Train the cup drinking from an open cup ( without a lid ) is a skill. Also switching bottle to cup is also can do by train like this.
Sometimes a sippy cup helps to train these advanced skills in your baby. Also, You can start a lidded cup with a straw to teach a few drinking skills.
Most of the time your baby starts the cup at the age of five months. proper cup drinking should practice at 10-18 months. Because they get used to drinking all the fluids from one cup at the age of the tenth or the eighteenth month.
Table of Contents
Train the cup drinking is an overwhelming and time-consuming thing. As parents, you should teach them as early as possible. It brings them a lot of advantages. When you teach cup drinking skills, you should teach step by step to your baby.
For this process, you can use a sippy cup, an open cup, and a straw cup. But try to use these all cup types at the same time on and on with the given instruction in my article. As I said earlier, don’t try to promote sippy cups mainly.
The cups can be divided into main two types.
- Open cup
- Straw cup
- Sippy cups
Read through it carefully. The final subheadings of the article might give you valuable insights.
Advantages of Proper Cup Drinking
- They will find another route for liquids to take rather than the bottles or the breast.
- Cup Drinking creates another pathway for kids to drink various fluids such as water, juice, and mostly milk. This is very important when the mother is not present and the caregivers have to play the role.
- Cup drinking creates new experiences for your kids but you need to wait until the one-year pass mark to introduce cup drinking to your baby.
Your child takes a significant amount of time such as weeks or months to create their skills in cup drinking.
Factors to consider in inventing the cup drinking
Your baby needs to ensure the supported sitting to introduce he/her to the cup drinking.
It takes nearly two months or more to start on the cup for most babies. Don’t consider too much about gagging at the beginning.
Introduce a safe cup for your kid when starting cup drinking. Because most of the babies are so hurried at the time the parents reintroduce them to the cup drinking.
So they might knock it down impatiently most of the time. Choose a cup that weighs its bottom rather than the other areas. and it should be unbreakable.
Don’t try to use plastic or light-weighted cups for the training days even though they are light weighted and babies try to crack and crush those cups.
Choose a compatible cup according to the child’s preferences. So parents need to come across several cups to find out the preferred one for the child. SOMETIMES CHILDREN LIKE VARIOUS GRIPS.So you have to find a cup with a few handles. Sometimes parents have to use adhesive taping around the cup to prevent slipping it from their hands.
A SIPPY CUP – A CUP WITH A SPOUTED LID IS A GOOD SOLUTION FOR TRAINING THE CUP DRINKING. It provides a nice transitioning experience when changing from sucking to sipping.
Sometimes children refuse it as they can not get the liquid out very easily. Sometimes it may be a psychological reason as they need a cup more similar to what their family members are using.
More spills of liquid can be seen after later usage of a normal cup as they used to a sippy cup prolong.
The Training Ladder of cup drinking
Firstly we need to emphasize that training is not a neat procedure. It takes time to train your kid to practice the activity. Kids might drip down the liquid to their chin and tummy at the beginning
Till complete proficiency is achieved, you need to use a waterproof bib during your training sessions. If you take your child into your lap take an apron for yourself.
Find out a secure place for your baby or on your lap or a propped-up high chair for an infant.
As parents and caregivers, you need to introduce several food varieties at this stage. But you need to choose ideal food liquids or semi-liquids with the sippy cup. Firstly you choose a certain food item in its liquid or semi-liquid base and practice it for several weeks. Then you can convert that sippy drinking with expressed breast milk or formula as usual.
Don’t use regular cow’s milk with a sippy cup until your baby passes one year.
Sip at a time technique and train the proper cup drinking
Start with a very small amount of liquid type in the sippy cup first. Touch the baby’s lips with the sippy cup to stimulate and then pour a few drops into the baby’s mouth
Afterward, take the cup away and let the baby have a chance to swallow the small liquid amount without gagging.
Identify the baby’s signals by turning their head away telling them that is enough. With this special technique, it is still some liquid amount that will come out from the baby’s mouth. So your patience, practice, and perseverance are very important.
Your participation and Eye contact with the child when sippy cup using
Your child always tries to grab the cup from you when you try to practice the sippy cup. They always have the ” I’ll do it myself” attitude. But your participation and talking while the activity is important. It helps to improve the eye contact and gaze of the child and further emotional assurance.
As parents, don’t get upset when the baby spills it all. Try to follow my guidance here as much as possible. not all at one time. This practice is a gradual procedure.
If the child resists the cup several times, you can change the liquid type and add a different taste and try it again.
Don’t pressure the baby to accept it. Also, you can hold the cup training for a few weeks and try it again is a good idea.
The Pros and Cons of Sippy Cup Usage
The pros
is a compelling list of benefits of the sippy cup and it is a good creation for kids. They are practically spillproof and unbreakable. Children don’t need to cry over spilled milk or juice on their bodies.
Cleanup times are very few and less laundry. These sippy cups can use in cars, at playgrounds, or for babies in strollers, etc. parents have very minimal supervision when using the sippy cup.
The cons
There are some potential pitfalls that can be found with the sippy cup.
Using the sippy cup is a bit slower process compared to other methods. it takes more time to pool the liquid in the mouth and the teeth.
Frequent use of sippy cups can lead to tooth decay. This incident happens if the cup uses between meals and brushings.
If the baby is used to the sippy cup all day long, the cup becomes a breeding ground for the bacteria and other microorganisms.
If your child nips the cup all day long with juice may reduce their appetite for solid food items. That will cause a lot of nutrition problems and also may cause diarrhea.
The most important fact is – Kids who use sippy cups are more likely to have temporary speech problems. BECAUSE THE SIPPY TECHNIQUE DOESN’T IMPROVE THE SPEECH MUSCLES OF THE MOUTH PROPERLY AND AGE-APPROPRIATELY.
How to Eliminate Potential Risks of a Sippy Cup
Don’t start with the sippy cup first. Start with a spoutless cup with your baby and make sure that your baby has already learned to drink the normal cup with difficulties. It means they have the basics of the fine art of sipping.
Sipping is an important skill to master without a sippy cup first. That will be helpful for them to improve the strength of the oral muscles of your baby. After sipping skills are restored you can use both drinking techniques on your kid.
You should not give the sippy cup at mealtime or snack times. Always try to minimize the time the sippy cup is used when the child is in the stroller or in the playground or in a car. It limits speech and protects teeth.
Prevent overdosing on juices with the sippy cup.
Always buy multiple sippy cups. The children play with their favorites and they prefer the same cup at the same setting with the same juice item.
If you need to avert many problems associated with a sippy cup. first, fill it with water instead of juice first, and practice with your child.
When your child is more confident in drinking a normal cup, that is the time to stop the sippy cup. So at that stage you can identify,the proper cup drinking training is came to a end
Conclusion
It is better to give an open cup to your baby at the early stages they are drinking from the cup. But drinking from a cup needs training and practice.
So training the proper cup drinking to your baby is a challenging experience Within that period, the baby spills milk or juice in the chin and tummy areas and started to cry. By using a sippy cup you can enjoy freedom as parents while feeding.
But you need to know about the pros and cons of the sippy cup because the researchers pointed out that a considerable speech delay may present with prolonged sippy cup usage.
So think about the pros and cons that I mention in this article and try to effectively use the sippy cup and eventually turn it into the straw cup and finally to the open cup with effective feeding.