowsky]

OK - so here's what I don't understand. When people atopped giving bottle at 7,8,9 months, does that mean you stopped formula? Or did you put the formula in the cup?

My daughter turns one in a few weeks and I'm trying to decide on our next step. I don't give her a bottle to put her to bed, so that's not a habit.

[shelbydog]

My son never drank from sippies - he went straight to the Playtex straw cups. We "taught" him at 8-9 months...took a regular, loose straw - put an inch of drink at bottom, held top with our finger to keep liquid in. Put it in his mouth and let go a tiny bit...kept doing "sips" like this until he figured out that if he sucked, it came out. That was it!

Mia however wouldn't do the straw. She did the sippies but we had to take the stopper out the first few times - they were just too hard to suck out of to "teach" her...once she figured out that liquid came out, she started sucking on her own. We just held her or put her in the corner of our sofa sitting up with a bib and held the cup (tipped it into her mouth for sips) and it really didn't make a mess at all. I would never just give her the cup without the spout. Good luck!!