I'm having trouble teaching my 6 month old to drink from an open cup.

[Walkingtree]

I'm trying to tech my 6 month old to drink from an open cup. I wondered if anyone has experience of this.

He's had a go a few times but mainly just tips the water out then plays with the cup.

Am i expecting too much from him? How long does it take most children?

All The examples i've seen show young children obediently letting their mums pour water in to their mouths, but he doesn't like that. (We're doing baby led weaning as he only likes to feed himself aswell)

If anyone has experience teaching an independent little soul...i'd love to hear it!

I'm not actually sure why a cup got used but we used a cup the exact size of a shot glass as dc refused every bottle we bought them after exclusively bf the first 6 months and I had to go back to work. Effectively our poor dc had to starve until they took an alternative because I had to go back to work ft so after about two days of me rushing back feeding them in the evening after a morning feed before leaving for work they finally drank from the cup. I continued to bf morning and evening but in the day they were given a cup to drink from. All worked out ok.

Or maybe we don’t have the patience for Instagram mums who make other mums feel like shit when their child won’t do the exact same thing as the child they saw online.

@Linio Ah okay. So because some people feel guilty or insecure that means others shouldn’t try and help their child learn an important skill?

I wasted loads of time trying to do this. My son mastered an open cup only recently almost aged 3. I fell into the trap of putting too much pressure on myself as the official advice is to use open cups to protect teeth etc but children all develop at their own rate. The alternative of not using a sippy cup would have left my son constipated as he wouldn't drink otherwise.

Just go at your child's pace. At the end of the day the experts are just giving general advice and it doesn't work with all children.

Thinking about it, it’s probably best if you have a DC that can drink from a sippy cup so you’ve got a spill free option to chuck in your bag, don’t have to worry about spills at Grandmas etc AND they can also drink out of an open cup in case you ever forget said sippy cup - best of both worlds!

But OP I wouldn’t worry if your baby is struggling with one or the other yet, they’re very tiny and you’re right at the start of weaning. By all means try the doidy and keep encouraging it but if they don’t take to it then there wouldn’t be any harm in also trying the basic tommee tippee free flow or a 360 because if nothing else it’s handy when you’re out for the day! Good luck!

That's because their six months old 🤷‍♀️
Let them be a baby for a little longer

Is there a reason you don't want to use a cup with a spout?

My DD was like your baby, OP. Didn’t like being fed and had to do everything herself. We used a free flow sippy cup on advice from the health visitor to start with and I’m sure we moved on to open cups before she was 1. After reading this thread I was worried the advice had changed but NHS website still says free flow cup or open cup… the free flow cup helped her regulate how much to tip the cup without the mess apart from when she would deliberately open it and shake it and send water everywhere - I’m sure soon he’ll get the hang of it, OP.

Honestly, i hadn't quite realised the difference between them and valve cup. 🤦‍♀️If he gets to the stage i think he actually needs the water (he's no where near that) i'll try him on one.

Thanks, that's wise approach. Thanks!

I'm definitely inclined to do this too! Thanks!

Ignore negative comments op - great to practice from 6 months, good for tongue positioning/ speech development etc. But also v messy for a while! I would go for a cup with a weighted straw (rather than a sippy cup) for situations when you want to avoid the mess.

It's a huge pain to give them open cups because they just want to play with the water.

We practice with open cups in the bath, other than that he drinks from a free flow beaker or 360 cup.

6 months is too early for an open cup
Stick to a sippy cup. There's no rush

We used a shot glass. Much smaller. He couldn’t use a Tommy Tippee free flow cup for ages. We’ve never used the 360 cups as they’re hard to drink from.

At 6 months I bought my daughter a set of little cups from jojo maman Bebe. They are about the size of little shot glasses - although they are plastic - so perfect for little hands. I saw a video on the ' feeding littles' instagram page that showed a god technique. Tiny amount of water in the glass, drink the out down saying ahhh. This encourages them to drink only a little and then swallow. Judy - on the Instagram page - is wonderful so you'll get lots of tips there. I wasn't very persistent but she is very confident with open cups now at 1.5. Good luck

Don't bother. Drinking from open cups isn't hard, choosing to leave them the right way up with left over water in them is very very hard!

My three year old has finally got it 😂 enjoy life and really don’t worry about these things!

I only just trust my 4 year old to not spill!!

We used shot glasses with ours. Minimises the mess, right size for their hands and only ever gave water.
Took a couple of weeks for them and get the hang of it. They stop playing with it when they want a drink but I had no issue with playing/exploring/experimenting .

You are expecting far too much from a 6 month old. Chill.

Agree that your little one is very young to be worrying about this. However, Doidy cups are very good.

Thank you! Yes i have those liytle cups and he does love them. I'm not Instagram, but i'll sign in to DH's account and look her up!