Drinking Beakers

[LynnC]

I have a nine month old baby girl who has within past few weeks had her first tooth come through.


I have been advised by both the health visitor and dentist that she should not be drinking juice from a bottle and I should have her drinking from a beaker and should have been since approximately 6 months old. I have been trying to encourage her to use the beakers however she cannot seem to use it properly and I just don?t know what else to try. I have a few different beakers, a Tommee Tippee stage 1 beaker, an Advent magic trainer cup, an AnyWay Up cup and I have also tried a Tommee Tippee non drip bottle which said it is a stage in between bottle and beaker and she has to suck harder to get the juice however she cannot seem to use this either.

Is there anything else I could possibly try to move her on from her bottles as I am concerned I am damaging her teeth by continually giving her the drink through the bottle.

[colditz]

A sport's cap bottle in Wilco's, 99p.

[colditz]

I found all the cups impossible at 9 mo for my son.

[jessicaandbumpsmummy]

ditto colditz.... jess REFUSED ALL cups till 11 months, and then started taking the tommee tippee 4 month plus one and still uses it now at 14.5 months.

We tried all the anyway up cups etc and I cant get anything out of them so how the hell is she?!

Jess has just mastered sports cap bottles so will be off to get her one like that soon.

[sweetkitty]

Would echo JABM the Tommee Tippee 4 month one is the best I've found (I've tried loads) I hate the non drip ones they have to suck so hard to get anything out. DD had hers from 6 months and she has always been fine it was messy to begin with as they tend to drip them everywhere but they soon get the hang of them.

DD has 2 colours orange for water/juice and pink for milk (she moved over to having milk in hers from a year from breastfeeding with no trouble at all) I think because she was used to drinking from them.

Also she has a Doidy cup which she uses (google doidy) they are very good also.

[staceym11]

i found dd wouldnt drink out of beakers but would out of straws (at 8mth) so i brought her a cheap lunchbox type drink holder from woolworths £1.99 which has a flip lid and a straw, she loves it and can drink easily (you might wanna just try a normal straw first to see if she can do them or it might be a waste)

[PeachyClairPumpkinPie]

Having had three sosns I've been through a fair few beakers in my time, the best by far IMO was the Miriam Stoppard one (from Sainsburys amongst other places), it cost a coll fiver but has lasted a year of abuse and still looking smart and going strong.

[Laura032004]

We're on the Tommee Tippee 4m one too - at 18m!

We were lucky enough to get involved with a trial of baby cups with one of the baby magazines, so got about 8 or 10 to try. DS couldn't use any of the non-spill ones.

[hunkerpumpkin]

Tommee Tippee here too - and does she always have juice or will she drink water?

[LynnC]

Thanks for all your advice - she isnt keen on water and was just glad when she took juice but over past couple of days trying to introduce water again but not going well so far. Is the Tommee Tippee 4m non spill? Or should stay away from non spill?

[Laura032004]

It's non-spill in that it has a spout that you can flip down to stop spillage in your bag etc. But not non-spill in that if they shake it some does come out.

DS usually only has water though, so a few drips aren't too much of a problem.

I think if you can't get on with one 'real' no spill cup, then you proabably won't get on with most of them.

[hunkerpumpkin]

Ah, DS's favourite Tommee Tippee cups are the soft-spouted non-spill ones (two sizes, one with handles, the bigger one without). We have loads of them - he loves them and drinks a lot from them - no trouble drinking from it at all.

We have a flip-lid TT one too, and it leaks

[LynnC]

Thanks - just been to mothercare & boots and neither had a Tommee Tippee 4m - either 3m which I have or 6m so took Tipex advice re boots own brand so fingers crossed that helps will have a go with it tonight.

[startingtobehalloweenylover]

lynnc we use the boots own one, and the tommee tippee one that has the flip down spout (it's arouind £1.95 so nice price too!)

ds drinks really well from both of them, but prefers the tommmee tippee i think

[LynnC]

Still on the fence re boots own brand - to be honest she wasnt herself last night, think another tooth coming through and wasnt even keen on juice from the bottle either so I'm feeling optomistic and I'll try again tonight. She tries hard wee soul 10/10 for effort. Why do they make these things so difficult.

[Seona1973]

you will probably find the cheap tommee tippee flip down spout cup more easily in the supermarket or a chemist. I have seen them in Morrisons, Somerfield, Co-Op and the local Lloyds Pharmacy. They are nice and cheap too!

[Laura032004]

Yes, I've always seen them in supermarkets. We get ours from Tesco. £1.99 IIRC.

[mandymac]

Bit of a hijack. DD is coming up to 4 months and is breastfeed. I can't get her to take a bottle of ebm and was wondering if it is worth persevering with bottles or should I try her on beakers (if I will be advised to get her onto these from 6 months anyway for juice etc). Has anyone gone straight from boob to beaker?

[alux]

a few people on here put their babies straight onto beakers at 4 mo. mears is one. basically, choose one without a valve. i think she said mothercare has one with a spout and one fluid hole.

[fruitful]

LynnC - you could also try the Avent magic one, but take the valve off (the two clear plastic bits inside the spout). So it all pours out when you tip the beaker up. Dd got the idea of what beakers are for that way (although a lot went down her front). Once she'd worked out what we were trying to do, we switched to the tommee tippee flip-top one (smaller hole so she actually drank all that came out). She didn't like the boots own one. But, ds won't use the tommee tippee one and drinks well from the boots one. Sigh.

Mandymac - yes, I went from boob to beaker with dd (bottle refusnik). Started with beakers of watered-down juice at 4 months or so and gave her beakers of formula when she'd got the idea. I didn't try ebm cos I didn't want her to realise I was giving her milk that way (and I hate expressing). Can't remember when she got good at it, but I stopped bf'ing at 9 months and she had all her milk from beakers from then on.

[clairebear123]

Sort of on the same subject, have managed to get my 10 month old onto water/juice from a cup (after a few weeks of struggling he saw his cousin doing and just went for it!) but still can't get him to take milk from a cup.
Had the same problem with my older boy, no problem with water/juice but he didn't drink milk from a cup until 18 months or so. Had to resort to lots of cheese sauces etc. Any ideas so I can solve the problem earlier with boy no 2?

[Seona1973]

I never bothered offering milk from a cup until dd reached 1 year and milk wasn't considered so important. I did it gradually and offered milk from a sippy cup (the tommee tippe first cup) along with breakfast first while still giving a night time bottle. Once dd started taking more than a couple of sips of milk at breakfast I stopped the bedtime bottle and offered the cup instead - her intake dropped for a few days but picked up again. Once she was ok on the free-flow cups I switched to the avent magic cup which is non-spill and less messy but still quite easy to suck from.

She was off bottles by 14 months. She also had a doidy cup which is good for teaching them how to drink out of open cups: doidy cup

[staceym11]

i dont see much problem if they drink milk from a bottle even after a year, as then they only have it first thing in the morning and last thing at night, my dd wont even look at milk in a cup but wont drink juice unless through a straw, wont be pushing her to drink milk from a cup just yet, not till shes about 2 and can understand why.

[clairebear123]

Thanks, perhaps will wait another couple of months and try mornings first. Hopefully he won't thow the cup at me as first son did!!