How Do I Get My Twins to Take a Sippy/straw Cup?

I would try the Nuby sippy cups. Their sippy part is made of the same stuff as the nipples on the bottle and their shape is also a bit similar to a nipple. It may make the transition a little easier. (Also, they are not overly expensive).

My son refused a sippy cup (many reasons for this in hindsight...but that's beside the point). He also completely refused a bottle so when he weaned himself, I was in a bind! After trying everything on the market, I finally stumbled on a sports/sippy bottle from Rubbermaid. It's an 8 oz square-shaped bottle with a pop up straw. Instead of requiring a ton of sucking to get the liquid, with a gentle sip, it has a kind of vacuum suction that keeps the liquid flowing more easily. It's pretty different from a bottle so it might be kind of a novelty.

I was going to say to do what your friend did. That is what I did with all my boys, though I took the bottle away right around their first birthday - I had already started them on sippie cups as soon as they were holding their bottle for water to get them used to it.

Good luck!

Hi,
I agree, take the bottles away and then they'll have no choice but to use the sippy cups. I started to give my daughter a sippy around nine months. She didn't fully drink out of one until she was 10.5 months. By the time she turned a year she was completely off the bottle and on the sippy cups. But everyone is different. My son is 9.5 months and he wants nothing to do with the sippy cup. I just keep giving it to him a little bit every week, and hopefully he'll start to like it. I do plan on getting him off the bottle by a year, like I did with my daughter. We'll see how it goes. Just keep offereing it to them and then one weekend when you don't have anything going on take the bottles away and say they're big boys now and need to drink from big boy cups. It'll be hard at first but they'll get. Good Luck.
C.

I have a 13-month-old that was having a hard time taking the sippy cup. He was introduced at 9 months with an ounce at a time moving it up another ounce until he became use to it. Initially he was not drinking even after a month! I tried a different sippy cup and he was able to do it. To this day he does not drink as much from the original sippy cup I purchased. The one that currently is working for him is the Nuby verses the Playtex.

I started replacing bottles one by one. So, I would choose one of their feedings (preferably not the morning feeding or the one before bed) and give them that one in a cup. At first, they probably won't take it, but then when it'll get them adjusted and then you can replace a second and so on. Good luck.

Let your boys pick their own sippy cup (from your own stash), let them know that the cup is their own. Start slow, only offer it at meal time when everyone else has a cup, then offer it only during the day - no bottles except if they need it for sleeping. You may get some kicking and screaming but if they are thirsty they will drink out of the cups.

M.

Sounds like your friend has the right idea, lol. My two older boys didn't have much problems switching to a cup. The docs always told me that as soon as they're old enough to hold a cup, they're ready for one. With my triplets, they had a very hard time transitioning over. I had to do just what your friend did. At first I just offered it to get them used to the idea of it, gave them just an ounce or two. Finally I got tired of the messing around and just took everything away. They'll take less liquid in the beginning, but that's ok. They'll catch up as they get thirsty, lol.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/harrisburgpachat

Hi Tania! We went thru tons of variations, but if you're not against a straw-type cup (as opposed to the kind they have to tilt) then Nuby has these great little round straw cups with handles (WalMart or Target). That worked for me and for a couple of my friends from my recommendation. My 2-1/2 year old had no problem with it and we still use a bigger insulated kind for milk. Plus, she learned to drink from a straw so easily from that, and you almost always have a straw for the kids wherever you are (ie juice box or even fast food). I think it's also more sanitary than touching their lips to all kinds of surfaces, even your own cups that have been lying around, dropped, shaken around the diaper bag, etc. I keep a couple straws in the diaper bag to even use on bottled water...she thinks it's so cool!

The sucking from that kind cup mimicks the bottle a bit, so I think it's soothing to them, too. I think it's a great transitional invention! Good luck!
D

I think it must be harder for them to adjust to sipping out of the cup. Mine did the same thing, but I got rid of the bottles and only offered sippies and they finally adjusted. I think they have to suck harder and it gets frustrating because the bottle was so much easier.

You might want to try different cups. My son loved the Nuby cups, until he figured out that all you had to do was pinch the spout and all of the milk/water would come out. Now we're using the Avent cups and those seem to work well. As for using a straw, my super easy suggestion involves the drinkable yogurts. I put one end of the straw into the yogurt, so that it would get some of the yogurt on/in it. Then I flipped the straw around and put the other end into the yogurt and offered it to my son. He was able to get a little taste of the yogurt from his end of the straw and instinctivly sucked away in an effort to get more. The first time the yogurt came up through the straw, he got a huge grin on his face and he then proceeded to suck it down in like 2 minutes. We now call them his "milkshakes" and give him one as dessert if I don't think he's had enough milk during the day.

My daughter was the same way....the milk in the bottle was always warmed up....so I thought to warm it up in the sippy cup and it worked! If you haven't tried warming up the milk or the juice, give it a try!

I remember that I always offered a drink with my son's meals, in a sippy cup. I found that he would get thirsty as he ate and eventually he took more and more from the cup. I tried about twenty different cups until my pediatrician told me to just pick one and stick with it! I chose those plastic cups with the lid (not no-spill) because the liquid would flow so easily and he was more likely to take it. You also might have luck with a juice box or Capri Sun. They are more shiny and exciting! Good luck!

When i was trying to transition from a bottle to a sippy cup with my daughter i kept serving her the milk in the bottle and offered juice and water in the sippy cup only, she learned eventually that she had to learn to use the sippy cup if she wanted juice or water. Try designating juice times during snack time, and milk for meals. (don't offer constant drinks, if they are thirsty when offered the sippy cup, they will be more likely to take to the sippy cup) Once she got the hang of it (around 1 year) i slowly fazed out the bottle completely (one milk a day in the sippy cup...ect), and we never looked back!

Our twins never had a bottle and went right from the breast to a sippy cup. We bridged that gap by using breastmilk we had pumped and frozen earlier and started that in the sippy cup so they would mentally get the connection. Then we moved to other fluids.

Best of luck...one thing is for sure. They may not like it but they will get thirsty!

Make sure you give them milk and juice in the sippy cup. You don't want them to associate the milk w/bottles only. You need to start associating the bottles w/bedtime/naptime only. Put the bottles away during the day and don't let the boys see them. Then when they're thirsty enough, they'll drink out of the sippy cups. It sounds mean but they're not going to die of thirst. Maybe let them pick which sippy cup they want that day or something or even take them to the store and let them get a fancy sippy cup just for them.