10mo struggling to work out how to use sippy cup

[pacific407]

I have been trying to introduce a sippy cup to my 10mo son for the past month or so and he just can't seem to work out how to use it. I started with the transition bottles, which I couldn't even work out how to use, let alone him. Then I moved on to a cup with a a spout which had a valve in it. He worked out which part should go in his mouth, but just kept biting it. So I took out the valve so it is free flow, thinking that he would work out what to do once he noticed that liquid came out of the end. But he still just keeps biting it and then looks really shocked when his mouth fills up with liquid! I don't really want him having bottles all the time, because I understand it's bad for his teeth, but I'm struggling to know what to do. Will he just work it out for himself?

If water is coming out and he looks shocked, you are getting there already! I use the free flow tommee tippee (the really cheap one in every supermarket). It's very small so they don't need to tip much to get the water out. I started at 6mo and for months DD was just banging the cup on the highchair tray. Then she was tipping the water into her mouth and letting it all drip out of her mouth, with a huge grin on her face. Then she blew raspberries into the cup. Now at 10mo, she can pick up the cup and sip it herself.

Give your LO time to explore the cup and he'll get there.

We were struggling with a sippy cup, dd (8 mo) manages better with a doidy cup, although I have to support the bottom so it doesn't spill when she drinks. It's open so she can dunk her hands in and explore the water, it also means she can copy dp and I drinking.

I think there's too much pressure put on parents to get their DC onto cups. A few extra months of a bottle is not going to ruin his teeth!

I would let him keep playing with it but don't worry about it. Most likely he will do what my DS did with both the sippy cup and a regular cup, which is be totally clueless about it and then one day just pick it up and know exactly what to do with it.

Glad to hear we're not the only ones struggling with this. I've tried 3 or 4 types of sippy or cups. Basically ds is just not that into it. I'm assuming he'll get it eventually. We've had most success with just a small kids plastic cup, though half the time I can't tell if he's drinking or just blowing bubbles

Ours never got on with anything other than a doidy cup to start with. She could use it by herself from about 25 weeks but I had to catch the cup quickly as she finished drinking, as she didn't know how to put it back down except by letting go of it! From about 10 months she started using a normal two-handled cup (a free flow tommee tippe with spout lid taken off) and has now gaduated to ceramic one-handled mug at nearly 17 months. She's fine with open cups as long as she is seated, but increasingly she wants to stand up and drink (and not hold onto anything, looking very pleased with herself "Look Mummy, no hands, AND I'm drinking standing up!") so we're back to catching the cup again!

Agree with DreamingBohemian. I can understand why you're motivated to get him onto the next stage of drinking 'vessel', but 10 months is very young still. Babies are naturally sucky and love teats. I think if you continue to offer the sippy cup (and maybe another type - DS2 has a simple spouted beaker that he quite likes) they will suddenly take to it, but don't sweat it yet.

Not all babies like teats. You will see there are lots of bottle refusing ebf babies in the bf and ff forums.

Yes I must point out that ours was EBF and wouldn't take a bottle at all, so when we started weaning, a spouted cup for water didn't work either - we tried several types including free-flow ones but she had no idea what to do with them. She didn't suck hard enough to get anything out and couldn't tip the free-flow type far enough to get a drink before she gave up. The open cup was the only way she could see that there was anything in it and she could see how far to tip the cup to get some. The open cup gave her a lot more control over drinking - she didn't accidently inhale water when it was suddenly tipped far enough to go down the spout. With the sucky type spout, she just gave up before she got a drink. As far as I know babies can drink from an open cup form birth though (by lapping milk - it is how we ended up trying to give our LO expressed milk at 6 weeks old as she couldn't or wouldn't get anything from a bottle at all) whereas sucking from a bottle or through a spout or straw requires a lot of suction and is something that has to be practiced and learned.