Sippy Cup Help

[TheDavisGirlsMom@aol.com]

My daughter is almost 15 months old. She has been off of the bottle since she was 12 months old, however, the sippy cup she has been using has one of those soft nipples (almost like a bottle nipple) b/c she has had surgery on her mouth and it was easier for her. Now we are trying to switch her over to a normal sippy cup and she isn't having it. She doesn't understand how to suck on the cup to get the liquid out and she gets very frusterated and then just gives up. Does anyone have any tips on how to make this transition easier for both her and myself. I am open to any advice any one might have to help me. Thanks.

[kfiedler]

can you try to use a straw. If there is an insert in the sippy cup, take it out for a but so she knows that there is somthing in there. Eventually she will figure it out. There will probably be more little spills. Good Luck

[kaiya23]

Is the soft nipple she is using in the center or the side of the cup? I know Nubi makes those with the nipple in the middle. We have a couple of Gerber cups that are soft, but the "nipple" is flat and on the side, like the rest of her sippy cups. We had to use those before the harder cups for transisition. One even has a set of handles. They sell them packaged with two cups (one with handles, one without) and are labelled by age. If she's still used to a bottle, start with the 6+ mo. cup b/c the resistance will be close to what she is used to in her bottle.

[TheDavisGirlsMom@aol.com]

Thank you for the great advice. My daughter is using the Nubi brand sippy cups but the nipple seems to tear easy and so she is spilling all over the place. I have a few of the Gerber hard sippy cups but she won't even try to suck on it so she when nothing is coming out, she gives up. I am going to try to take out the insert and every once in a while so she knows that there is something inside then maybe she will try harder to suck on it. Hopefully this will work b/c I am really getting tired of buying new sippy cups every other week when the nipple tears. =(

[MommaC]

Good idea--that's what I did when introducing the sippy to my daughter. They require SO much suction, so she had no idea. I took the rubbery thing out so it kind of trickled out for her. I found that the Dr. Brown's sippies require a lot less suction than other brands I tried (if that's helpful!).

Just curious--what type of surgery did she have?

[TheDavisGirlsMom@aol.com]

She had a bubble in the inside of her bottom lip....it was caused by a salivary gland that was getting clogged which caused it to bubble up. It wasn't anything serious but the doctors thought it would be better to remove it before she really started teething and eating solid foods. She had to have the surgery twice becuase after the first surgery, the bubble came back. Thanks for asking.

[TheDavisGirlsMom@aol.com]

I just wanted to thank everyone for the great advice. I tried taking the insert out of her Gerber sippy cup and letting her realize that there was milk inside of it. She had no problem drinking from it. She got distracted from her cup for a minute and while she was distracted I put the insert back in and gave her her cup back. She didn't even know I did anything and continuted drinking from the cup just fine. I really appreciate everyone who replied with their advice. There is one toddler problem resolved....and many more to go. =)