Moving from bottle/teat to non spill cup

[TracyK]

Hi
When do you try and move baby from teat to a cup. My ds is 5.5 mo and he can't get the non spill cup to give out any milk. I'm using the avent one but I struggle to get anything out never mind a baby.
Am I too early? Will it confuse him to swap between the cup and breast?

HV said to try to put Dd onto a beaker at meal times, cos she said the non spill cups have v. strong valves that mean they are bad for ears, or teeth or something. Recomended Doidy cups (urchin.com) tho I haven't tried yet as Dd 4.5 months.

Seen other threads where they recomend going at the non spill cups with a knife (gently) to open them up a little...

Tracy - try taking the valve out of the Avent spout and using it without - much easier. My ds never got the hang of the valve so I always used it without. Don't worry that he hasn't got the hang yet - it took mine quite a while - just keep offering it and eventually it'll happen.

We had a talk from a dental health promotion visitor at my mums and babies class. Very insistent that non-spill cups were the works of the devil, bad for teeth (and ears, apparently). Babies have to work too hard to get liquid out and I think something to do with contents coat the front teeth. So anything with sugar in such as fruit juice or milk is bad news. Afraid the only answer is use a normal beaker and put up with the splatters ? if you offer milk only at mealtimes and just water in between it's not too messy.
HTH

We used the tommee tippe ones, they are more bite and get liquid than suck.
but tbh we only used those for travelling when out and about, dd used the closing cap top of a bottle, like a little cup for her water, than at 18 mths she went straight onto using a proper cup herself and is not quite a pro, saved ourselves loads of hassle there!
Also another tip is too use straws, you can load th straw up and then let it go in bits into their mouths, exc in hot weather when they need to fluid but wont take it out of a bottle of cup..
HTh
xx