As Hannah was approaching her first birthday, I knew it would soon be time to get her fully away from using bottles. I figured that it would be fairly easy. Buy a cup and give it to her; end of story. I very quickly learned, however, that it’s no where near that simple.
She started out using a Nuby 7oz. Cup With Valveless No-Spill Spout which I received from Wal-Mart as part of a gift package sent out to associates &
spouses who are expecting. The cup holds about seven ounces and was great for drinking juice. We used it for months until the spout got all nasty…when someone (cough…Jason) left formula in it and didn’t clean it. You can buy replacement spouts, but there are only few places you can buy them. Nuby’s website says you can buy them at Babies R Us, but you can’t. The store doen’t carry them and their site doesn’t list them. There were several other places that were listed, one being Amazon and the other being baby boutiques that I’ve never heard of. On Amazon, their $2 for two, but after the shipping was added in (almost $6), it was cheaper to get a new cup. This cup is available online at Amazon.
The next cup we tried was another Nuby, the Soft Silicone Spout 10oz No Spill Cup with Handles. We bought this one at Wal-Mart for about $5. She would drink from it for a bit, but would then toss it aside. The cup doesn’t seal well, causing it to leak. She ended up wearing most of whatever she was drinking. I tried to find this one on Amazon, but it’s not listed. You can buy it at Wal-Mart and online at Baby Bungalow.For our next pick, we followed some other people’s advice and tried one with a hard spout. We bought a NUK 2 pack, but I can remember which ones they were. Hannah wouldn’t use them at all, and usually launched them across the living room. There are supposed to be ‘no spill’, but they drip almost constantly. It’s also hard to clean up in the spouts, so after a few uses they end up smelling bad.
At last, her doctor suggested try her with a straw. She said that some babies will bypass the spout stage and go straight to straws. So we bought the Munchkin 10oz Mighty Grip Straw Cup in a two pack a few days ago. I figured that, like the others, she’d either toss it aside or at me. But…she loves it! I still can’t get over that she got it on the very first try. The cup itself is three pieces; the cup, the lid, and the hard straw in the cup. Everything is extremely easy to clean and it’s dishwasher safe. The upper straw is soft silicone, so I don’t have to worry about her poking the roof of her mouth. The sippy cup is available online at both Amazon and Drugstore.com. Overall, this was a frustrating experience at times. However it’s one that every parent goes through during the bottle-to-cup transition. Keep in mind that every child will have differnt preferences, so what didn’t work for us may work for you. Hopefully you will have an easier, and less expensive, time then we did.
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