cups, straws ...moving on from bottles and boobs

[Portlypenguin]

Hiya!
DS is just 14mo and currently has BF in morning and evening and two bottles in the daytime. It took us 6 mo to get him to take bottles at all so this situation is the end point of seriously hard work. He goes to nursery on weekdays and they have pointed out that he will move up from the baby room soon and they generally have them drinking their milk from cups in the next room. It is not completely essential but I would like to try and get him drinking more from a cup. He takes sips of water from a free flow sippy but it is tiny amounts. He can also sip from an open cup with assistance but again it is tiny amounts.

Several people have recommended straws- how on earth do you teach them to use a straw? I have failed so far.

Any wisdom on getting a child of this age to take decent fluid volumes from a cup??

Are you using a straw cup? Like this one Or a actual straw in a cup? DD has no problem with the straw cup, but will always want to drink out of a cup or beaker that you put a regular straw in. She was 90% breastfed with just a few hours a week of expressed milk but moved to the straw without any problem - you can also suck the fluid up to the top of the straw in those sealed ones so the first time they don't need to suck very hard at all to get any.

DD has had no bottles now since 11 months, just straw cups for all her milk / lassis.

I wouldn't stress about it too much, at 14 months the recommendation is for 300ml of cows milk a day, so with 2 bf and sips and dairy in his diet he should be getting enough. A BFC on one of the helplines will be able to confirm this for you though.

We had similar issue with DS (12 mo). DH and I drank all our drinks through straws like total nutters for three days. By the end of it, DS was gagging to have a go! He seems to like clear cups (think he likes to see what he's drinking) and slightly thicker straws. HTH.

Mine can't do straws at 17mo, but can drink from a free flow cup from around 10mo. I just keep giving her a tommee tippee free flow cup/beaker for water and cow's milk and let her get on with it. She dropped her bottles at 9mo on her own, so similar to fredfredgeorge experience.

BakingBunty maybe it's the thickness of the straws. The ones I tried are the straws that come with cartons. And I wasn't persisting with it since DD can do free flow. Many friends have their LO on the thick straws in toddler sports bottles from around 12mo. Good luck.

We started with really quite thick ones - the kind you might find in, erm, well known coffee shops and fast food places. They're generally wrapped in paper, too, which makes them really handy for taking out and about! Clear straws are the holy grail, because DS likes watching the liquid moving (strange child). He now uses thin straws too but I'm convinced the thick ones helped him get the hang of it.

Only problem is that he's currently obsessed with blowing through the straw and laughing his head off at the bubbles.

DS (13 months) uses this one which we got from sainsburys steelsafe.co.uk/catalogue_item.php?catID=4344&prodID=48287&PHPSESSID=2ed21cae2798efa029910cdd5aa36b5d

He has been happily using it since he was 9 months - he seemed to just know what to do with a straw straight away - I think he had been watching his big sister and one day he just picked up a carton of her innocent smoothie and gulped away. He still sometimes uses a sippy cup but finds it hilarious to shake the contents everywhere and then smear the spills with his hands. The steelsafe one dosen't leak when shaken with the spout off.