EBM from a sippy cup

[blushingmare]

DD is 5 months. We're waiting til 6 months to start BLW and she's EBF for now. I'd like to see if I could start introducing expressed milk and wondered if I could do this in a sippy cup rather than a bottle? If so, how do you teach a baby to use a sippy cup and is there a particular type of cup I should go for? Thanks.

I'm using the Tommee Tippee First Cup. I've linked to Amazon here but you can get them for less than £2 in Tesco. My 6mo DS can take EBM with either this or a Doidy Cup just fine when he chooses to. You'll have to hang on to the base or the handle of the cup for a while yet but they'll grab and tip quite endearingly once they work out what's going on.

We got free cups from the dental nurse under the 'Childsmile' programme (Scotland).

PS Sorry - didn't answer the 'how' query. Sit her in a high chair and tip until she gets a taste of the milk and she may catch on quickly. Alternatively, put her in a baby bouncer and do the same thing. I've found the high chair is better with an open cup, whereas the bouncer is better with the sippy cup.

I don't know if this is dodgy, but my DS is very resistant to anything but boob and is an adamant bottle-refuser. For this reason, I find the sippy cup in the bouncer slightly more successful as I can insert the spout between firmly clamped lips and tip, which he'll grudgingly swallow or spit out then look progressively more interested, while also keeping him entertained with the dangly things hanging off the arch. You don't have a hope of doing this with an open cup or a bottle.

Thanks. And when you started did you give it when he was hungry at feed time or, like starting solids, give it almost to play with when they're not too hungry?

Also, with the ebm - I express and put it in the fridge right? And then warm in a bowl of hot water? What do I do if taking it out and about - do I need to keep it in an ice pack or something and then warm it somehow when out? I've never given her ebm before and now I realise why as I'm just too lazy with it all but when I've expressed for comfort before and left it hanging around out of the fridge in the bottle it seems to go off very quickly, so I assume it needs to be kept cool.

Sorry for all the questions!

I let DS play with the cup for a bit at mealtimes then started putting a bit of EBM in it every night for him to sip at while we had dinner about a month before we started introducing solids so that he got used to the idea that feeding didn't just happen in my lap and that it's a social activity as well.

WRT going out/storing EBM, the NHS guidelines for expressing and storing are here. Because of its antibacterial properties, EBM is actually OK out of the fridge for up to eight hours so unless it's really warm you don't need to bother with a cool bag or anything. I warmed it up in a bottle warmer in the bottles I expressed into for a while, but I don't bother anymore. Straight from the fridge or at room temp is fine, but that will depend on your DC's preference I suppose.

it took dd a while to drink bm from anything but me but the best advice i had was keep it consistent. same time same routine every day. i gave dd the doidy every morning with her breakfast from 5 months and now its the most successful bm cup feed of the day

With DD1 we were giving one bottle of EBM a day from almost the beginning and switched to a sippy cup (I forget which) at around 9-10 months by trying her with the cup first each day and then switching to the bottle if she wasn't happy and/or to finish off the feed. This time the plan was to try the doidy cup each time from birth but DH kept forgetting so we're only just doing it now at four months. I usually give her an ounce from the bottle, switch to the cup and then after she's tried it for a while go back to the bottle. Once she's a bit better at it I'll switch to trying the doidy first and hopefully eventually she'll take the whole thing from the doidy. I'm not sure how you'd do it with just a cup and no bottles as I think suddenly taking a whole feed from the cup would be hard - I would probably suggest either start practising at a non-feed time or be prepared to top up from the breast. I've come across various guidelines for breastmilk storage but the one that sticks in my mind is 6, 6, 6: six hours at room temperature, six days in the fridge and six months in the freezer. I've never had any go off myself but from what others have said it is fairly obvious when it does.