Weaning baby, sippy cup, straw cup, open cup???

[Sophie9090]

I will be starting to wean my LO at 6 months, looking into what I need. I read I need to offer him water with every feed, but no clue what cup to offer this in. I cannot see him using an open cup (even with my help) without it going everywhere.

It seems people don’t really like the sippy cups, but what if you’re out surely the open cups make a mess.

Do they tend to stay with the same cup, or change to a different type as they get old?

This weaning stuff is very stressful

Thank you!

Sippy cups are fine. It's only some speech therapists in America that don't like them and apparently this is because they don't encourage good mouth position. But they are not drinking every hour of the day so surely it won't make any difference at all.

The Tommee Tippee free flow cup was a good starter for us. I then moved onto the Munchkin straw cup around 8 months.

Try a doidy cup. I started in the bath so it didn’t matter about spillage but DS caught on quickly and there was no need to wean him off another cup to an open cup then!

Make life easier on yourself and use a sippy cup day to day. As the weather warms up you can have an open cup to play with at home outside. By the time they are at school. All this will be a distant memory and you will realise that most of the time it really doesn't matter which you pick now. Just choose what works for you.

I like munchkin 360 cups. Very similar movement to drinking out of an open cup, much less messy.
I do more open cups in the summer months when it’s less of a problem when my toddler deliberately tips his water all over himself.

We used a regular cup and seemed to work well.

Doidy cups are cool when you do start trying open cups.

@ATeddybearshortofaPicnic

I like munchkin 360 cups. Very similar movement to drinking out of an open cup, much less messy. I do more open cups in the summer months when it’s less of a problem when my toddler deliberately tips his water all over himself.

I second the 360s. DD can do without covering herself in water every time she needs a drink.

But just don’t do this to yourself. Any cup will do.

We started with munchkin 360 but I know there's some debate over how good these are for speech development so I switched to tum tum straw cups which I would highly recommend.
We also use a doidy cup sometimes but it's a lot of mess!

It's worth noting that the NHS doesn't recommend/suggest to avoid any kind of cup in relation to speech development, except baby bottles.

My main complaint about straw bottles is they are a pain to wash.

I’ve never known anyone, parent or nursery, not to use a sippy cup Mine used 360 cups. Switch to an open cup when you can trust them not to hurl it. My 4YO has survived just fine.

@RandomQuest

I’ve never known anyone, parent or nursery, not to use a sippy cup Mine used 360 cups. Switch to an open cup when you can trust them not to hurl it. My 4YO has survived just fine.

This.

My DD was nearly 3 before she was allowed an open cup. Even then it wasn't on every occasion.

We just use a silicone open cup, DS is much better at it than I thought he would be. Plus for us it didn't matter if he got wet as when I first started weaning he was in pj's for the 1 meal a day he was having so he got changed out of any wet clothes straight after. I chose open cup so I didn't have to go through any attachment to any sippy cups/bottles (he's ebf)

Doidy cups all the way here too. I never understood the point of any of the other cups when open cups seem to be what the eventual aim is anyway? Have I missed something important?

Use whatever the child will use.

If you use one with a valve please be aware that you’ll need to take apart the valve to clean all its bits or they grow mould…

Tommee tipppee first cup is what we started with. Can be used with or without the lid

I didn't like the doidy cup with its stupid wee handles

360 cup here too for all of mine.

I use to give water with 'meals' in an open cup but always had a 360 on the go for DS to take sips of whenever he wanted during the day. They do similar at his nursery too.

Just went straight to an open cup (started with these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GOXMWZ8/ref=cmswwrcppapiii_4319RENK73KC77KJCZ41). Yes there was water everywhere for a while, but my 19month old now drinks from a normal glass tumbler with no spills 95% of the time. I couldn't be faffed with doing it in stages - if you can put up with the mess then you only have to do it once

I don’t really think it matters, when you’ve got something yummy in your cup they literally won’t give a shit and will sip it anyway😂

Tum Tum straw cups are good for when you want a straw cup.

We started with the Tommee Tippee free flow cup and went onto those. He still doesn't often drink from an open cup because yes it goes everywhere. 18 months now

We started with a free flow sippy cup (Tommee Tippee) then added the Tum Tum Tots straw cup and the Doidy cup.
DS is 16 months now and tends to have a Tum Tum tots one on the go all day while plying and he goes to his drawer in the kitchen and picks out what cup he fancies at breakfast/ lunch/dinner 🤷🏻‍♀️
A lot of speech therapists don’t recommend the 360 cups or spouted cups so I stayed away from those - although, I think those recommendations mainly come from America, I don’t think there are any suggestions like that from the NHS

Oh if open cups work for you that’s great. Do that. I just have a kid who thinks it’s fascinating to tip every single drink I give him in an open cup straight on the floor and I can’t cope with the frustration from the wet clothes, the wet sofa or rug or cushions or bed, the lethally slippy floor and the fact it means he doesn’t actually drink anything.

@De88

Doidy cups all the way here too. I never understood the point of any of the other cups when open cups seem to be what the eventual aim is anyway? Have I missed something important?

Not really but six month olds tend to have absolutely no concept of gravity and not very developed coordination, therefore the contents of open cups go in many directions before they get anywhere near their mouths, which is quite annoying. Surely most people dislike having water spilled all over the floor, sofa, books, yourself, clothes, child's clothes, child's food etc. And even worse if it has milk or something in it. I'm a bit too haphazard to supervise them that closely to prevent this so a cup with some kind of lid at least reduces the damage from spills.

Most people prefer to have drinks contained a bit more until children are more reliable (IME, around 3 years old for them to get the idea of gravity AND the development and spatial awareness down). Sitting and helping them drink every time they need hydration until that age seems a bit annoying when you could just buy a cup with a lid. But each to their own! I'm sure I do things that people think WTF is she creating all that work for herself for?