Cups

[ailbhe]

So. Emer is breastfed, and self-feeds solids; I can't remember when her older sister learned to drink from a cup, though. She understands a normal cup fine, but spouted ones seem to confuse her. Anyone else got a breastfed baby - no bottles - and any idea when non-spill drinking is likely?

Comments

[alison.hemuk.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

I haven't yet mastered non-spill drinking ;-) Elijah only wanted proper cups from about 8 months - I just used to give him tiny shot glasses and refill a lot - 20ml getting spilt doesn't matter. He was fine by a year. The others were happy with sippy cups (tried to avoid the no-spill valve ones) and were ok with non-lidded cups by about 18 months.

[ellipunk.livejournal.com]

I think it totally depends on the baby.
Ali just spilled open cups. A lot. We went with the Avent magic cup things. It took him a while to "get" it, but he did eventually.
My nephew R was very proficient, very early.. as in at 11 months or so, with both self-spoonfeeding and open cups.
I think Ali didn't understand that the drinks were for hydration.. more of a novelty for him, whereas R knew very well that drinks were for thirst and thus messed less with them.

Have you tried her with a straw cup? Ali has one where the straw kind of flips up out of the lid when you push a button.

[iuil.livejournal.com]

R is very proficient with anything to do with food!

I second the straw cups. Or a sports bottle, they don't so much spill as drip.

[(Anonymous)]

we've used a normal straw with an open cup for J since he started solids (C had the same) - no mess at all, all you have to do is remember a straw & the dentists love it :)

(Layla)

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that it varies wildly.

Our little **FIXME's was exclusively breastfed and never drank from a bottle. (Tell a lie: he took maybe three feeds of EBM from a bottle.) He's been drinking from a Doidy cup (lifted and positioned by a parent) since he was something like 8 months or so. He can sometimes do it on his own now (11 months) but more often gets excited and starts playing with the water, with predictable and hilarious (to him) results. He can also now drink from an open cup (with help), but only until it's down to a certain level.

He likes to play with sippy cups but is really not getting it. (He also loves to play with half-full water bottles, and I think enjoys sippy cups on the same basis).

I'm a big fan of Doidy cups - the sloping sides mean that you can see to adjust the tilt so the liquid is just touching the baby's lips so they can lap.

[merryhouse.livejournal.com]

Christopher never really got on with sippy cups. We had two, but he much preferred them open. Oliver just treated them as one more thing to chew.

I second the OP who said to just put a small amount in at a time. Especially as it's only water and it's summer. [It *is* summer.]

I'm not sure at what stage we discovered the lift-up type ("sports cap", I believe) but I'm pretty sure Oliver mastered it fairly young.

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

I got Aisling drinking from an Avent soft spout cup when I was in America (so about 10.5 months) It took about 2 days - as in I put it on her tray for 3x2 sets of solid food and at the end she could do it. Alex loves feeding her EBM using it, the childminder has stuck with the Doidy cup.