One of the most common questions from parents is “How do I introduce a cup drinking for my infant and toddlers?”
We know you have questions about what cups you can use for your child’s specific age and stage. Here’s the break down and a step-by-step guide so you know exactly how to introduce various cups and what cups are appropriate for your child’s age.
The best way to teach your child to drink in the cup is by using a cup. Your Infants can begin to drink from an open cup assisted by an adult as early as 6 months for exploration of the cup. It may be messy, tiresome and there will be spillage. You can use a mini cup with a small amount of liquid, or a Tupperware midget cups because it is a good size and can easily be packed to go because it has a lid cover. You can also use a spouted cups because it doesn’t require a suck, the liquid falls out when tipped over. I know as a parent this isn’t always what you want, but it is good developmentally.
Teaching Open Cup Drinking
The first thing your infants need to learn is:
1. How to maintain contact with the cup to their lower tip. Start with only a small amount of water in the cup so that there is less to spill, especially when they are just learning in the beginning.
2. Gently place your hands over theirs and help bring it up to their mouth slowly and give them time to adjust to liquid flowing into the mouth and hold the cup there for a couple quick seconds (1 second, 2 second) and then take it away.
3. Model a cup drinking by yourself, pick up a cup, take sip of water and say “AHH” after to indicate you got your drink!
4.Repeat until baby is doing this on their own! Practice, practice, practice.
List of Common Questions from parent:
Q: When should I introduce a cup?
A: Around 6 months, when your baby starts food
Q: What type of cup should I use first?
A: Mini cup, midget cup and spouted cup
Q: What should I put in the cup?
A: Water or breast milk/formula.
Q: Can we give them juice?
A: We only recommend juice for constipation (prune, pear, peach juice diluted with water). Juice is not necessary for babies, you can offer them fresh fruits!
Q: How much water can a 6-month-old have?
A: No more than 1-2 oz – we don’t want it to displace baby’s milk feeds.
Q: Why should I offer some water at 6 months? Aren’t breast milk and formula perfectly hydrating?
A: Yes, drinking milk can hydrate your toddlers!
However, drinking water in a cup has a benefit:
1. It helps wash down food.
2. It helps prevent constipation when food is introduced.
3. We want babies to like water so that when they’re older they have a drive to drink it!
Using cups helps your baby learn how to take a small amount of liquid in their mouth and swallow. We recommend avoiding hard spout zippy cups.
Are you ready to start with open cups? If so and you have any photos or videos of your baby experimenting (or mastering!) the open cup, make sure to either tag us @jldtherapy in your stories on Instagram so we can re-share them on our IG stories, OR send them to us in an email at info@jldtherapy.com with permission to share.
Happy cup drinking!