What age to master drinking from a straw???

[MSSANDRA]

When was your child able to drink from a straw? My niece wants to use only a soft straw sippy cup for our DB . The dentist recomended these for the least teeth damage. I can not remember what age DS could drink from a straw but I was thinking it was much later than he was ready for a sippy cup.

SO... When could yur child drink from a straw and has anyone used these straw cups as an sippy cup introduction. Sippy cups have changes so much since we used them. What do you all recomend for a 6 mo old, bottle fed infant that is very oral (teething) right now?


Thanks,

MsSandra

 

[mommyoftwinfants]

gosh I can't remember how old my guys were when they started drinking from a straw but I know they were pretty young because it would drive me crazy trying to get the inside of those sippy cups clean, those mess free suction things are a pain in the rear to keep clean. I also wanted to mention that drinking from a straw is the best way to drink anything even as adults because it keeps the sugar in the drinks away from the teeth.

 

[jennifer293]

Dh had both of our girls drinking from a straw at 5 months..reason being is because everytime we go to dinner he always gets sweet tea and they loved sweet tea so in order to get it they had to drink it out of a straw...It was a personal goal of DH's I think to see if he could get them to do it...hahaha They never did sippy cups they always went straight from breast (DD3)/bottle(DD6) to straw cups...

 

[estherhead]

You should be able to teach a 6 month old. I would buy Caprisun or a box juice & squeeze the juice into their mouth. Once they grasp the concept that something yummy is in the straw their first instinct is to suck.

 

[CrzyforPiglet]

Drinking from a straw is supposed to be more difficult to master than a sippy cup. I am in a mommy group of about 9 mommies and we all went from bottle to sippy cup and then to straw. I introduced a sippy cup at 9 months but my son had a hard time with it and didn't "master" it until 15 months. I introduced a straw about 2 months later and he was able to "master" the toddler straw right away and a couple of weeks later he can now drink out of a regular straw like the ones you get in restaurants. Both his sippy cup and straw cup were made by Nuby and are probably the easiest transition from a bottle. Good luck!

 

[belle&beast]

I'm a speech therapist and when I worked in early intervention with kids 0-3, we often told parents to skip the sippy cups altogether and use straws. Keep in mind these were kids with oral weakness and the straw is very beneficial to building oral muscles. So, I would say at 5-6 months when a cup is introduced, so ahead and use a straw.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Thanks guys,

Think I will go pick up one of the nubby cups this week-end. Niece is quite young and we try to repect her wishes on all non-life changing issues and this is one of those. We try to save our imput for the big issus like car seats! DS is 15 and was a premature infant so things are really different this time around.

 

[macmahony]

My kids all did the straw very young, the baby has never used a sippy (our speech therapist hates them!!!) She was off bottle, and sippy, and used only a regular cup, or straw cup before 9 months. (she breastfeed until 2 though) So at dinner she used a cup, but if she wanted water during the day she got a straw cup. Both our speech therapist, and dentist really hate the sippy cups, so we just never bought them.

 

[Jana49]

My youngest DD successfully used my straw in my cup at age 5 mon., and I was surprised when she did it. The other 2 kids were each right at 1 year when they were able to use a straw.

 

[Ms Marigny]

DD's pediatrician recommended skipping the sippy cup altogether and going straight to a straw cup (she said the dentist would thank me for it!), which was fine with me because DD hated the sippy cup. She made the transition with no problems at 11 months (I wish I would have tried it sooner!) using a Nuby straw cup and can now drink out of a regular juice box at 13 months.