drinking out of real cups...

We visited a new church the other day, and even though the boys had sippies of water in their bag, they were given little cups of juice that Joel of course dumped down the front of himself. So it made me feel like a bit of a dummy... When are we supposed to be teaching them to drink out of cups?!?! And once we do teach them HOW, do we have to drop sippies altogether? Honestly, their cups end up on the floor so often, I really don't want them using real cups any time soon! I hope I'm not handicapping my kids for my ignorance!

 

You're not handicapping them. :hug: Kids learn fast!! I started with mine when they were around two but it was just for practice and only with water. They've got it down pretty good but we still use sippy's and will continue too until I can trust them alot more then I do now. :diablo: Usually they drink out of cups at restaurants or if I forget their sippys when out and about. You can start showing them how to do it, I'm sure they'll catch on quickly! (It's so much fun for them. :lol: )

 

Our daycare started giving the kids real cups in the toddler room at 13 months. :woah: However, I didn't start doing it at home until they were at least 2.5. And even now, Sarah uses a sippy nearly all the time for meals. Amy uses an open cup at the table because she insists on it, but she spills it almost once a day. (Our rule is: "One spill is an accident. Two spills means you're not paying attention." And you get a sippy.)

I think they can learn whenever you choose to teach them. You're not going to miss some finite window if you don't do it now. I was lucky that I didn't really have to do the teaching! But I started feeling more confident about it when I saw them do it at other people's houses or at restaurants (although most of the restaurants we go to actually provide straw cups with lids for kids -- no fine dining for our family!).

 

I started with letting them play with open cups in the tub when they were very young. Our situation was a little different in that they learned to take the tops off of their sippies and wanted very much to use open cups. I don't recall exactly how old they were but it was before their 2nd birthday for certain. The mess that often occurred during lid removal was much worse than the occasional knock-over so we took a transition ASAP approach and went with open cups containing only a little milk at a time during meals (with multiple refills) and put some plastic cups where they could reach near the refrigerator dispenser for water during the day (with a rule that they had to stay on the hard floor with their cup). The only time we use sippies now is in the car and they have a pair of straw sippies in their room for nighttime drinks of water.

Honestly, I think your kids' cups wouldn't be on the floor so often if they knew their drink would come flying out of the cup when it dropped. Because they have a lid, they don't have to be careful. Just my 2 cents.

 

You know your kids best and what they are ready for. I still have my 2 on 2 bottles a day (at 19mos) because one of them will take a mouth full of water from the sippy and frequently spit it all over. I take the sippy away right away of course but I can't cut out bottles unless I want milk everywhere..so nasty.

Oh also.. I use a cup to rinse my kids hair in the bathtub. Ok its gross but my kids use the cup and attempt to drink the bathwater...well I guess they are starting to learn to use regular cups..lol. Start with water right before bathtime and practice a little each day. I'm sure they will learn fast. But heck yeah I'd be afraid to trust them with a cup full of juice yet!

 

I'm not sure exactly when, maybe at 2? I started at first with the little dixie cups with a bit of water. Now they pretty much get open cups at meals, but to walk around and such, they still get a sippy. They also like water bottles too, I really need to get them their own instead of letting them drink out of mine (yuck!). I still put their morning milk in a sippy, I can't deal, I'm lazy, blah blah.

But yeah, they still spill. It's mostly from not paying attention, not being aware of what their hands and arms are doing.

 

I wasn't in a big hurry to introduce open cups because I didn't feel like dealing with the additional mess. However the nanny told me a few weeks ago that they learned how to drink out of cups at the group she takes them to once a week, all this time I didn't even know! They're still not great at it, I only give them a little bit of water in the cups and they still spill quite a bit so I'm not about to give them big cups full of milk or juice.

Don't worry too much about it, they'll probably pick it up really quickly and they won't be going to college only being able to drink from sippies. They've probably been watching you do it for a long time now and have a pretty good idea. Just start with little bits of water and go from there.

 

Mine started getting Dixie cups with water or milk at daycare at 22 months, but we still did sippies at home. I'd say around 2y3m we switched completely to cups. It wasn't nearly as rough a transition as we thought it would be. They rarely spill.

 

We have been using cups for 6 or 8 mo. I never pour more than an inch or even 1/2 in at the beginning and now it os 1-2 inches. It makes life so much more convient and then they know to be careful. When we are out we use sippies for convience. Think back 10 or 20 years, kids went straight from bottles to regular cups so it can be done very early.

 

We still use sippy cups. However, we do give them regular cups at the table during mealtime. I just don't want them making a mess with a regular cup while they are running around the house. Mine, too, tend to throw there cups down.

Also with church, they just graduated out of the nursery into the 2 yr. old class. They give them regualr cups in sunday school. The first time I saw it I thought "Are you crazy? You have 6-8 2 yr olds and you are giving them all open cups of juice!"....Oh well, not my mess to clean up and gives them extra time to "practice".

 

You aren't holding them back! My two still use sippies most times, but when out at a restaurant/someones house they can use cups with no issue. So its not like they can't use a cup, but it is not as convienent so we stick with sippies for now.

 

No timeline, don't worry! :hug:

We started around 22 months because we were in an EI playgroup and they used Dixie cups for snack time while we were there so I bought some so they could use them at home too. Around 2 we graduated to an open cup at mealtimes, but they still get sippies for drinks throughout the rest of the day. I can't see them taking an open cup from the fridge without any incident. :blink:

 

My girls drink out of sippies the majority of the time...that's they way I like it..no mess. However, I do give them cups to drink out of occasionally..mainly its when all the sippies are dirty I don't sweat it..my girls just don't like to drink out of regular cups that much. Even when they do have regular cups, they ask for straws. They can drink out of a regular cup when they have to and they don't fuss about it too much, but I just don't force the issue.

 

I don't think mine had open cups until they went to preschool at just over 3. I let the preschool teachers teach them how

 

Mine only use sippy cups, they CAN use real cups, and they do at times for water. At meals, we only use sippy's, and that is because if they don't have a lid they play in there drink, dump food in it, ect.

 

I recently started giving my girls open cups at dinner and they are 2 1/2. They actually do pretty well, but I only put a little water in it. For everything else, its sippies.

 

whew!!! Glad I didn't completely miss the boat!!! But I think I should give them some little cups here and there. That was a good point about them throwing their cups just because they CAN. I know B "can" drink out of a cup because he'll drink the juice out of the fruit cup, though J often just tips the fruit cup before it gets to his mouth getting all over him!

 

My son was drinking out of a cup before two (I think I got rid of his sippys around 22mths but not sure). I did it early because I hated cleaning the sippy cups. My girls were drinking out of cups around 2 also I think but I kept the sippys around (mostly the straw kind) for when we were out or for drinking in the car.

I have small plastic cups that I started with and only gave a small amount of water in it. When I could trust them to not spill it and drink it nicely they started to get a small amount of milk in their cups at dinner time. Then we gradually filled the cups a little at a time (so we didn't have to get up as often to refill them). We also had the rule cups are kept only on the table and you can't walk around with them.