Chorevia

Day 315 of 365 · Week 43

Cups: open, straw, or sippy

Last reviewed · 4 min read · 7 sources · Plain-text version

Open, straw, or a sippy without a valve all work, and a cup you hold is on the 12-month list. Water up to 4 to 8 ounces a day, milk still the main drink. The three-cup trial, one at each meal.

A Middle Eastern mother at a breakfast table holding a small open cup to the lips of her forty-five-week-old in a high chair with the harness on, water down his chin, the father laughing with a cloth.

A cup is on the 12-month list, and it's one of the few milestones you hold in your own hand. Today is the three kinds that all work, and a day to find out which one your baby prefers.

Heart

By 1 year, most babies drink from a cup without a lid as you hold it (CDC). The AAP's advice is to offer a cup at meals now, and an open cup, a straw cup, or a sippy cup without a valve all work (Shu, AAP). What goes in it is mostly water: up to 4 to 8 ounces a day, with breast milk or formula still the main drink (Muth, AAP). Fluoridated tap water helps protect teeth (Muth, AAP), and juice waits until after the first birthday (AAP).

Head

The 6-month guide's version was a tablespoon or two of water in a small open cup, tipped just enough for a sip, with the baby's hands on the cup alongside yours (Muth, AAP); the activity is Sips from an open cup. The other two kinds each teach something different: a straw needs a seal and a suck, a valveless sippy needs a tip. The AAP lists all three without ranking them (Shu, AAP), so the right cup is the one your baby will drink from.

Body

The cup matters now because of yesterday: bottles are meant to be gone between 12 and 18 months (Shu, AAP), and the cup that works for water this month is the one that carries milk after the birthday. Today's trial is at meals, which is where the AAP puts cups (Shu, AAP): the baby upright and buckled in the high chair, you holding the cup, and a cloth within reach. The guide's section is Cups in, bottles out.

Try today

  1. Three cups lined up on the counter in afternoon light, an open cup, a straw cup, and a valveless sippy, each with a sticky note, the baby's hand reaching across the high-chair tray toward the straw.

    The three-cup trial

    Time: A few sips at each of three meals · Cups in, bottles out in the guide

    1. Breakfast: a tablespoon or two of water in a small open cup. Hold it to the lips and tip just enough for a sip; let your baby's hands come onto it (Muth, AAP).

    2. Lunch: the straw cup. Touch the straw to the lips and wait; if nothing happens, squeeze a drop up the straw so they taste what it's for.

    3. Dinner: the sippy with the valve taken out, tipped by you (Shu, AAP).

    4. After each meal, one note: swallowed, spat, refused, or grabbed. Keep the whole day's water to 4 to 8 ounces (Muth, AAP).

    5. Tomorrow, lead with the winner, and keep the open cup in the rotation; it's the one on the 12-month list (CDC).

    Make it work:

    A bib, a towel on the floor, and a shirt you don't mind wet.

Watch for

  • Normal

    water down the front at every meal and almost none swallowed; the first sips are about the cup, not the drink.

    Call your pediatrician right away

    for signs of dehydration: no urine in more than 8 hours, dark urine, a very dry mouth, and no tears (AAP).

  • Normal

    a cough and a splutter on a gulp that went down fast, over in a breath.

    Call your pediatrician right away

    for trouble breathing that isn't severe, and call 911 if your baby is struggling for each breath or can barely cry (AAP).

  • Normal

    a straw chewed flat and a baby who prefers the open cup you hold; drinking from a cup without a lid as you hold it has until 12 months (CDC).

    Bring it up at the 12-month visit

    if your baby seems not to see or hear well (AAP).

For you

The mother filling her own tall glass at the kitchen tap, the baby on her hip with a wet shirt front, a wiped-down high chair and a damp cloth on the table behind them.

The mess is the lesson. Every sip on the bib was a sip from a cup you were holding, which is the wording of the 12-month milestone (CDC). Fill a glass for yourself at every one of those three meals too. Plenty of water is still on the recovery list, with the fresh fruits and vegetables (Office on Women's Health), and the tap water protecting the baby's teeth is yours too (Muth, AAP). The baby gets 4 to 8 ounces. You get the rest of the jug.

If you're the partner: dinner is the valveless sippy and the valveless sippy is yours. Note the result on the same page as hers, and then take the wet shirts, both of them, to the laundry.

Sources

This guide is general education that summarizes published research and guidance from groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC, and the WHO. It isn’t medical advice, and every child develops on their own timeline. Your pediatrician knows your child; if something feels wrong, call them. In an emergency, call 911.

Get each day’s note the morning it applies

Add your baby to a free Chorevia household with their date of birth, and every morning for 365 days the day’s note arrives in the app and by email: what’s developing, one thing to try, what to watch for, and a word for you.

Create your household