Drinking from a cup and when to give normal water

[Tillysmummy]

Two questions ladies, first is when should I start training my dd to drink from a cup. She is 6.5 months and can hold it fine and put it in her mouth but gets confused with the sucking / tipping thing ! Also when can I stop giving her cool boiled water and give her normal water ?

One more question. She is 28 weeks which is technically 7 months isn't it ? But as there are 52 weeks in a year and calendar months are often more than 4 weeks is 28 weeks 6.5 months ? Can someone help with this I am also trying to work it out ?

They're all pretty names. Love names ending in y. I also like the name Tess - we're thinking of that for no2 if it's a girl. There's also Poppy which I think is gorgeous too. A friend's little girl is called this.

Tess is on my list too Tillysmum, I also like Iris but as the surname will begin with S I think they'll both sound a bit funny

Tetley - I have spoken to the NCT lady who mentioned the problem with the Anyway Up Cup. Basically, because the child has to suck long and hard to get the drink out, the teeth are exposed to the drink from the flap for long periods at a time. There is a new cup (by Avent) which follows the same "non spill" principle but requires the child to bite the "teat" so the teeth are away from the opening so there is less damage to the teeth. She did point out that the anyway cup is only damaging if there is a sweet drink in it (as opposed to water, unsweetened milk) so yours should be OK. Hope this helps.

Apparently there's a lot of a dentistry and speech therapy hoohah going on re: non-spill cups at the moment, particularly in the US. Wall St Journal article here .
One of my mates has been told to stop using training cups by her child's speech therapist- so maybe it's gaining currency here in the UK too.

Charisma - Thanks for this advice. I did buy a cup which sounds like the Avent one you've mentioned, but I think it's a Tommy Tippee one. Anyway, you have to bite it - so must be very similar. It said on the packaging that it was the only one recommended by the British Dental Association. Ds is fine with it, but I did notice yesterday that he's already damaging the spout with his teeth!! Can't have everything I suppose!
I think I'll carry on with my AWU one as well, as it's just water I use in it. Thanks anyway for finding out this info.

I found this about anyway up cups,
Drinking cup debate

Mandy Haberman, mum and award-winning inventor of the Anyway Up Cup, has hit back at media reports that suggest non-spill valved drinking cups can cause damage to children?s teeth, bedwetting, dehydration and speech and language difficulties. Mandy points out that neither of the only two surveys conducted into these claims, published in 1999 and 2001, specified non-spill valved cups as the direct cause. Both studies referred generally to all drinking cups and bottles and in her opinion, only proved that a link exists between prolonged usage of sweetened drinks and dental caries. Mandy says: "To my knowledge, there is no independent scientific research or evidence to support the view that merely sucking from a valved feeding cup will cause health problems. I welcome research into this area. My primary interest is in the health and safety of mothers and their children. I invite the British Dental Health Foundation to clarify its position on this subject and, in particular, make it clear that it is the prolonged sucking of sugary drinks that is the issue and not valved feeding cups per se."

I give my child and have always given him special water by the gallon meant for babies especially. Have never boiled drinking water water myself just always given purified water. I always use a purifier on my faucet or Ill get the water I mentioned. I started the cup at different ages with my 3. I think it was mostly at a year when I stopped the bottles. Probally earlier is even better. I just read bayleafs message and living in the usa they dont really talk about boiling water to drink or sterilizing bottles and nipples much anymore these days. Cleaning with hot soapy water is recommended. Never had any problems with my other two doing this. Just curious am I the only mumsnetter using this website. I say this because so many of my words I use are different. Its very interesting learning other words being used for things. Like the word beaker I guess is cup.

sorry I meant the only mumsnetter from the USA.

I gave tap water from six months and use either an Avent soft spout or a Doidy cup (a cup without a spout but with a strange angled top so the child can see the contents of cup even when it's tipped) . He gets very excited by this one!

I have always given my son tap water both in England and the usa (and italy and jamaica). The water is chlorinated in these countries and perfectly safe for a baby. However, bottled water is not chlorinated and if it has sat on a shelf for some time can have quite high levels of bacteria. Also, some bottled waters can have too much sodium for a small baby. In my house in la I have tap water that is purified at the tap which is the ideal situation because it has had the benefit of being chlorinated (no bacteria), but my child and I don't have to actually drink the chlorine. Of course in countries where the water supply is not regularly chlorinated the bottled water is safer than the tap water.
Although my son (18 mo.) can quite easily drink from a cup, I give him a beaker (lidded cup) at meal and snack times to save on the mess. I can't imagine how the short amount of time the spout is actually in his mouth could actually cause any tooth damage. Then again, I rarely give him anything but milk or water.
three angels, I may live in england, but I am american and like you have had a lot of getting used to with all the different terms. I get very confused talking babies with my best friend who is english living in the usa!

aloha - arent those Doidy cups good? I would definitely recommend them for babies that are desperate to drink by themselves.

Evian is supposed to be a good bottled water for babies as it is particularly low in sodium.

Yes, I like the Doidy because it is a real sipping action, not a sucking one. Though I'd never dare let my son (8months) drink from one by himself - there would be water everywhere...! I too only give water & I've tried ordinary organic milk to see if he'd like the taste, and he does!

my daughter has never quite mannaged to get the hang of the drinking cup and i've never come accross one that said it was spill proof and actualy was shes 11 months now I give her the cup and like most of you have said already they just get thrown or tiped upside down and the contence shook out . I have'nt seen the any way up cup befor or the doidy? where can i get hold of them , bering in mind that we live in lincolnshire england.

We started letting our son experiment with a plastic (non-breakable) cup from a very early age so that he would get comfortable with it. I only ever put water in it so there were no dire consquences to the spillages and gave it to him at times when I had the time to change his clothes afterwards. Dinner was a good time since he needed to be changed for bed afterwards anyway. He still makes a bit of a mess with it, but then again my husband still can't pour himself a drink without spilling it.

charliesmum - you can get the doidy cups from here

thanks GillW ive orderd one maybe it will be easer for her to handle than the more conventional beaker type ?? i found that Anywayup cup ,she hates it and it leaks .May be im just destined to sterilise bottles when im 40?

thank god ive found somewhere to buy the doidy cup! and they are not even expensive. thanks for the address!

also, my 6 month old will only drink milk, refuses water. any tips?

maybe im stupid, but whats the meaning of "dd"?
im new to all this!

mcneill - welcome to mumsnet. dd is darling daughter, ds for son, dh is husband, dp partner etc. Hope that helps to make sense of it all!!

Hi Mcneill and Welcome. I gave my dd a water cup at about 5 months (it had a teat on it which I later changed to a soft spout).She didn't really start drinking from it for quite a while. Even now she doesn't drink heaps but has plenty of breastmilk anyway (she's 8 months now). I just let her play with it and hold it often also offering it after meals/sleeps/car rides/anytime really. Eventually she started drinking it. Hope that helps

mcneill - try gradually diluting the milk more and more, or try something totally different like very dilute juice. the first non-milk drink that my ds accepted was camomile tea.

Have you tried a doidy cup. It is a plastic cup with a tilted rim, no spout and makes drinking from a cup much easier. DD has always used one from 4 months as she hates spouts. It also removes the sucking issue. DD is now 12 months and can use it really well on her own, but needs a bit of help to place to back on the table though. Otherwise we have lots of wet patches!

Hi,

I'm also quite new to the site and am glad someone else asked about the ds and dd....

i'm really intetrested in this chat as I'm about to go on holiday with my 6 1/2 month old and am debating whether to boil water for her milk. The first week is on a cruise and the second is in Majorca, I will need to take a travel kettle if I do, whats the view on using bottled water for drinking and making up milk?

Also I stopped sterilising at 4months and just took the teats and bottles straight from the dishwasher, I would like to just wash by hand as normal on holiday but I'm not sure.

Advice and expereriences would be welcome

Can someone tell me where to get the Heinz cups? I've seen them recommended on other Mumsnet threads.

Somerfield and boots sell the Heinz baby cups. Redwood, Apparently you can use bottled water but you need to check for the sodium content. Evian is definately okay, and at 6.5 months they are less "precious" than at birth. In fact if you are going on a cruise I would lean towards mineral water as it wont be mains water and they might add something to keep it fresh. I don't know, just supposing.