Did you know that around 6 months of age you can start teaching your baby to drink from an open cup? This surprises a lot of parents.
Why care about cup skills?
They help babies continues to develop their oral motor skills. Learning how to drink from an open cup allows them to work on developing both jaw and tongue stability for drinking (and later talking).
You may be asking yourself, "So will my 6-8 month old have the ability to be given a cup and then take sips on their own?" Unlikely. This skill will take a long time to master, but it doesn't mean it isn't valuable to start developing cup skills early. This gives babies lots practice getting comfortable before they should ideally stop using bottles (The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends weaning bottle use around 12 months but no later than 15 months).
If you do decide to hand your baby a cup and then let them independently try to drink it will be a matter of seconds before they either douse themselves with water or douse you! So, if that's not a surprise either of you want, in this post I walk you through how to introduce an open cup to your baby.
How to:
Start with a small cup. I I love this cup for new cup drinkers. (stay tuned for a related post this week on why) Fill the cup with water, formula or breastmilk. When first starting out, you can start with about an ounce (or two) of liquid to make clean up easier.
A small cup is preferred over a regular sized cup with a little bit of liquid inside because you don't want your baby to have to tilt their head way back while trying to get a little liquid.
Sit next to the child with your own cup of water.
Model picking up the cup, taking a little sip and putting the cup down.
Turn to the child and ask some variation of:
"Are you thirsty?"
"Do you want a drink?"
"Here's some water!"
Spoiler: They will get wet and you might too!
Pick up the cup and bring it to their mouth and wait til they are ready. Then let them take a small sip. DO NOT just start pouring liquid into their mouth before they are ready. You can even model bringing it to their lips and putting it back down on the table several times.
They will likely want to grab the cup. You can help show them where to place their little hands while still holding on to the cup so they don't get totally sloshed with water.
Then, say- MORE WATER/MILK? or "DO YOU WANT MORE?" (bring the cup to their lips for a drink, then put down on the table).
You can continue this several times while the child is interested in drinking.
Then when they are done, say- "All done with water!" or "All done drinking."
Provide lots of encouragement. This is an exciting time for your baby!
Remember, this process takes time. You might be wondering if this is worth it and if you should just skip it and do sippy cups, like you've likely seen many other parents do. Or maybe you are already using sippy cups with your baby. This post is not meant to guilt so consider using sippy's less if you are using them and going straight to straw ups and open cups.
Sippy cups are not a transition between bottles and open cups. The hard spout actually keeps the tongue from fully lifting into order to finish the swallow. This is why you'll notice many Speech-Language Pathologists recommend skipping the sippy all together and focusing on straw and open cup skills.
Good luck and happy cup drinking!