Cups for 6 month old

[TransatlanticCityGirl]

My health visitor has given me a brochure about how I should start letting my daughter drink from a cup from 6 months old, but she has emphasised NOT to get an anti-spill kind, just a regular free flow kind. Apparently it is bad for their teeth to still be sucking on sippy cups and free flow teaches them to drink properly.

In my experience HVs make recommendations out to sound much more like rules rather than guidelines, SO my question is, what are your thoughts on the whole anti-spill vs free-flow question?

I have used the Tommee Tippee free flow cups with spouts for my DD and mindees, and they're a nightmare when they are experimenting with the force of gravity on water and milk all over my living room carpet and chairs.

DD now has a sports bottle which she has to suck from instead of pouring the water all over my bloody floor, my mindee would be getting one too if she wasn't leaving soon.

I like the tommee tippee ones with the flip top spout, in fact I was first given one by the health visitor a few years ago. They are free flow but because you can flip the lid you can take it out and about too. My DC's have usually got the hang of using the cup by about 8-9 months.

I went to a post natal course run by HV and they said to get a free flowing cup(with a lid and spout is fine) and not the type with the valves that they have to suck. I have a tommee tippee free flow cup with a spout that i use with my 6 month old with meals and hes got the hang of. I also have a doidy cup that we use daily supervised to practice drinking out of a normal cup. My DS is ff, I think some people who bf go straight to a doidy cup as otherwise you are teaching them to suck on a spout (which with a ff baby they can already do) then you progress to sipping from a normal cup so you might as well go straight to a normal cup- hope that makes sense!

another one who used a tommee tippee first cup. Can also be used with the lid off as an open cup (I didnt like the doidy cup)

I use a TT free flow first cup and a doidy as well. Sucking makes the teeth sits in liquid for prolonged period of time and so is bad for their teeth. I assume this doesn't apply to water. Therefor your HV is right that you should start them on cups from 6mo so they can do it well by 1yo. The soft spout ones are not good because it's just a teat really. Like others have said if bf babies can learn to do drink from free flow by 8-9mo so should ff babies, isn't it?

I can thoroughly recommend the doidy cup. My DS1 has one and learned to use it when he was 7 months or so old. It didn't take him long to figure out how to drink from it (although the spill risk is greater than when using a cup with spout, obviously). DS1 is now 2 1/2 years old and it's still his favourite cup.

I'm now wondering whether I should buy another doidy for DS2 or whether I can somehow convince DS1 to voluntarily hand it over to his darling little brother (without bribing him...)

Oh, and to answer your initial question: I'd go for a free-flow/real cup; after all you need to sooner or later anyway. And I think your child's teeth are worth some spilled water/milk/juice/whateveryouputinthere. :-)

Tt freeflow with flip lid. 6 month ds who refused all bottles drinks well from it and holds handles himself.