Children's Health

Transition to sippy cup

06/08/2004 08:20AM

Question:

My daughter is almost 1 year old and we are having trouble getting her to use a sippy cup. We introduced it at a young age (~6-8 months), but she really just plays with it and doesn`t use it to drink. We have tried a variety of cups (Avent, Gerber, Playtex w/handles, etc). Is there any way I can get her to use it? She refuses to take her formula in it, but will occasionally try water if we hold it up to her mouth. She is able to hold a bottle, but usually doesn`t when we feed her. Any suggestions? Thanks for your help.

Answer:

Young children pose many challenges to caregivers in the transition to solid food and letting go of the bottle. You have done a very important thing in introducing the cup early. However, she is also doing both you and herself a favor in refusing a "sippy" cup! Pediatric dentists strongly recommend against the use of sippy cups because they often become "virtual bottles" that young children carry with them to sip on sweetened beverages throughout the day. This has the same negative consequences for dental health as drinking bottles in bed, a greatly increased risk of dental caries (cavities).

Many children refuse to drink from any cup because they prefer a bottle and are quite content to drink rather than eat. This frequently leads to problems with diarrhea and anemia, sometimes with early excessive weight gain as well. So it is in the best interests of your child to help her to become a competent eater of a varied diet and learn the more mature skill of drinking from a cup without a lid in order to limit fluid intake that may decrease her appetite to eat.

As a one-year-old, your daughter likely has favorite storybook or TV characters and she would enjoy the opportunity to select a special big girl cup that is hers now that she is not a baby any more. Preselect a few options that you believe she would like and that will fit in your budget and let her select her very own special cup. This will appeal to her as a toddler because toddlers enjoy asserting their newly found sense of self and independence from their parents. It`s a wonderful step forward in their mental development but it poses many creative challenges for their parents.

It would also be wise to discontinue any regular use of the bottle at nap or prior to bed time and slowly to drop out the use of bottles. Couple this with positive comments when your daughter drinks from her special cup about what a big girl she is and what a pretty cup she has chosen. Calmly ignore demands for the bottle or distract her with a story or playing together with a toy. The very last thing you would want to do is create a battle over the bottle and for you both to become angry and upset together. Keep your cool if you start to feel upset and remain firm but loving. Our children do not come into the world knowing how to fit into expectations for behavior around eating and being with their fellow humans. They need wise parents who help them learn these rules.

If her bottle is a source of comfort, help your daughter learn to take comfort from something not tied to food usuch as a favorite soft toy or blanket. You can help this process along, if it hasn`t happened already, by selecting an object you hold with her when you comfort her over and over. Soon she will seek the object by herself.

Several useful books that you may find helpful on your journey as the parent of a young child are Ellyn Satter`s book, "Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense," and Penelope Leach`s book, "Your Baby and Child: Birth to Five."

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Response by:

Mary M. Gottesman, PhD, RN, CPNP, FAAN
Associate Professor, Specialty Program Director
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program
College of Nursing
The Ohio State University