Won't hold his cup

[Roseythorn]

Hi,

I hope you can help me. My son is 16 months old and will only drink from his spout cup when someone is holding it for him. He was and still is (morning and night) breastfed. He has water for morning and afternoon tea and cows milk at lunch time. He has no problems drinking from the cup, if someone is holding it for him. I have tried showing him how to drink from the cup, giving the cup to him to do it himself, tried to help him do it, but each time, he gets cranky and throws the cup on the floor each time, or just ends up playing with the cup spilling water everywhere.

I have also tried not helping him, but, he just won't drink and I don't want him to do dehydrate himself.

Please help me, how else can I encourage to hold his own cup?

[the pero clinic]

Dear Roseythorn,

These little issues can be quite frustrating! It’s good to know that he is able to drink well from the spout cup as a starting point.

Have you tried offering a small regular (open) cup? His attempts at this will be messy, but start by giving him a drink of water while he is in the bath or sitting outside to eliminate the need to mop up afterwards. Valved spout cups can be quite tricky to suck from, and it may be altogether too difficult for your bub to manage this as well as the cup itself.

If it doesn’t matter what sort of cup you try, teach him the fun and control of holding the cup to give you a drink. Play a game where you encourage him to give you a drink, or pretend drinks to dolls or teddies. Slowly turn the game back to focus on him. He may initially do better at having pretend drinks from the cup. Make sure he is given plenty of praise for any attempts to hold the cup himself and move it towards his mouth. Help to gently guide his hands if needed and gradually work towards a full cup. You may need to continue with the turn-taking, cup drinking game for a while before he is independent.

the pero clinic