my kids won't drink from a sippy cup

Although i'm not really worried at this point, I can't help and compare my babes to other kids.

DD has always been a bit of a fussy eater and occasional vomitter. That alone was really frustrating. Now we've figured out how to feed her milk and she eats really well. Her solids intake is touch and go. She spits out or clamps up on new foods, especially savoury ones like chicken, lentils, veggies, beef. She will eat anything mixed with fruit and likes yogurt. Forget any chunky textured foods. She loves her mum mums and tried some rice cake the other day and did ok.

DS eats everything and his milk intake is going down accordingly and he is right on track. The only think i've noticed is that neither of my kids will drink from the sippy cup, instead they chew on the rubber spout. They are teething but I can't get them to figure it out. I've taken out the vent to let them know there is water there but no luck!

HAs anyone had this experience and what did you do to teach your little one to drink from a sippy cup?

Also, can you recommend which finger foods worked well for you to start. I'm finding whatever I give them is mushed around and not eaten and I wonder if maybe i'm being too conservative.

Thanks

 

We are having the same issues with finger foods. I've tried chunkier textures and they hate them. For example, they love pureed pears, but when I mashed up a pear and tried giving it to them, it didn't go well - Michael ate it, but wasn't happy about it and Gabriel just flat-out refused to eat most of it. Same thing with carrots. I'm wondering if maybe I need to try some actual pieces of food. I plan to try some steamed baby carrots tomorrow, probably cut in half, and see if they like that more. Maybe they just don't like the mushy texture....

As far as the sippy cups, have you tried a straw cup? You can get the ones that are no-spill like a sippy cup. Our guys did fine with a sippy, but they really like the straws, and they can hold the straw cups themselves because they don't have to put tipped up like a sippy cup. I also like being able to flip the piece over the straw and have it protected when we go out. They do sometimes chew on the straw - when they do that, I take the cup away. If they fuss and act like they want it back, I give it back and take away again if needed. They seem to be catching onto the fact that the straw is not to chew. That might not work with your LO's since it doesn't sound like they are drinking much - my boys LOVE water. I guess you've tried different kind of sippy cups - there are about a million kinds out there.

 

The only sippy cups that we have been successful with are the ones with the silicone type material for the spout made by Nuby (I think that is the name). My LOs took to it fairly well and easy and I am thinking it is because the material is more like the nipples they drink from (totally a wild guess). They also hold on the the handles and try to drink themselves. I am trying to get them used to other cups with a bit of a firmer spout and the straw ones, but we are not having as much success with those as of yet. They also keep chewing on those and I also take the cups away when that happens, but they keep chewing. I am hoping they will make the connection soon.

Sorry, no advice on the finger foods, I am in the same boat and could use some suggestions too.

 

Finger foods: At nine months old-my kids were on all table foods. There was no mashing, no pureeing of foods. They got whatever it was we were serving for that meal. All we did was just cut it up into small pieces. So they got diced chicken, diced pears/peaches. Ditalini pasta is a good one to try-it's a perfect size and you don't have to cut it up. Or we did penne or some other tubular pasta and just cut that up. Diced meatballs, cheese, fruits, etc. The only thing mashed-was the potatoes.

Sippy cups... We had no luck with the ones with the plugs in them. We ended up getting the Take-n-Toss ones, with no plug-and they did great with them. Once they got those down, then we went to the ones with the plugs in them. Oh-and they couldn't figure out how to hold the cups with handles either. It was weird! LOL! I wonder if it's because their bottles didn't have handles or what not.

Good luck! Practice practice-and they will get it!

 

When I have given them things that are diced, they just start gagging...the only things they seem to be able to handle is bananas and shredded potatoes (hashbrown style). I've tried diced peaches, diced pear, shredded meat, etc. and they mostly start gagging and spitting it back out. Is anyone else going through this?? I'm going to try cooked baby carrots, cut in half, today and see how that goes. I really want them to be on more table food, but it just seems like they aren't ready yet.

 

Don't worry you're not alone. My DD, in particular, vomits and gags on most things. DS is alright with eating things a little more chunky style but doesn't LOVE it. Oh, well. Every kid is different and we'll just keep on trying. I think what i'll do is start with pieces at the beginning of every meal and then if that doesn't fly go back to puree style.

 

You could always grate fruits and veggies for them just to introduce some new flavours right now, and work on different textures like ground or shredded meats, alphabet pasta. But there's no rush.. give them a variety and they'll choose what to eat or not to eat. At this stage most of their nutrition is still coming from formula or breast milk, so if they're not chowing down at meal time it's not a big deal.

As for the sippies.. I had success starting with the really soft nuby spouts as well. Mine didn't really like water at first, so I enticed them just with a tiny splash of juice in the water... just enough to make them interested. They never really took to the sippy cup until I started weaning them though, so I think they just weren't very thirsty.

 

I got my twins onto finger foods by giving them larger pieces of stuff that they could pick up and gnaw on rather than little cubes where they have to put the whole cube in their mouth. Slices of pears, stalks of broccoli, baby mum-mum crackers (whole foods), lightly toasted bread, etc. Some kids just aren't ready for solids at this age though, so try not to stress too much.

 

As for the sippy cups, the babies are so young I really wouldn't worry about it at all. It took my twins longer to get the hang of sippy cups. I think it takes a long, long time for kids to learn them...that was true of all my four kids. I just gave it to them once or twice a day to sort of play around with (while they were waiting in their high chairs, before and after meals, etc.) and they would just play around with them and try to get it.....and eventually they just got the hang of it. I remember with my first 2 children I would try and try to teach them to do it...must have tried 5 different cups!!! With my twins who are 20 months now, I just started letting them try around 9 months and over the next few months they got the hang of it on their own. So just keep exposing them to it and they'll get the hang of it!

shannon

 

So far we have done small pieces of bananas, small pieces of baked sweet potatoes, baby mum mums, and the gerber puffs.

They love their puffs.

Still working on the sippy cup thing. For now we give them drinks of water out of a regular cup or out of the sippy cup I have for them with the vent removed.

 

My 18 month old will still not drink out of a regular sippy cup. They will only drink out of a straw. The only time they ever drank out of a regular sippy cup was when they would lay on the floor to drink their formula. They just never got the hang of picking it up and drinking out of it, plus they love to chew on the spouts. We gave them straw cups and they had them figured out in about ten minutes.

I wish I could remember what we did for finger foods. I know they basically lived off of puffs and crunchies for a while. I think I started with those for them to get the hang of picking stuff up, putting it in their mouths, and chewing. They made a great snack and they basically disolve so not much worry about choking. Mac and cheese or any kind of past with butter on it was a big hit. They also loved (and will still only eat) tyson chicken fries cut into small pieces. They hated bananas or anything else mushy like carrots. Good luck with it all. Oh and just remember that they may not be quite ready for finger foods yet, but they will get the hang of it when they are ready.

 

Slip - if you have the sippy cups with the plug in it - take the plug out - and let them try. Thats what i did - and they realized that there was fluid there. Once they took a few sips - i put the plug back in - and they sicked away like mad.

Now they take the toss and go ones - but every time they drop them - the top comes off and the water spills everywhere.

As for finger foods - i started with Rice puffs - and broken mumMums - and moved onto Nutrios - and then cubed sweet potatoe, cubed potato, steamed rice, steamed carrots, corn, steamed apple, banana. Anything that they can pick up with their fingers - that i can crush between my fingers, I give them

Maybe when the kids play they can watch D&D and get into it :clapping: :clapping:

 

Is there a reason you want them eating more? Is your doctor pushing you to do more finger foods? My boys are 10 months and only eat puffs and cheerios...so not worried at all... They have their whole lives to eat 'real' food...and honestly I don't mind feeding them purees. I mean seriously....they eat veggies and fruits from jars...just keep trying the other...but I wouldn't stress about it. They won't eat baby food in kindergarten...some just take longer...

And I agree...don't stress about the sippy cups either...they'll get it...my daughter was a year old before she would ever drink from them...the boys will take a few sips, but much prefer the bottle. Until a year I won't push them...they just get them with snacks for practice and are getting better and better each day!

Relax...enjoy this time...