You'll discover which baby cups are recommended at each age, as well as which types to skip completely.

You'll also learn the best straw cup for baby, and the best open cups for babies, as well as the best training cups for babies.

Choose the Best Baby Cup for Your Baby (Review of Sippy Cups, Straw Cups and Open Cups)

Did you know that the first cup you should be introducing to your baby at six months of age is actually an open cup? So it's a cup without a lid, not a sippy cup.

I know you might be thinking but there's gonna be so much mess and what about the constant clothes changing, but stay tuned as we talk about why the open cup or a straw cup is a preferred cup in comparison to the sippy cup and also what features you need to look out for when you're choosing a cup for your little one.

But before we do make sure you click on that free PDF document in the description box below, which covers the developmental milestones you can be expecting for your little one in their first year of life.

This will give you an invaluable peace of mind as you'll know what to be expecting and when to be concerned.

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So when should you introduce your baby to a cup, if that is an open cup, a straw cup or a sippy cup? You should be doing that at six months of age when you are first introducing solids.

The aim of this first six months, so from six months to 12 months of age, is for your baby to develop the skill to drink from a cup.

It isn't to replace bottle or breastfeeding.

The reason you would start at six months of age is that your baby becomes proficient in this skill so that at 12 months of age, when you stop bottle feeding, they are gonna be able to drink from a cup really well.

Now that we know the age that we can introduce cups, let's cover the three different cups that you can use with babies.

So that is the open cup, the straw cups or a sippy cup.

So open cups are the preferred cups to use with the baby and that is because it aids in the development of a mature swallow.

So when using your open cup your baby's tongue is elevated and it's the tip of the tongue is touching the roof of the mouth just behind the teeth.

What that does is when the liquid enters their mouth it encourages the tongue to do a wave-like motion to move the liquid from the front of the mouth to the back, which would then result in a swallow.

Now what's amazing is when babies are introduced to the open cup at around six months of age, generally most babies can handle open cups well with minimum spillage from nine to 12 months of age.

Now when choosing an open cup for your baby the very first thing is you want to look at cups that are small.

So you can see that this is a standard kind of cup for children compared to a shot glass for my out my coffee machine.

Basically the shot glass is the ideal size to use with the baby because it is a smaller rim, so they're going to be able to put that to their mouth and swallow the liquid really easily, compared to a larger cup where the rim is so large that they're not gonna have great lip seal and the water's gonna run around their mouth.

It's like holding a bucket up to your mouth as an adult and expecting us to swallow it really well.

So do try and get a small cup.

The benefit of a small cup is a baby's hands can easily wrap around it so they're able to hold it without handles and they can bring it up to their mouth.

Another benefit of having a small cup is the amount of liquid you could put in the cup is really reduced so there isn't gonna be a lot of spillage.

And then the baby doesn't need to tilt the cup significantly to get that liquid into their mouth.

So it's a lot easier for them to manage and control.

In addition to the size of the cup, you also wanna look at what the cup is made from.

Having cups which have a softer rim, so made from silicon, might be more beneficial for your little one, particularly with these kind of glass ones, 'cause when your baby brings it up to their mouth if they rush that movement, it might hit their gum and it might cause a little pain, particularly if they're teething and the silicon cups are quite easy for them to put to their mouth and not cause that pain and also munch on if they are teething.

Now, if you are keen to get an open cup for your baby there are commercially available baby feeding cups such as the EZPZ Tiny Cup.

I'll link it in the cryption box below.

But basically this is a silicon cup that's really small in size.

It was made by a pediatric feeding specialist and it's something that your baby will be able to easily lift and bring to their mouth and control the water and fluid intake.

If you're not quite ready for your baby to drink from an open cup then you can get training cups, which mimic drinking from an open cup, but are spill resistant.

So these include the Munchkin Miracle 360 Cup, which you can use from six months of age.

Or you've got the Phillips Advent Grown-up Cup, which you can use from 12 months of age.

So what these cups do is basically there's a valve that is released when your baby puts their mouth on the edge of the bottle, so on the rim.

It basically pushes that valve open and then the liquid will come out.

And when they remove their lips from it the liquid will stop coming out of the cup.

What is fantastic is that it doesn't matter where your baby tries to activate the cup, it's going to open that valve and the water or the liquid is going to come out.

So it's reinforcing your baby's use of this cup because they are actually getting some form of liquid whenever they're using it.

Now, straw cups are also a preferred option in comparison to sippy cups and that is again because they encourage that mature swallow.

And that's because when your baby puts their lips around the straw you'll see firstly that they close their lips, so they get that lip seal, but their tongue goes to the top of their mouth so that it's the tip of it's just resting behind the teeth, and then they use a wave-like motion to move the liquid from the front of the mouth to the back of their mouth, which is that mature swallowing.

The other benefit of straw cups is that they are spill resistant so parents do tend to really enjoy these cups.

So when choosing a straw cup for your little one what you wanna do is ensure that the straw is really flexible and soft and that means that when your baby uses it their tongue is able to still touch the tip of their, the roof of their mouth.

Whereas if it was a really firm straw they wouldn't be able to do that.

It would kind of press the tongue down in their mouth when they're trying to use it.

The other really great thing for these straw cups is ensuring that there is a weighted straw at the bottom.

So see the bottom here, there's a weight at the end of the straw.

And that just ensures that no matter where your baby tilts the bottle, there's still that weight is still gonna be in the water and they're still gonna be able to get some water out of that bottle.

So I really enjoyed using this straw cup with my son.

It's the Munchkin Click Lock Weighted Straw Cup but there are lots of other varieties, which I will include in the description box below.

And lastly, you have the sippy cups.

So the sippy cup is traditionally a plastic cup, which had a screwed on lid or a plastic lid and a firm spout.

The reason these are not the preferred cups to use with babies is because they encourage your baby to continue to use that sucking motion, to get the liquid out of the cup.

And that's because the firm spout stops your baby's tongue from being able to reach the roof of their mouth and use that wave-like motion to draw the liquid back and swallow.

What they need to do is they hit it with their tongue but because they can't put their tongue on the roof of their mouth, they continue to kind of use a sucking motion to withdraw the liquid.

It is because of this that the general recommendation is that parents skip using a sippy cup altogether and go straight to using an open cup or a straw cup.

However, if you are wanting to use a sippy cup what you wanna look for is ensure that your sippy cup has a soft spout, but not like this, which is really hard.

You want it to be soft so that your baby's tongue may be able to kind of squeeze it and kinda get close to the roof of their mouth when they're trying to suck the liquid out of it.

So those are the reasons why an open cup is a preferred cup to use with your little one or a straw cup and just avoid that sippy cup completely.

But if you do have one already, don't worry about it.

You can continue to use it.

Just try and think about introducing a open cup or a straw cup during meal times with the view that you will fade out that sippy cup and move to the open cup or the straw cup.

Or you can just take the lid off your sippy cup if it's one like this, and you'll be able to use this cup as an open cup with your little one.

Baby Cups Baby Development