Expressing - possible to go straight to sippy cup?

[jenrose29]

I will be returning to Uni for a couple of days per week when my baby is just over 4 months old. It may sound like a daft question but can she skip the bottle and have expressed breast milk from a sippy cup instead as they say they are for babies 4+ months?

My DD wouldn't take a bottle so we went straight to a cup, but it took her a while to 'get' it - at first she would just dribble all the milk straight out again. I would say it took her several months to be at a stage where she would drink anything significant from a cup. You could try a doidy cup, a friend of mine had good success with that. You never know, your baby might be quick at picking up drinking from a cup.

How old is your baby now? It's quite difficult for them to drink from a cup while they still have the tongue-thrust reflex that pushes out anything introduced to the front of the mouth. The 4+ months 'suitability' thing is because manufacturers are still allowed to suggest weaning from 4 months even though advice is 6 months. (You will see Plum Baby etc say 'suitable from 4 months' on their packaging.) Bottle teats work because they go over the tongue. Have you tried your dd on a bottle at all? If you're going for full days then I would be doubtful she would get anything like proper feeds from a cup.

We went from BF to sippy cup at around five months but only because we failed to get DS to take a bottle. First couple of months were fairly messy with lots of dribbling and spills but then got the hang of it and from 9 or 10 months can drink by himself (altho has a tendancy to tip it upside down to play)

Watching with interest as need to leave 4mo DS for approx 4 hrs next week - am expressing and leaving a sippy cup and bottle, he's not tried either yet. Will report back!

Not tried a bottle yet, would just rather have skipped it and gone straight to cup but would rather introduce the bottle if she'll feed better that way. She's 3 months now.

I would try the bottle, otherwise there is a real risk your 4mo won't be able to eat properly while you're not there. Give it a go when you're not in the house - often if they know you're there they won't touch a bottle if the real stuff's available.

I went straight from boob to sippy cup (tommee tippee one with flip spout and handles) for dd1 as she just refused a bottle, she got the hang of it pretty quick (less than a week) but she was 6 months not 4 so maybe that made a difference. Good luck OP.