Straw cups?

Any advice on how to teach them? I cannot recall how we taught the older one or if he was just old enough when we gave it to him.

 

Juice box! My boys had no idea how to use straw sippy cups, but around 18 months I think, I gave them a juice box and there was no turning back! Before Annabella turned one, she grabbed one of the boys juice boxes and immediately picked up on it!

 

I'm going to make this sound way more complicated than it is... I can tell already!

I put juice in a cup and then got a big straw and set it in the juice and put my finger over the top to keep the juice in the straw. Then I put the far end of the straw in their mouths. Because they could taste the juice immediately, they caught on in about 2 minutes. I did have a "hickey" on the end of my finger afterwards! haha. Now we only use straw cups. I love them!!!

 

I will try the hickey method since they might be too young for juice boxed yet. I will buy some regular straws at the grocery store or steal some from a restaurant when we go. When you gave them the straw were they sucking up or was the juice going in? How did you get them to learn to suck the juice/water/milk up?

 

Since I didn't let go of the top of the straw, they had to suck still to get it to come down. The first couple of times, I just let the juice fall into their mouths by taking my finger off the top. Then they realized it was yummy and then I made them work for it!

 

I second that!! worked like a charm

 

I third the juice box method, I think within two tries, they got it. I also had them watch use a clear straw. Good luck!

 

I get the small juice boxes-the ones with Sesame Street on them. You don't have to give them the juice boxes all the time-I'm betting by the second time they'll get the hang of it-and you can go to a straw cup.

 

We've finally had some success with straws by using the take n toss straw cups. The fancy spill proof ones were just too difficult for them to suck, at least when they were pretty hazy on the hole straw concept. The take n toss ones are just regular straws so it was easier for them to grok (although they still try to tip the cups up a lot, as with a sippy, which of course is often counter productive). The downside to the take n toss ones is that the straw can be easily removed and/or the drink is very easy to dump out through the straw. What kind of straw sippies do people recommend for longer term use?

 

I use the Take-n-Toss for milk because they drink the most amount of fluid from these cups. Like you said, the straws do come out, can make a mess, and will spill when thrown from a high chair, so I am the keeper of the Take-n-Toss straw cup. The only other straw cup that they can use without much difficulty are the Munchkin Mighty Grip Straw Cups. I bought both kinds... the one with the straw that sticks straight up and the flip top one to hide the straw. The flip top kind are way too hard to drink from (even for me), so we use the other kind. They also like the Gerber Fun Grips sippy cup. My twins are 17 months.

 

I am putting take and tosses on the shopping list. I hadn't thought of those.

 

We did take and toss with the sippy top from 12 months-15months. A speech therapist recommended we use straws because it strengthens they moth muscles. These are the ones we use http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3902612&moduleName=Brand+Name+Secondary and we put a little bit of chocolate milk in it to entice them. Now they do juice boxes too, but we still have trouble with the take and toss with a straw because they want to tip it up and it leaks. GL

 

I did the take & toss method too. at some point they figure out how to take the lids off of the take & tosses, but not for a while. Now I use the take & toss cups with regular bendable straws for milk - so that I don't have to clean the straws, I just toss the straws...

 

Mine use the Rubbermaid juice boxes. It took a bit of practice, but they eventually got it. I usually just put water in them, sometimes with a little bit of juice. They sell these juice boxes near the plastic containers or near the lunch boxes/thermos section in the store (I got mine at Walmart) rather than in the kids department.

 

I also did the "hickey" method to teach them, it only took a couple of tries for my kids to figure it out. We just used the take n toss cups on our 4 day car trip for milkshakes in the afternoons!

 

We do the take&toss straw ones too. They love to chew them though
We avoided the juicebox thing because you can't get in there and water down the juice.

It took us awhile to get straws to work, but when it does, it's wonderful!