Cup Feeding - Confused!!

[MrsMiggins]

My DD is nearly 11 months old and I have had so much conflicting advice & info about getting her to drink from a cup!

When we went to the 6 month baby clinic run by our local hospital, the midwife there said that the current health guildlines are that babies should start learning to drink from a cup from 6 months & should be totally finished with bottles by 12 months of age.

When I asked my CHN about this, she said it was a load of rubbish & that when she got to 12 months old, we'd start the cup-drinking thing.

Last month, a different CHN was filling in and she ws shocked that my DD was still drinking from a bottle & pretty much chastised me for not being more pro-active in getting her to drink from a cup. She gave me several bits of advice to get her started drinking from a cup straight away, including offering milk, formula, water & juice all from a cup so that she doesn't associate her bottles with formula and her cup with water.

I do give my DD a sipper cup to practice drinking water from (she's not all that interested in juice, and I'd rather her have water in any case) and she is slowly getting better at it, but can't seem to understand that she has to tip it up to get water out!

We do have one with a straw-type sipper, but she doesn't like drinking from that one.

Also, when people say "drinking from a cup", are they referring to a cup like you & I would drink from, or just a sipper cup?

TIA! :wave:

[the pero clinic]

Dear MrsMiggins,

It is recommended that bubs are introduced to cup drinking from 6 months of age. They will, of course, take some time to get used the idea and the process of transferring liquids from the very front of their mouths to the back. It is common for babies to bite, chew or suckle a drink from a cup.

There are no hard and fast rules about banishing a bottle by 12 months, BUT, toddlers can quickly become reliant on bottles (as with dummies) and not want to give them up – resulting in headaches for parents and the increased risk of tooth decay, delayed oral motor and speech development, and altered palate and teeth formation for toddlers.

With practice, it is possible for a 1 year old to become proficient at drinking from a cup, and they therefore don’t need to take drinks from a bottle.

You are certainly right - it is hard to know what everyone means when they talk about ‘cup drinking’. I use the term to describe an open cup without a spout, valve or straw. While it is good to encourage your bub to learn to drink from a small open cup, it can obviously be impractical and messy at times (and that’s where spouts are handy!). A small cup with handles will give your baby some control over drinking, when they hold the cup with you, and will teach them how to use the cup themselves.


the pero clinic