Your baby’s first year is filled with exciting milestones like starting solid foods and learning to walk. Another big transition is switching from bottles to sippy cups around 12 months of age. At this stage, babies are getting more nutrition from solid foods than liquids, so the goal is to transition away from formula or breastmilk as their main food source. Infants are on set feeding schedules with bottles, but toddlers only drink when thirsty. Sippy cups act as that transitional step, helping your little one go from drinking calorie-filled liquids via a nipple to sipping beverages via a cup when they feel thirsty.
A sippy cup by age is a specific type of training cup designed to help your child move from bottle drinking to using an open cup. It has features like spill-proof spouts or straws to allow sipping without a nipple, getting your baby used to drinking from a cup-like container. Best sippy cups by age prevent messes during this phase. There are several best sippy cup styles by age including hard spouts, soft spouts, straws, and spoutless models. Many come with or without handles. The choices can seem overwhelming, but this guide will explain the different types and when to make the sippy cup transition. By the end, you’ll know how to pick the perfect one for your budding toddler’s drinking skills.
Sippy Cups: Explore the Options
When it comes to sippy cups, you’ve got lots of options to help make that bottle-to-cup transition smooth for your budding toddler. The main types are:
- Hard Spout Baby Sippy Cups
- Soft Spout Baby Sippy Cups
- Straw Sippy Cups for milk
- Spoutless Baby Sippy Cups for milk
These have a firm plastic spout that your little one drinks through. The hard spout can withstand any tiny teeth without damage. Your baby has to tip the cup upwards to get the liquid to flow through the spout.
Similar to hard spouts, but the spout is made from a flexible, rubbery silicone material that has a similar texture to a bottle nipple. Your child still needs to tip back the soft spout to drink from it.
Instead of a spout, these have an actual drink straw poking out from the top. Some even have weighted straws to keep them conveniently in place. Your toddler can sip straight from the straw without tilting the entire cup.
The newest style looks just like a small open cup or tumbler with handles and a tight-sealing leak-proof lid on top. Your budding sipper can tip and drink from any angle, but the lid creates a seal when upright to prevent spills.
Valve and no valve sippy cups
There are two main categories when it comes to sippy cups – those with valves and those without. The valve-style cups have a special spill-proof valve mechanism that makes them essentially “no-spill.” While this spill protection is appealing to parents, valve sippy cups have some potential downsides.
The valve forces the child to suck rather than sip, which is more like drinking from a bottle nipple. This sucking motion can inhibit proper drinking skill development. Valve sippy cups that look and act too much like bottles may not actually help transition a child away from bottle habits.
For that reason, many experts recommend going with a non-valve, open-sippy cup style instead. These allow your toddler to practice sipping from an open mouthpiece, which helps develop mature drinking abilities. Look for spill-resistant options with weighted bottoms, double wall construction, and handles to aid little grippers. The goal should be a cup that allows your child to drink normally, not just suck. While convenient, valve no-spill cups may delay the skills needed to progress from bottle to open-cup drinking. Non-valve sippy cups encourage proper sipping which makes for an easier total transition.
You’ll find many sippy cup designs with or without little handles to make gripping easier. And some even have removable handles for when your tot gets a little older. Since every child is different, many parents buy an assortment of sippy cup varieties to see which one their baby takes best. Having multiple options with various spout types, straws, handles, and leak-proof features can help make the move from bottle to cup go a lot smoother. You don’t have to use a sippy cup if you don’t want to. The end goal is to teach your child to drink from an open, regular cup. It comes down to your child’s readiness – and your patience for messes! Skipping the sippy cup stage means dealing with more spills initially. But with gentle guidance and repetition, your little one can learn to drink from an open cup. Just be prepared for some mess during the training process. There are special open training cups made with small handles to help tiny hands grip them. Or you can go straight to using a regular cup meant for adults. Cups come in plastic, silicone, and glass options – glass can be a more eco-friendly sippy cup choice for environmentally-conscious parents. While sippy cups can be handy transitional tools, they aren’t a must-have. Moving straight to open cups eliminates that in-between step. It may take more time and make more messes at first, but can pay off with your child becoming an open cup pro sooner.
To conclude, you can choose any cup you want depending on your child’s need but it is necessary to do some research and choose the best cup. Sippy cups are a great way to teach your child to drink directly from a cup, buy a variety of cups, and use the most suitable.
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