How To Teach Baby To Drink From A Straw Cup

This bear cup will teach *any* kid how to drink from a straw

Trust me, it works.

During the first year of your baby’s life, everything is transitions. It starts the second they are born and they need help transitioning from the warmth of your womb to the outside world—so we swaddle them tight and keep them close to us to help them figure it out. Once they are done with the fourth trimester, things start speeding up: They start rolling, sitting up, dropping naps, experimenting with solids and eventually even walking and drinking water. Basically they become their own little human beings.

Throughout my journey as a mom, I stressed so much about these transitions, especially because it always felt like they happened just when I had finally figured things out. I had my schedule down to a T and suddenly my baby wanted nothing to do with it, and we both had to figure out what our new schedule would look like—only for it to be obsolete weeks later.

One of the transitions I worried a lot about was drinking water. It sounds silly, I know, but all my babies struggled with weight gain and the idea of adding water—and not from a bottle—made me feel insecure. I knew they couldn’t be drinking from bottles until they left for college, but how could they possibly figure out how to suck water when all I had been doing was feeding them lying close to my chest from a size 1 nipple?

My friend—who is a speech therapist and obviously has been around way more children than I have—recommended this honey bear straw cup to help with the transition. I honestly laughed at first, but she swore by it, so I decided to give it a shot. And you know what? This thing works! My son was drinking from it successfully in 48 hours, moving onto sippy cups within a week of our first try. No meltdowns from either of us, and plenty of giggles and cheers.

But it’s not just good for new transitions, this bear straw cup was designed to be used by speech and feeding therapists to help with tongue training, lip rounding, tongue retraction and other oral motor skills.

how to teach kids to drink straw cup 0 Motherly

Talktools

1. Honey bear drinking cup

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$15.99

The Honey Bear Cup holds up to 7 ounces and comes with one replacement straw and a booklet with instructions on how to use it. Note that none of the parts are dishwasher- or microwave-safe, so handwash everything.

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