Sippy Cups that Work (for us)!

I'm not sure if I have blogged about this, but Micaiah will only drink from a cup at meal times. I believe the usual progression is something like: breast or bottle, sippy cup (which can gradually work up as they get older), to cup. Having a 5 month old that drinks from a cup is messy, but to my surprise, he actually does really great with drinking from a cup now that he has been doing it for one month.

You don't NEED sippy cups. Are they a great invention? Yes! But, think about all the countries in the world that do not have access to sippy cups. My friend, Carla, is about to get her son from Africa and when she was there visiting the orphanage, her son, Israel, was 7 months and was drinking really well from a normal plastic cup. I think Cai has just seen me drink from a cup so often that he watched me do it so many times that he just figured it out.

I don't care that he is drinking from a cup. In fact, it makes things really easy if we are other places. He obviously doesn't hold it all by himself yet, but he knows to put it up to his mouth and will gulp it down. If you are my facebook friend, you might be able to view a video of him doing this here. I think the reason he doesn't like normal sippy cups is that he has an aversion to foreign spouts in his mouth. Anything plastic or hard that fits in his mouth like a pacifier or sippy spout just make him gag and he gives you this look like you just tried to put the grossest thing in the world in his mouth. He also has been refusing bottles due to this and that makes life a tad bit harder in some ways.

Despite all of this, I thought I would check out the sippy cup aisle at Target to see if there was anything that remotely resembled a normal cup that we could eventually take with us on errands or if he needed something to drink sometime in the car that wouldn't spill so easy. It was pretty hard not to find a sippy cup with a spout or straw, but I narrowed it down to two different cups and bought both, because I wasn't sure which one he would like.

The first one is the Playtex Coolster Twist n Click Sippy Cup for Toddlers. It's like a baby thermos, lol.



See how the lid doesn't have a spout?
I also just found while searching for pictures that Playtex makes one called a Lil gripper Spoutless Cup... I might have to find one of those to try, too.

The other brand that I thought I would try that is working well, is Gerber Graduates by NUK Ultimate Hard Spout Cup. It has a slight spout, but overall does not protrude in his mouth, so the gag reflex is not engaged.

Who knew finding the right sippy cup would be such an ordeal?! Thankfully, they make about a bajillion different kinds, so you are bound to find one that works for your child!