Training cups....HELP!

[luath]

my dd is unable to take from a bottle and has an NG feeding tube in place. We are now moving her onto using a training cup and have started weaning ..she is 19 weeks old. Has anyone else had to use a training cup so early and aslo how long did it take you to transitiion only on to a cup so bottle isn't used at all???

hi luath does that mean your dd can't suck, if so maybe a first cup from tommee tippee would be ok, it just has one small hole and it just flows out, i used cups from 4m old with both of mine and it was the tommee tippee ones they are so much easier at the start then i moved on to ones that they had to suck hard on to get anything out and to stop spillages

hi there luath, have you been advised to wean her early by the docs?
tbh at a year dd still gets some bottles (she's been exclusively ff since about 5 months), but i know that's not what you want to hear.
i have tried a lot of cups and found them to be pretty tricky myself. the best ones are the cheapie tommee tippee ones with the hole. they do spill as the babies waggle them about but at least the milk flows freely. dd has also drunk water from an open cup since about 6 months but it was very hit and miss, so something we tended to do pre-bath iykwim?
you could also try a doidy cup, but do it sooner rather than later as by the time dd got hers she thought it was a hat.

thanks kidstrak....Yes dd can't/won't suck.....Dr's have investigated everything but found nothing but she still can't suck from a bottle at all....so bottles have been abandoned now! howe long did it take your LO to take decent amounts from a cup? My dd currently take 40-60mls before refusing anymore....using the cheepest cup on the market like tomee tippee with just small holes...so she doesn't have to suck. Her NG tube will have to stay in until she's taking all her fluids from a cup and I was wondering if anyone else had to transition to cups as the only way of getting fluids into your baby as early as 19weeks?

Dr's advised early weaning as dd wouldn't take a bottle at all and was being fed solely by tube....ahrdly ideal !! They thought early weaning may help get her off the tube!

have you got a doidy cup? i think you might have to help her out quite a bit when you get started. how is she at swallowing her food?

Tried a doidy cup but it went everywhere and she knocked it out of my hand frustrated with it!! May dd really is a very difficult feeder....the drs have never seen anything like it before!!

oh! meant to say...she's quite good at swallowing her food....and definitely prefers sweet things and can mange quite a lot of sweet foods pureed down! ....she's not so keen on the savoury food yet but I've only been weaning for 2-3 weeks!

i think thats good if she is taking that amount from a cup, obviously mine took a bottle so they prob never took as much at the one time, but when ds was weaned onto solids at 4m he would take about 60ml of juice at lunch time from his cup and maybe about 20ml at teatime as he had bottles of milk inbetween, i presume your dd is taking milk from the cup as well as water/juice so it will prob take a bit of time before her tube is removed because she is not taking say a 125ml bottle of milk but is taking about 60ml of milk form a cup, is this right?

do the docs have any recommendations for high-calorie things you can give her?
she sounds like a pain... a lovely, lovely pain i'm sure but gggrrrrrrrrr, help your mummy out, wee one, for goodness sakes she's doing her best here.

sorry had to pop up to lo and pop some water down her tube now she is napping!! Thanks so much for replying... dd is taking 60 ish mls of milk 3 times a day by the cup plus some solid foods at three daytime meal times. inbetween meals I put 100 mls water down the tube just to keep her hydrated. she also gets 2 tube feeds one first thing am and one last thing at night which go straight down the tube as she's asleep then! The milk I'm using is special high calorie milk which we get through the hospital so she can get more calories by taking less volume...if that makes sense! This is a very difficult situation and I only hope she just gets better with the cup with time and then takes more. I got worried the other day as an aunt of mine asked me why she can't take more than 60mls from her cup at one time....i dont' know why this is especially as she must be humgry but I can only presume it is because using a cup is difficult for her at this stage and she just gets tired, frustrated and fed up....and I don't want to force the cup and make her upset!

that all makes sense, she probably isn't hungry as she is being tube fed as well and gettting everything she needs through that, it sounds to me as if she is making great progress and when she is a few months older she will take more from the cup, its a bigger effort to take from a cup at a small age and time consuming so i can see why she gets frustrated

thanks kidstrak....I feel better reading your message. She will get better with just patience and time....thanks so much for your support and getting back to me.

agree totally with kidstrack. it's difficult for them to get to grips with the cup, dd still launches loads of water down her throat sometimes and coughs and splutters all over the place, and she's been doing it for six months. by and large she's pretty good with it, though. i'd be surprised if she was drinking a whole lot more than 60mls at a time, though, but then we are in a position to give her bottles so it's hard to say.
i'm sure your daughter will learn when she's ready.
the only other thing i wanted to say is 'ignore the peanut gallery'. (ironic, cos i know that mn is a peanut gallery par excellence).

if you were to listen to my mother, all of us drank from a cup from 6 months onwards, we were all in pants by one and fluent in three romance languages from four. aunties and grannies can't remember what they did, that's the truth of it, but they think they can.

i already couldn't tell you when my dd really started drinking from a cup, but i think it was about 6 months. try me again in thirty years time and do you honestly think i'll be able to remember what she did? not a chance.

you carry on, you sound like you've had it rough and i hope dd gets over this issue soon. see you on the BLW website when she's 6 months and feeding herself?

Luath - it is so frustrating isn't it? Has your lo been tested for reflux? My DS wouldn't have more than 50ml without fussing when his (silent) reflux wasn't under control. He didn't throw up but the pain from the acid gave him a food aversion (i.e bottle aversion) and he ended up on the high calorie milk infatrini after failing to thrive.

Have you come across the Haberman feeding bottles - they are for babies unable to suck from conventional bottles. You should be able to find them if you do a google search for 'haberman feeder'.

My DS first tried a doidy cup when he was about 5/6mths old and he gagged on the water until recently (he is now 10 months). Now he gets excited when I help him drink from it - but he only takes 10-20ml before getting bored and wanting to tip water down his front!

mothercare and babies r us both sell the haberman feeder. You can also get a haberman cup feeder thing which is supposed to be for when cup feeding is recommended: Haberman cup feeder

thanks for all your coments.....Dd has been tested for everything under the sun...EEG MRI etc all showed nothing! DD seems perfectly healthy but won't/can't suck from a bottle! I've tried the haberman feeder as well and she didn't even make any attempt to suck at all on it. I think most likely what's happened is that she did have severe reflux (silent) undiagnosed and then associated feeding from bottle with pain and therefore refused feeding altogether. In hospital various drs all tried feeding her....all had dd screaming blue murder but couldn't get her to feed! Obviously this has been a total nighmare but now at least she is taking between 40-70mls each feed using a tommee tipee feeding cup. She is also on infatrini so she doen't need to take in so much volume to get the calories she needs. I think I've just got to be patient and wait for her to grow and naturally get better with the cup....once she's able to take from the cup for all her fluids then the tube can come out...it's going to be a long road but hopefully we'll get there in the end!

it is almost funny, isn't it, when doctors think that they are going to have more success with your own baby than you will... i remember trying to BF and my DD would suck the finger [gross emoticon] of any medical professional in the building and they would look at me triumphantly. 'See! she's got a good suck reflex!' and i'd nod and smile and wait for her to claw my chest off rather than take milk from me...
it will all work out, it has to. sorry that you're having a tricky time, you sound like you are doing a great job under difficult circumstances.

totally know what you mean about drs thinking they know better than you! when we arrived at hospital dd hadn't fed for 12 hours...but did eventually take a bottle from me....after drs all had a go trying to make her take a bottle over several days making her scream sticking the bottle in her mouth and making me sit in the parents room whilst they did this.....she wouldn't even take a bottle from me! ....are you suprised!