How to Teach to Drink from Straw?

Have you tried sippy cups? My little boy took to those immediately, although I introduced it way back at 6 months. Anyway, my little boy is 14 months and he just learned how to drink from a straw. I would stick it in a glass, put my finger over the top to hold the liquid in, then put it in his mouth and let him suck it out. Once he got good at this, I started holding the straw at an angle like it would really be in a cup, where he'd have to suck to get the liquid out. I'd still hold my finger over the end so he'd have to suck. He got the hang of it now and loves it! Good luck!

It will come when he's ready. You don't have to do anything special, so don't force it. I was concerned about mine not drinking from a sippy cup when everyone else's was. It's just because he wasn't ready. When he was ready, he did it. Then, we went out to eat one day and forgot his cup, so we had no choice but to use the cup with the straw. He surprised us that he knew what to do. You can also purchase those Nuby cups that have the straws in them. They are really soft, so you don't have to worry about them poking themselves. Don't push him because it may be that it's just not the right time for him. If you're having to do a bunch of tricks to get it to work, then he's just not ready.

I used juice boxes...you know how the juice comes out if you squeeze them wrong, I put the straw in their mouths then squeezed. They got the idea pretty quickly.

The Nuby sippy cups like Michelle suggested are great!! And they have a flap thing that goes over the straw and covers it so it won't get dirty when not in use. Also in this baby section or childrens cup sections, they have small cups that come with small straws, usually in sets of three. The cups come with lids and I think the cups can't be any taller than 5 inches. If you want to your son to try and drink from a real straw, this might be easy for you since the straw part is much shorter than the straws we're used to drinking from.

And we also used the other methods mentioned of holding one end of the straw closed with a finger tip and letting our daughter suck from the end. She loved it!

-Char

I suggest the nuby sippy cups which was what my youngest started with.
http://www.babybungalow.com/nufllestbo2c.html
Good Luck
M.

maybe the disposable ones that you can cut to the length you want would help.

I used the same method as Jammi. It worked really well, and my son is a pro now.

Just put the straw in the drink about an inch or two in, then plug the top of it with your finger, and then put the straw in your son's mouth and slowly release your finger from the top so he gets the drink slowly.

Then, pretty soon, he'll understand how to grip his mouth around the straw, and learn quickly how to suck the liquid up on his own.

I also love the nuby sippy cups. The silcon straw is easy to work with, and it stops liquid from flowing when not in use.

Put a little bit of sugar on top of the straw. They'll learn real fast how to use a straw trying to get more sugar. That's how my mom taught me and how I taught my daugther.

Hope it works for you too!

Believe it or not....I taught both of my boys to drink from a straw by using a banana milkshake from Sonic! :)

I sucked up the milkshake first and then let them try....the moment they tasted it...they began to suck on the straw. Worked for me both times!

Good luck!

so fun!! we just taught my 9 month old to drink from a straw last week. he gets so excited.. we started with a regular straw and a cup of water. i would put my finger on the end of the straw while it was down in the cup of water. then bring it up with the water suspended inside. put it in his mouth and keep my finger on the end (so that nothing would come out) until he started to suck on it. definitely took a few tries and made quite a mess. when he started to realize that if he did not suck on it nothing would come out then i put the straw back into the cup of water. the first couple of times he got too much but he got the hang of it pretty quickly. and like i said now he is sooo excited about straws! good luck.