Teaching how to drink with a straw

[Tasha80]

My DS is 8.5 months old and we've been weaning since he was just over 6 months. The food side of things is going really well (he's on 3 meals a day and he's just started to reduce the size of his post meal bottles) but I'm struggling to get him to drink water with a straw.
He's learnt how to drink from an open cup but because he still spills a lot of it I want to teach him how to use a straw for drinking when we're out of the house or when he's not sat at his highchair.
I got him a weighted straw cup but you have to suck it very hard to get the water out so it doesn't work for teaching him how to suck.
I've tried to show him the connection between a straw and water by dipping it in a cup of water, covering the other end of the straw with my thumb and releasing the water in his mouth. He gets this bit but I'm struggling to get any further than this and get him to suck the water from the cup up the straw.

Does anyone have any tips on how to teach babies to use a straw to drink?

Try a normal cup/glass and straw and put something interesting, like diluted juice, in the glass.

That should encourage him

I used to put the straw in the drink and put my finger over the top (to hold some drink inside the straw). Take the straw out and put it on their mouth and release it. After a few times I held the end so it didn't drip out straight away, and they got the idea to stuck it. When they sucked I would let go. After a few times they got the idea they needed to stuck to get the drink out.

Then just left the straw in the cup as normal as they could drink from it

Tell them to kiss the straw (& warn them they'll get water in their mouth!)

We use those 360 cups where they have lids and they sip from them but it doesn't spill.
Perfect for this age

Don't.

Such a small baby is too woobly and unco-ordinated to manage a straw safely; he could easily poke the back or roof of his mouth (or his eye)
For the same reason dont let him feed himself with a fork.

Teach him to drink from a sippy cup with two handles and a short spout on the lid.

A sippy cup is the way to go. Some children don't get the idea of straws for ages. My DD was using a sippy cup from very small as she refused a bottle (was breast fed).

I wouldn't. Drinking through a straw is a recipe for digestive problems from swallowing air. Plus general safety. Plus he needs to practise drinking to develop.

Why does it even matter if he spills a bit of water?

I taught my now 20 month old to drink from a straw around 9 months.

I put some yoghurt on the end of the straw to encourage sucking.

It took her a while to realise she didn't need to tip the cup but she got there eventually.

Also I bought a straw bottle as opposed to a cup with a loose straw. It keeps it in place and reduces the chance of the straw moving to the back of their throat.

Sippy cups are not needed. I went straight to an open cup. Yes there are lots of spills to begin with but everything takes practice.

Good luck!

Oh and I taught open cup drinking by giving it to them in the bath originally. Nobody cares then of anything gets spilled

Hi, thanks for everyone's suggestions.

@Samjamm Yesterday after dinner I tried the yoghurt trick with a paper straw in a cup and he sucked up some water whilst sucking the yoghurt. I then offered him his straw bottle and he managed to suck a little bit of water from that so we'll continue to practise this after his meals.
Thanks for the tip!

@Okapi99 I'd been trying this previously but he never managed to suck on the straw to get the water out - he just waited for me to move my thumb and let the water flow.

For those worried about safety, don't worry I'm trying to teach him to drink from a baby straw bottle, with a soft silicone straw and he's always supervised so isn't likely to hurt himself.

The advice I've had from Health Visitors, council funded weaning experts etc. is to teach babies to drink from open cups and straw cups/bottles when they start weaning and skip the sippy cup stage. I believe the theory is that drinking from an open cup and from a straw are lifelong skills so worth teaching from the beginning wheras sippy cups are just a temporary drinking tool.

He can drink from an open cup fine when he's sat in his highchair but I want to teach him how to drink from a straw bottle for when we're out of the house, in the same way an older child or adult would drink from a cup at home and have a water bottle in their bag when they're on the go.

A sports top type bottle might be a good alternative to straws.
I've never used one of these valve straw cups, but I saw them recommended on a similar thread and thought they looked a great idea.
As a nanny, I've used, and recommend the really simple tommee tippee flip up spout cups for over twenty years. I've never had any issues with children transitioning on to open cups or straws or switching between them. Thinking about it, I've never really taught how to use a straw, it's just a skill they pick up as toddlers.