The Best First Baby Cups On The Market

As always, there is a huge amount of choice of baby cups to choose from when you are starting to wean babies onto cups for drinking. We have selected a few choices we think are best to introduce.

Weaning- (from 6 months)

When you are ready to start to introduce your baby to a cup, we would suggest using an open cup to start with. This is because you want to encourage their oral motor development and help them to discover how to sip water. Sipping is much better than sucking and better for their teeth also. The cup should be light in weight and easy to grip with their little hands. Don’t worry that there may be spills! It’s all part of the process! ( and its only water!) Start with small amounts of water in the cup and role model using the cup with your baby. We would suggest using Babycup Weaning Cups, or Cognikids Natural Drinking Cups, the Doidy Cup and the Munchkin Trainer Cup.

8-9 Months

Once they have mastered the way to sip correctly, to save on spills on the go you can then introduce a cup with a straw, ideally a weighted straw. This is usually from around 8-9 months. To start with, use alongside the open cup, as you still want the open cup to be the main way they drink. The straw option is to help you on the go- remember!

If you pick straw cups that are “non spill” these cups will have valves in, which again uses the sucking motion which is not great for oral development, so ideally you want to go for “less spill” or cutting the valves off the straws or removing the valves. Spouted beakers are fine, if not the main cup and have no valves, so they have to suck. We would suggest the Tum Tum Tippy Up Cup, or Tommee Tippee spouted beaker, or Cove Baby Beaker. All of these cups also have removable lids, so you can turn it back in to an open cup also.

You may be surprised how quickly your baby “grasps” the skill of using a cup and drinking without a lid!