suggestions for getting on sippy cup?

[ssmehyl]

hi everyone. does anybody have any suggestions for getting on the sippy cup? We have palate surgery the end of march. He's not loving the sippy at all right now. we're trying the nuby right.
Thank you.
Stacy

[heather]

Eyson didn't care for a sippy cup either. But I kept with it and he eventually figured out that the bottle wasn't coming back and his juice was coming from his new cup. He is using the Nuby. He's having no trouble with it now. Just like every baby, they don't want to break away from the norm. It just takes persistence.

[ssmehyl]

Thank you so much for the reply. We're just going to stay the course. Hopefully, he'll start coming around in a couple of weeks.

[ssmehyl]

Hey Heather.

Did your son just cry and cry when you first tried to give the sippy? I've cut the slits a little longer, but it gets all over him. He'll take a few "bites" and then hates it. I've been giving it to him with juice between bottles to get used to it, but when it comes to the bottle he wants nothing to do with the cup. He bites the cup on the side of his mouth. Any thoughts? Your experience?

Thanks so much.

Stacy

[jstupak]

Hi Stacy,
My daughter hated the sippy cup to the point where if it was on the table where she was playing, she could not relax. She would stare at it, and start to cry. We introduced it around 8 months, and have been struggling ever since. (She is now 1.) My doctor suggested eliminating one bottle for a week, and then one more, and so on. I did this starting with the afternoon bottles. What I learned is that she would just wait until the next bottle. I finally got down to one night time bottle and she slowly starting drinking during the day. Mostly out of an open cup like me. (I have tried every cup under the sun.) What I also saw is that with out the day bottles, she started eating more and more. I try to feed her a snack every two hours to keep her mind off of the bottle. THis week we went cold turkey and this the first time she actually drank from a sippy cup. I just sit it on the counter and offer it to her all day long. They will give in - but it can take a while. So have patience. It is not easy... But we are two weeks before surgery and we had no choice. And i really think cold turkey is the only way she would give in to a cup. There were some screaming fits, but we are getting through it.

[ssmehyl]

Hi jstupak

Thanks for replying. Did you guys have to cut the slits in the sippy at all? He's so use to it coming out quickly from the haberman that we had to cut a little bit. and b/c he is unable to create any suction.
It gets everywhere. He'll use it, but only gets about half in his mouth.

thanks

[jstupak]

She still refuses the Nuby. I could not get the flow right, so she currently is using a hard top. I just take the valve out. It can be messy but she is learning to use it herself, and it getting better everyday. The other thing I tried that I thought she was love, Nuby makes a sippy cup top that fits on her bottle (mead johnson). I cut it a bit - and put it on the top of her bottle. She could squeeze just like her bottle and feed herself. Only problem, she hated it. I think it reminds her too much of the bottle and it just upsets her. But you may want to give it a try.

Thanks for replying to my message. After cold turkey with the bottle, I am not eager to try the pacifier - but I know it has to be done. I will try next week.... Allow us all to recover from this week,

[jstupak]

She still refuses the Nuby. I could not get the flow right, so she currently is using a hard top. I just take the valve out. It can be messy but she is learning to use it herself, and it getting better everyday. The other thing I tried that I thought she was love, Nuby makes a sippy cup top that fits on her bottle (mead johnson). I cut it a bit - and put it on the top of her bottle. She could squeeze just like her bottle and feed herself. Only problem, she hated it. I think it reminds her too much of the bottle and it just upsets her. But you may want to give it a try.

Thanks for replying to my message. After cold turkey with the bottle, I am not eager to try the pacifier - but I know it has to be done. I will try next week.... Allow us all to recover from this week,

[heather]

Stacy-
Eyson didn't care for the sippy at all when i first started it. He did cry some because he didn't suck on it, he bit it, so there wasn't enough coming out for him. I didn't want to cut the slits any larger because I didn't want him gulping. He did get used to it. I know it's hard to take sometimes watching your baby cry and fuss, who has already gone through so much. It was hard for me, too. But I knew that in the long run it was what I needed to do to keep his development up and on track. They do get used to it. Stick with it. It will all work out. If he knows that the bottle is still going to be involved he will continue to dislike the sippy. There has to be consistency or he'll continue to fight it. I know that sounds so mothery, but Eyson's my third child and I went through the bottle and sippy cup battle with the oldest two and they weren't even cleft babies. Eyson has been on his sippy for two months now and he has now figured out how to suck the nipple and everything is going smooth. It's pretty much a practice makes perfect kind of thing.

[ssmehyl]

hey. thank you for the encouragment. He's getting better. Hoping he'll get more and more used to it.
thanks.