my son is 2 and a half. He drinks ONLY from those take n toss sippy cups. I have tried introducing different style sippy cups to no avail. He won't touch them. I am struggling to get him to even try drink from a straw... or eat with a fork/spoon.
I am at my whit's end. He needs to learn to use different muscles in his mouth now and start to learn to drink from a normal cup, like the rest of his age group. But I don't know how to approach this.
any suggestions?
(Oh and dad still insists on giving him a bottle in the morning after I asked him many times to replace that with a sippy-I know he does not need the bottle.)
I'll bet he'd try drinking out of a straw if you took him to McDonald's for a treat. That's how my daughter became motivated to try it! ;)
I don't have any suggestions from changing from a sippy cup - I just didn't give them the option, but I had easy kids. But what I would do is THROW OUT THE BOTTLES so your husband does not give it to him. No wonder he won't move on from the sippy cup. He likes being treated like a baby......he can't move on to be a big boy until stops being treated like a baby. Stand firm momma!
My son recently turned 12 months and went from bottle to cup (cold turkey). I threw away all of his bottles and replaced them with cups. Thats all you have to do, throw away the bottle, sippy cups and dont buy anymore. He will have no choice but to drink from a regular cup. You wont be able to give in and give him the sippy cups because you wont have any. And if he's thirsty then he will drink from the regular cup.
You are definitely right about the bottle... get rid of them and your husband won't be able to give it to him. Also, your son is old enough to not need a sippy cup at all, although I understand the convenience factor. You could take your son to the store and let him pick out his own big boy cup that no one is allowed to use. A plastic one with a cartoon character on it maybe. Two year olds can be very opinionated, which could make him very excited about the big deal you are making out of his new cup. The only downside of drinking from a regular cup instead of one with a lid is that it could get messy, so just be warned and keep the paper towels close at hand!
my oldest was off the bottle at 11 months and drinking from a regular cup and he only rarely uses a sippy cup so not sure about your situation. you also mentioned he doesnt eat with utensils? are you still feeding him? you really need to throw away all the sippys and all the bottles and he will learn to drink from a cup, trust me, when he is thirsty he'll drink. and let him feed himself!
I'm very laid back on the bottle issue and my 2.5 year old gets one at bedtime still. She never cared for regular sippy cups but around 2 took to the straw cups. Both my kids (2 and 5) like the cups that have soft, fold down straws. I like that they can be taken all over and no spills. My 5 year old learned to drink from a regular cup with very little effort on my part. I just started letting him have a regular cup at meals when he was about 3. My 2 year old will practice drinking water from a cup in the bath (tap water, not the bath water!). Your kid will get it whether or not you stress over it.
Bottles: bag them up and toss them out in the neighbors trash can or up at McDonalds.
For the take-n-toss. My kids use these too. You could take a knife and connect the dots. This makes it not spill proof, but the milk will flow more easily.
To get him used to drinking from a straw, you could have him try to drink from your drink first. It could be that he doesn't like the fastness of the straw.
You could also try the short silly straws.
Oh my, your husband must want to keep your son a baby and not let him grow up. He's almost 3 for Pete's sake. He doesn't need that bottle at all. That is not helping him. Does he want him to start school still drinking from a bottle? I hope not. Throw out the bottles...give them away or something. As for getting him off sippy cups at home...just give him a regular cup. Don't even offer the sippy. He will eventually get thirsty enough to drink from it. It may be messy at first, but keep your cool and help him along. Eventually you won't even need the sippies when you go out. A family at our churh a few years back had a 5 and 6 year old that used sippy cups all the time...mom was a neat freak and refused to give her children a chance to make a mess. She would get angry when we would give her kids a regular cup. Poor kids even used sippy cups at school. They carried them around like a toddler would a bottle. It was very sad. Mom was a kind of nut case herself. Not that you or your husband is...LOL. But she was. She was trying to keep her kiddos babies...rumor was her youngest was still taking a bottle at night before bed. Hopefully your husband will understand that your child is just that, a child, not a baby. Good luck and God Bless. And stay stong!
