Best Way to Teach Your Baby to Drink from a Cup

If you’re bottle-feeding, slip a brightly colored sock or wristband over the bottle to make it easier for your baby to hold. Wrapping a few rubber bands or a bathtub applique around the bottle will serve the same purpose. When weaning a child to a cup (sippy or otherwise), begin by reducing bottle feedings and by asking your child to help you deliver bottles to another baby who needs them. Or take the nipple off the bottle and let your baby drink from the lip of the bottle. You may also want to cut the nipple off the bottle and tell your baby the bottle is “broken.” Your baby will soon be convinced. Or offer water in a bottle and juice in a cup. Juice usually wins out.

• Let your toddler learn to use a regular cup by practicing in the bathtub. (Don’t let your child drink the bath water though!)

• Use the tips mentioned in the paragraph above to make a reg­ular drinking cup easier for little hands to hold.
• When young children no longer want to drink from a baby cup or sippy cup, give them commuter cups to use. They hold more and spill less, and they make a child feel grown-up.
• Fill cups only about a third full to prevent waste from tipping or dropping, until your child is more skilled.
• Let your child drink from a plastic medicine cup or eyewash cup. They’re easier to hold and won’t soak your child if spilled. Or try three-ounce paper cups.
• Let your child use one or more bright-colored straws for drink­ing from a glass, cup, or can. Cut the straws off two inches above the top of the container to help prevent tipping.
• Turn around the tab on a canned drink so it’s over the open­ing, to help hold a straw in place.
• Use any of the ubiquitous bottles with pop-up tops. (They’re also refillable.)
• Turn the little plastic bear in which honey is packaged into a fun drinking container. Rinse it thoroughly, and cut the upper end to the diameter of a drinking straw. (Tie a bow around its neck for a great party favor!)

• Use a clean, empty, cap-topped yogurt cup for an almost spill-proof container for kids. Put a hole in the center of the lid for a straw.
• Assign each of your children a specific cup or mug to avoid washing excess dishes or wasting paper cups. Have children rinse their cup in hot water and place it upside down on the drying area for next time.