Over time, only mother's milk becomes insufficient for the baby, and the need for other drinks appears.
And many parents initially face the problem of how to teach their child to drink fruit drinks, compotes, juices and other healthy liquids through a straw.
Nowadays, choosing the optimal type of sippy cup is not difficult, but teaching your baby to drink from it will require strength and patience.
When can training begin?
Often, adults think that drinking through a straw is simple, and teaching this to a child will not be difficult.
But for a baby who does not have the ability to make informed decisions, such a task will not be possible.
Up to six months, the child will be more accustomed to drawing liquids from a bottle with a nipple, because this is almost the same as sucking on his mother’s breast.
At the age of 6-8 months, you can begin to introduce the baby to the straw.
Thus, the risk of future malocclusion is minimized. Parents should be prepared for the fact that the child will initially drop the sippy cup or juice box. At this age, children grab almost everything they see - they are interested in touching and tasting, but they often lack the dexterity of their little fingers to hold this or that object.
Like any other learning, the skill of drinking through a straw should be mastered in a playful way - this way it will be easier for the child to learn something new and will be happy to repeat the “lesson” over and over again.
Before purchasing a sippy cup and starting to educate your child, you need to familiarize yourself with the existing types. There are only four of them:
- A sippy cup with a straw is a glass with a lid with a straw inserted into the hole.
- Sippy cup - such a container can be safely shaken, dropped, thrown - liquid will not spill out of it thanks to a special valve.
- Thermal sippy cup is designed specifically for walks and trips. This is a kind of thermos for children.
- Educational sippy cup – has an attachment that allows you to use it as a bottle with a nipple or as a classic sippy cup.
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Tips to speed up your learning
Baby formula for newborns - how to prepare
If parents are thinking about how to teach their child to drink from a straw in the first year of his life, the following tips may be useful:
- When introducing a straw for the first time, it is better to use your baby’s favorite drink. The taste, which he never refused, will help him quickly navigate the development of a new sucking technique. It is better not to use drink flavors unknown to the child for now.
- It is easier to teach if the child is thirsty at the time of training. Even any adult learns something new faster if it has personal motives. Thirst is a strong motivator. But it can also work in the opposite direction - a child who wants to drink, having failed to quickly master working with a straw, can be very upset that he cannot get drunk, so thirst should be moderate.
- It is easier to accustom your baby to a straw in the morning or lunchtime, when he is active and eager to explore the world. Evening lessons will most likely be useless and may turn into crying, because the vast majority of children are used to calming down and getting ready for bed with a bottle of warm milk or mother's breast. Replacing the necessary attribute for a restful sleep will only become stressful at the beginning of the journey to the tube.
During training, allow you to fall asleep with a bottle.
Additional Information. Many children can consume milk only through the usual nipple or bottle. Therefore, mothers make their first mistake by asking their baby to drink milk through a straw.
Parents should understand that the first attempts to master the straw will certainly be accompanied by wet spots. In no case should this cause a dissatisfied mother’s tone. Instead, it's better to arm yourself with tissues and get ready to support your child. Successful sips must be accompanied by loud praise in the form of applause, smiles and hugs.
The most important thing that a mother should remember is that if the baby, for unknown reasons, refuses to drink from a straw even after a year, this does not mean that he is incapable. Most likely, he simply does not like this way of drinking. All people are individual from birth. You shouldn’t force your baby to suffer with an unloved straw just because the neighbor’s baby has been using it for a long time. You should always focus on the needs of your child, and not compare your skills with the neighbor kids.
Learning to drink from a straw
It often happens that the child begins to resist, pushing away the sippy cup or juice box.
You shouldn’t worry about this - it’s better to be patient and start introducing your baby to a new subject gradually.
It’s no wonder that drink packaging in bright colors is made for small children – it attracts attention. Therefore, you should buy a colorful sippy cup; it will interest the baby, and he will reach out to touch it and taste it.
It is also necessary to take into account the period of teething. At this time, it would be better to abandon the habit of drinking through a straw, because it is stressful for the child - whims and bad mood can easily ruin even the most correct approach to the matter.
It is worth considering the age of the baby. At six months it is still difficult to explain to him what and how to do, so you need to be prepared for the fact that the training will drag on for 2-3 months.
Some children pick it up on the fly, while others have difficulty understanding what their parents require of them. Of course, after a year it becomes easier to explain anything, but you still shouldn’t delay learning to drink through a straw.
When and for what?
A baby can master a straw from the very moment he learns to drink from a sippy cup. This is approximately 8–9 months. The advantages will be obvious:
- Naturally, the little one drinks on his own, which is convenient for parents;
- on a walk, on a trip, in the park, in a store, you can easily quench your fidget’s thirst by buying him juice if you don’t have water with you or accidentally forgot the sippy cup at home;
- the straw helps protect the delicate enamel of children's teeth from the effects of acids contained in natural fruit juices;
- With this method of drinking, the same muscles that are needed for speaking work. So, by learning to drink through a straw, the little man will strengthen his articulatory apparatus.
Before getting acquainted with a new way of drinking, you can tell your child that bottle nipples go to the smallest children during the day, and your baby, since he is already so big, needs to learn to drink like an adult. Plus, it's very interesting!
Display of unopened packaging
At the very beginning, it is necessary to convince the child that the new subject is interesting, otherwise the child’s period of rejection may drag on for a long time.
Having purchased a sippy cup with a straw at a pharmacy or store, you need to review it with your child.
The rustling of the packaging may seem interesting to the baby - you should not deprive him of the pleasure of touching it.
Interest flares up just at this stage and it is very important not to miss the moment, giving the little researcher the opportunity to satisfy his curiosity. If you forbid a child to examine a packed, empty object, then he will then begin to do this with a filled sippy cup, as a result of which he will simply wet himself. It’s worth doing the same with a box of juice - let the baby examine it from all sides, look at the pictures.
You should also voice your actions. The emotional coloring of mom or dad's voice will help the child correctly perceive the dating process. It is worth remembering about facial expressions, which play the same role in the process of communicating with a child. If the baby sees that the parents are interested in this bright, incomprehensible thing, that they encourage the curiosity of the child himself, he will also definitely want to touch the sippy cup.
If a child categorically refuses to get acquainted with a new subject, there is no need to force him to do it. The best option would be to postpone learning about the sippy cup for a couple of weeks, and then try offering it to your baby again.
How to teach a child to drink from a mug independently
Many people advise first teaching your child to drink from a spoon, and only then starting to introduce him to a mug or sippy cup. However, the most important thing is that the infant learns to swallow.
If the baby is about four months old, it is recommended to start with a sippy cup. But whatever is selected, you will need to follow the following order:
- The bottle with nipple is removed from the baby;
- Having been capricious, the child will definitely become interested in the new item - it is better to prepare two or three cups at once, let him choose the one that seems the best;
- The child is seated next to adults so that he can watch them drink tea or coffee from cups, this will be an additional visual example;
- To prevent your baby from getting dirty, you can put a bib or apron on him;
- You can pour just a little liquid into a sippy cup or mug - but it must be tasty - jelly, juice or another drink that the baby loves;
- It is necessary to show the baby how to use the utensils correctly, how to hold them and drink from them - as a rule, after this the baby himself expresses a desire to try to drink the same way.
You should not start training if your baby is not in a good mood or if something hurts; you should not force him to drink from a new container. This way you can completely discourage him by causing negative emotions. If the child did everything correctly, the parents should praise him. You can’t rush the baby - if he starts looking for a bottle, you can simply ignore these actions, or tell him that he’s already an adult and give him something to drink from a spoon.
When the baby takes his first sip, the mother should be nearby and control the process. She can help her son or daughter slightly by supporting the cup by the bottom. The child must understand that the dishes are intended specifically for drinking and nothing else, so children should not be allowed to play with a sippy cup or cup.
I must say that children quickly wean themselves from a bottle with a nipple and get used to the dishes. Of course, this does not happen instantly. But if you repeat the lesson every day, very soon the little one will happily reach for the mug.
Exploration by a child
There is no need to rush in the process of learning something new.
It is important to give the child enough time to become familiar with this or that thing.
If you rush to take the sippy cup away from him, this can lead to irritability, and the “lesson” will not be useful.
It is also worth understanding that all children are different - with some it is enough to show them a couple of times, and the skill will be mastered, but with others you will have to repeat it over and over again.
Each baby has his own speed of processing information - sometimes he will need several days to “digest” the experience gained (even after repeated repetitions), and after that he will be able to surprise his mother by unexpectedly showing independence and starting drinking through a straw, as if already knew how to do this before.
Opening the package and inserting the straw
Any simple action can become a discovery or magic for the baby, so it is important to unpack the sippy cup as if something very unusual and interesting is hidden under the wrapper.
You can even let the child try to remove the sippy cup from an already opened package, if necessary, unobtrusively helping him in this matter.
Having coped with this task, the baby will be happy and will probably want to continue his research, which began so successfully.
He will be interested in opening the lid and looking inside, and here his parents will have to help. Most sippy cups have a thread on which the lids are screwed on - a task the baby is not yet able to cope with. You need to open the container and let the child study it thoroughly. During the process, parents should give comments about what kind of sippy cup is beautiful, interesting, what is drawn on it, etc.
It is also necessary to have a dialogue with the child, perhaps even asking if he likes this or that element. Of course, he won’t be able to give a full answer yet, but he will definitely let you know about his attitude in a way that is accessible to him. Most children will enjoy playing this kind of explorer game, which means that the first stage of getting to know the sippy cup will be easy.
After the child satisfies his curiosity, interest in the new thing may wane. Here the parents have to reheat it. You won’t have to do anything complicated; all you need to do is demonstratively insert the straw into the sippy cup and comment on your actions. In the process of learning a new property of a glass or bottle (depending on what the parents choose), it is necessary to carefully insert the tube into the child’s mouth. This way he will understand that this element can be held in his mouth.
After familiarizing yourself with the empty container, you should move on to the next step. You need to pour a little juice, compote or any other liquid that the child likes into the sippy cup. You should not fill a whole glass at once; it may be heavy for the baby.
A child should only be taught to drink through a straw while sitting, otherwise the child may choke. The best option would be to sit him at the feeding table.
What is the reason for a child refusing a bottle?
It is normal for a baby to ignore the bottle. There's nothing scary about it. This happens because the child’s body contains the knowledge that its main diet should consist of breast milk, which the baby will receive not from a bottle, but from the mother’s breast.
It is for this reason that the child, on a subconscious level, reaches for the breast, and the nipple is much more convenient and pleasant for him than any nipple.
But often the reason that a baby refuses artificial feeding is not the bottle at all, but absolutely other reasons, which are that:
The child is not hungry - this is the most common reason that a toddler refuses a bottle, but for some reason parents do not pay attention to it. Here you should also take into account the fact that the need for the frequency and quantity of food intake depends on the age of the baby
Therefore, one should not be surprised if the baby, after reaching six months, begins to actively demand a bottle and drink from it with pleasure, although previously he refused it and denied it in every possible way;
The baby does not like the formula, tea or other food given from the bottle. Parents should understand that each infant formula has its own taste and sometimes it is very specific. It may be too sweet or even tasteless. Therefore, so that the baby can choose “his own”, he should be offered several types of baby food. And if you give a child tea, water or medicine from a bottle, and then food, he may not accept it at all, since he will associate it with something unpleasant and tasteless. Therefore, in the case of medications, it is better to give them in a different way or use ingenuity and imagination.
Hot or cold food
It should be remembered that the mucous membranes of a baby’s mouth are much more sensitive than those of adults. Therefore, the temperature of the infant formula should be around 36-37 degrees. These are the temperature indicators that mother's milk has. Therefore, this fluid temperature is the most normal for a child.
Inconvenient pacifier - a pacifier that parents like may not be to the taste of their child. He may not like its shape or the size of the hole through which the mixture enters. Sometimes the baby refuses the bottle, although he used to drink from it normally. This may happen because the parents bought a new nipple for the bottle, which is not the same shape as the old one. In addition, it can smell unpleasantly like rubber, interrupting the baby’s appetite.
Uncomfortable position and uncomfortable environment for feeding. The feeding position that is comfortable for mommy will not always be comfortable for the baby. You can try feeding him by sitting him in your arms, lying down, on the side, or in other positions. You may also need a change of environment to encourage your baby to start drinking from a bottle.
Perhaps one of the reasons described above is preventing the baby from getting used to artificial feeding; by eliminating it, parents will be able to accustom the child to a bottle.
Own example
In most cases, it is difficult for children to understand how to use a new thing, so parents often have to show everything by example.
Mom or dad can playfully give water to the baby’s favorite bear, explaining their actions in words.
A personal example will also be effective - you can show your child how parents do it, and then he will want to repeat the process on his own.
Raising a child must be done from birth, so that later there is no question of how to re-educate a spoiled child. But if the baby is still spoiled, you need to fight it.
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