Please can someone talk to me about feeding from a cup?

[Anglepoise]

I would like to have a way of getting bm into DD without me being around - partly because we are currently turning down offers of babysitting and dinner out with DH would be nice, and partly because I will need to go back to work in a few months.

She won't take a bottle, not that we have tried very hard, partly because I don't want to go anywhere without her often enough to be bothered keeping up expressing so that she doesn't forget how to do it. If she will take a cup, do I need to keep giving her one so she remembers, or is that something she can have occasionally?

Also is it just a case of trying lots of cups until I find one she likes, or does anyone have any recommendations? She's 18 weeks. I had a quick look in Boots yesterday and there's one with a spout for stage 1 weaning (whatever that may be!) - does that sound like the kind of thing? I have no idea what sippy cups/doidy cups etc are

TIA

You can either go for an open cup (like the doidy), a sippy cup (in which case you want either the Tommy Tippee one with the flip up spout or another free flow cup - not a non spill), or a cup with a straw.

The open cup is the messiest, but a good long term cup, so worth getting a Doidy - which you normally have to buy on t'internet.

I found the straw easiest with DS at a young age - you teach them by dipping the straw into the drink, putting your finger over the end, and then dripping it into their mouth. If you make a big play of sucking up the drink they get the idea really quickly and seem to think its great fun. I have cups like these which are great as you can just use normal straws with them and they are fairly leak proof

My twins took to the tommy tippee ones very quickly and the flip up spout bit is much easier to clean than the ones with straws imo.

Thank you! I will get a couple and see which she prefers. I hadn't even thought of cups with straws, so that's useful

It might be worth checking the teat, I was BF and refused a bottle but would take a cup, it turned out I have a latex allergy and was instinctively refusing something that would harm me.