Magicup for milk - with or without valve?

[rouge]

Planning to start getting DD (11 months) to start drinking her milk from a cup. She currently mostly uses an Anywayup cup for water - I know some of you don't like these but she's happy with it and it enables her to hold the cup herself without pouring water everywhere (she doesn't like being 'fed' water). Sometimes she uses a Magicup with valve too (and toddler spout) - I just tend to use these less often because they're such a faff to assemble and take apart.

Was planning to try the Magicup for milk because of the with/without valve option - also the Anywayup cup does seem to require a lot of suction, which seems less likely to encourage her to make the effort to change over. When I've tried before though, she hasn't been keen on bothering with the cup with valve, and tends to choke when the milk comes pouring out without the valve.

Any thoughts/advice?

[LIZS]

Mine have both used valveless spouts with Avent bottles for milk. I found that the valves have been a pain to clean with just water so would hate any milk deposits to fester there , for same reason only used Anywayups for water. Also didn't feel the need for a leakproof milk cup because they would either drink it at one sitting or not, rather than sip at it over aporlonged period. I'm sure she'd get used to it without the valve - don't really think it is that much faster than the fastest teats. Does she use bottles herself as it is a similar matter of getting the angle right and just takes practice.

hth

[rouge]

Thanks LizS - no she doesnt use bottles on her own yet and is only just getting the hang of tipping up cups, but I will try the Magicup without valve today and see how I get on

[rouge]

Just tried (without valve) - not happy. Had to revert to teat. Maybe I should try soft spout and then move on to hard?

[DoesntChristmasDragOn]

Don't understand your troubles about cleaning the valves on a magic cup - they just come apart into 3 bits and you wash them like any other spout or teat. Don't they???

[rouge]

Starting another thread for general tips!

[colinsmommy]

Rouge-One of my friends from playgroup is married to a dentist. He hates the valves, and thinks they are a terrible idea as babies have to bite down to get anything to come out. He reccomends no valves whatsoever, as that is actually better for little mouths. I second the Advent cup. It has a nice soft spout and what seemed like a slower flow than most. It was also easier for DS to hold than any with handles. I didn't have much success getting DS to drink from a cup until about 13 mo, and then it was just like it "clicked" and he figured it out.

[LIZS]

btw we never graduated dd onto the harder toddler spouts. The softer ones seemed to do the job and had a more teat-like texture. We had a couple of the old style spouts left over from ds so those and a couple of the green magic ones did us. As she nibbled holes in them we just chucked them away. Perhaps get her used to feeding herself a bottle before you try to make the transition to cup - she needs to get the idea of angling it to control the flow and there would probably be less spill from a teat whilst she does this.

[rouge]

Hadnt thought of trying to get her to feed herself really - thanks