Best cup for milk after breastfeeding?

[Beckysk]

Hi, my LO is a bottle refuser, I've tried to preserver but she's bearly 11 months, so thinking it probably would be easier to just transition her onto a cup. She's currently breastfed, and Were off on holiday with my OH family, who make public breastfeeding feel really awkward and make comments. So ideally I would prefer to give her a milk feed when we are out and about, she's fed on demand, and formula seems to constipate her so easily that I'm just sticking to BM! What cup would be best? She has water from a tommee yippee free flo, but wondered if anyone had better luck with something else? Like a straw or valve one?

Many thanks!!!

Becky

Entirely depends on the kid...

DS1 took a straw from about 5 months - but then refused to drink from anything else until he was 4 (!).

DS2 is a food monster, and used a normal cup from 5 months - he was desperate to drink what we were drinking, the same way we were drinking it (both were bottle refusers)

My two went from boob to tommee tippees with a valve and two handles on the side.

Are you planning to express and then use a cup? Totally possible but a bit of a faff while on holiday. I didn't find expressing very easy, just wondering if you've expressed much. What I am getting at is if breast feeding works for you DD why not carry on? in a month you could move to cow milk which may not constipate her. Tell OH to have a word with his family about the comments, they are not helpful!

My dd was bf until 12 months and was a bottle refuser too, I started her on the tommee tippee free flow ones, age 4 months+ I think, she still uses them now at 19 months. I tried buying the valved ones and straw ones purely because I was conscious she still uses a first stage cup but she couldn't get to grips with having to work for her drink and to be honest she'll be on an open cup next anyway so I don't see the point in confusing her.

Not wanting you to risk the enjoyment of your holiday but sod them, their attitude is really unhelpful and making comments is incredibly childish. It should be a time for you to relax too so do what works for you and if that means carrying on as you would at home and they take offence so be it. There's no point you and your dd getting stressed over a drink of milk just to keep others from feeling uncomfortable. Their issue, not yours.

Have a lovely time.

I didn't put milk into cups at all until DS was able to handle open cups, it's just so difficult to clean and annoying.

We used a tommee tippee one for water and occasional dilute juice/squash.

I just carried on feeding from the boob for milk even when out. Didn't get any strange comments or looks :) Mostly when they are that big they know what they are doing and others don't even notice.

Oh right, totally missed holiday comments. Duh!

I would think at 11 months you don't need to worry about nipple confusion, so any kind of cup would be fine, I would pick one which looks easy to clean.

There are lots of different types of cup out there so as ChunkyPickle says it depends on the baby which one they take to. You have to be a bit careful about certain cups and prolonged use as that can lead to teeth problems. Any free pour sippy cup is generally recommended. A really good cup if you want to move on from breastfeeding and avoid introducing bottles or other cups that may lead to teeth / speech problems long term, is the doidy cup. It is an open cup weigh handles and it is slanted so easier for babies to use. I have used one with my DD since she was about 6 mo (holding it for her to help her and avoid spilling initially).

I think it is a real shame that your reason for wanting to introduce the cup is the behaviour of your OHs family. Surely they have to accept that BFing is absolutely the biological norm for babies and young children and therefore the best thing for your LO? Personally, this would make me want to BF even more but then I am quite bolshy. I do understand if it makes you feel uncomfortable but it's just a shame if it influences your choices for your LO. I just wonder if you could get some support from your OH to help you deal with this rather than looking at cups? If you want to move on to cups for other reasons though then that's different. It is absolutely your choice and I am saying this from the point of view of wanting to offer support only.

I'm I know it is rather immature. I just have to bite my tongue a lot. They'll say things like 'how about feeding in the baby change room (yuk), is it normal to be feeding her at this age (!!!), and oh you're feeding at the table, hopefully no one sees.... Etc etc. it makes me very cross but I'm too nice to say anything. I only want to use a cup for one feed a day, I already express for her food so not a massive faff, it's just I hate how awkward they make me feel! Also IH is only coming for 6 days out of 2 weeks, every woman's nightmare lol