How to Teach a Baby to Use a 360 Cup
Did you know that the first type of cup that should exist introduced to infant is an open cup? Not a sippy cup. Seems counterintuitive right? Let'south acquire well-nigh the reasons why.
When your baby begins solid food, they will brainstorm to need just a little extra h2o (i-2 oz./twenty-four hours at 6 months) in their nutrition for preventing constipation and washing down the food at mealtimes. This water is in add-on to breastmilk or regular bottle feedings and is usually introduced via a cup at meal/snack times. It's also a time when they are learning the skill of eating, moving food around in their mouth, drinking from dissimilar cups, and babbling and priming themselves for talking…and for this, they demand to develop flexible and potent lips, jaw, tongue, cheek muscles and swallow mechanisms…aka oral motor skills!
In my Baby Led Feeding online course, we talk most actually skipping the sippy cup altogether and heading straight for an open loving cup when introducing water at mealtimes in guild to promote these good oral motor skills. Y'all can learn more about the course here.
The reason for no (or very limited use) of a sippy cup is considering the skills of using a sippy cup are actually the same ones they would use when drinking from a bottle. Their tongue is placed downward and towards the front of their rima oris and they suckle to extract the liquid from the spout. And because your baby already knows how to do this, keeping them in a place where they tin only use this skill for months and months actually prevents the progression of oral motor skills and can increase the risk of developing delays in speech, difficulty managing textures and even animate issues.
If you lot recall about a more than mature swallow pattern for drinking, the natural language is actually elevated so that it touches the front and top (roof) of the mouth in order to create a wave-like motion to bring the liquid down for a consume. That's the skill we want to promote!
That's why feeding experts of all kinds (dietitians, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists) now recommend introducing water via an open cup beginning at 6 months of age. Just skip the sippy correct from the first and head right to an open cup at meal and snack times!
Believe it or non, babies at 6 months of age accept the basic oral motor skills to acquire how to potable from an open cup, and with assist from you and lots of practice, they will be able to control the cup and water spills really well by 1 year of age! In addition, practise with an open up loving cup early makes transitioning off a milk feedings in a bottle and onto a loving cup later and then much easier! It'southward recommended to showtime transitioning off a bottle at 11-12 months, and it's non ever the easiest transition when your babe isn't familiar with open up cup drinking at all. Always recollect that every baby is different and and so is every family, so if using a sippy cup occasionally when travelling or on the go, brand sure to vary the loving cup options so they get open loving cup exposure at almost meals and snacks. Also if and when using a sippy, you'll want to go for a soft spout sippy over a hard spout, every bit the hard one really prevents the tongue from elevating even more.
What to look for in an open up cup
Generally there are two principal things to look for when looking for an appropriate open cup for your baby:
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Soft or semi-soft rim
- The reason for this is because harder rims similar those plant in stainless steel or glass cups tin exist difficult on infant'southward teeth! Sometimes babies tin get in for a beverage to speedily and can bop their teeth on the hard rim, causing harm (and pain!).
- If possible, go for one that has a soft rim made of silicone so that plastic is avoided and you have a flexible, soft and durable material to piece of work with.
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Small size for petty easily
- Keep cup size small for your baby to wrap their easily effectually and actually be able to lift and maneuver it to their oral cavity with ease! I've seen babe cups that are pretty much the size on an adult cup or even ones that are made for toddlers that are notwithstanding hard for baby to manage. Call up near if you had to drinkable out of a bucket of water – it'due south hard to exercise and pretty about impossible not to spill water all over your face and torso! It's pretty much the same thing for babies when they're given larger cups! It's also much easier to exist able to access only a small amount of water in the cup at at time when information technology'south a tiny cup (less tilting needed).
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Other criteria like handles, angled rims, weighted bottoms etc. are all optional.
- Handles definitely aid lilliputian hands grab onto something peculiarly when they are trying to drink from the cup independently. Although, it's really not necessary if the loving cup size is small enough for them. Some cups take angled rims which are nice (like this Doidy cup) which assist with non having to tilt their head back so much to go water out. Others even have weighted bottoms to prevent them from toppling over which can be groovy but also sometimes make information technology difficult for babe to selection upwardly. All these features are great to experiment and yous may detect one blazon works better for your baby than another – but know that they aren't necessary for your baby to start.
I personally Love the Eztotz My First Loving cup shown above. It offers all the qualities needed to help teach your infant how to drink from an open cup. It'south super tiny so information technology fits well in little easily. Information technology's besides made out of soft, soft silicone making it great for protecting little teeth and and then easy to make clean. Going with probably the simplest of options, both me and my online course graduates agree that the standard IKEA BORJA sippy cup works great when you merely pop the top off and utilize it equally an open cup, every bit information technology's super cheap, has handles and is a great size. This i is made of plastic (BPA free), but practice what works for your family!
HOW TO TEACH YOUR Babe TO DRINK FROM AN Open up Loving cup
- Y'all're going to want to starting time with only a small amount of water in the cup and then that in that location is less to spill, especially when they are but learning in the beginning!
- Assist guide the cup to their rima oris. You lot can gently identify your easily over theirs and assistance bring it up to their mouth slowly.
- Tilt the cup up slightly so that the water touches your babe's lips. We desire to promote lip closure around the rim of the cup, then for that, we'll need to concur the cup there for a couple quick seconds (ane second, ii second) and then take it abroad.
- Model cup drinking yourself – choice up a cup, take sip of water and say "AHH" the end to indicate you got your potable!
They may not open their mouth in the get-go or they may making "chewing" motions at start – that's ok – they will quickly effigy out how to open their oral fissure when water comes in and over time, they will handbag their lips plenty so that they control the catamenia of water entering their rima oris. They may want to tilt the cup back too far resulting in spill all over them! That's also ok! Try and not make a big deal out of it and then baby doesn't get upset. In fact, express joy it off and take them try again! It'southward fun (and funny) and really…it'due south only water!
Check out this adorable video of a sweet baby girl who graduated from my Infant Led Feeding course testing out her cup skills:
How do I minimize spills/mess!
- Exercise in the bathtub! They're naked, surrounded by water and neither yous nor baby will be phased by spills.
- Offer h2o in a cup Subsequently meal food, so your baby can focus one affair at a fourth dimension and yous don't have soggy pieces of toast all over the highchair tray!
What about straw cups?
In short, I love 'em! Mastering a harbinger cup is another developmental milestone, and past commencement to offer it around 6-seven months one-time they can get the practice that they need. I teach you all almost introducing straw cups, including tips and tricks for teaching your infant how to employ them, in my Infant Led Feeding online course!
So are you ready to spring in with open cups? If so and y'all have whatsoever photos or videos of your baby experimenting (or mastering!) the open cup, make sure to either tag @mylittleeater in your stories on Instagram so I tin can re-share them on my stories, OR transport them to me in an email ([electronic mail protected]) with permission to share.
Happy cup drinking!
Some of the links on this folio are chapter links. That means, I get a small commission if you purchase through this link. Yet, I make it a point to simply share tools and resources I truly love and use.
Source: https://mylittleeater.com/opencupdrinking/
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