Life Before Sippy Cups

When I worked at the Montessori school, as soon as they could hold the regular glass/cup they got one. They never transitioned from bottle to sippy cup to glass. It was always bottle to glass/cup. Sippy cups are actually not very good for kids anyway and are designed more as a convenience for parents then it is beneficial to a child's development.

Well, most people breastfed/bottle fed longer for one thing. Also children would sit at the table or in a high chair to drink.
It seems like a lot of parents use the sippy cup the same way they use pacifiers.
My kids are older now, and they did use sippy cups, but mostly for travel (I found it yucky to find sticky old cups under the couch or in a toy box days later, ew!)

You could just introduce a regular cup/glass.

But there ARE safe plastic cups out there!

regular cup, or our personal favorite - shot glass!
They are sturdy, as they are designed for drunks, and they are easy for little hands to hold. Our daughter LOVES them.

Our Montessori day care moves kids to little glasses when they are capable of sitting/holding a cup themselves. At home we use a combo of little plastic tumblers, little glasses and shot glasses.
We use a hard-spouted closeable BPA free sippy for travel. I think it is made by green sprouts.

The only warning - she loves to "tink, and drink, and put it down!" because it makes a real "tink" sound. We're just waiting for child services to show up at our door!

Walmart carries BPA free plastic sippy cups, you could give those a try if that's your main concern about plastic. Otherwise, I'd just introduce a regular cup.

I don't know how old your child is, but my kids started drinking water out of small open cups (glassware) around age 2. But we still use BPA-free sippies sometimes with things like milk. I suppose you could get some paper and straw cups at a restaurant supply store or costco, but that seems like a waste.

I was told by other parents that they just gave their child a cup straight to drink out of ...or...I heard way back then...some would "spoon-feed" them liquid? :)

It's actually time to introduce my little one to a cup. Not too sure how I'm going to do it this time around....straw sippy cup or straight sippy cup.

Your son will be fine. Use a sippy cup.

Using a straw is good for their speech development, just skip the sippy altogether!

yes, do not use them ... my ds went from bottle/breast to cup w/out sippy cups at all at one.

I did not do the sippy cup altogether. I figured if my Mom and Grandma didn't use it I don't need it as well. We went from breast to bottle for a short time and then a regular cup. No sippy and only sometimes a straw. It does work. It worked for millions on Mom before there was a sippy cup.

regular cups with tiny amounts of liquid for little sips at first, yes, spoon feed,

paper straws (they had a coating of wax on them).. .. yes, there was such a thing..

Remember there are non toxic sippys out there.. They clean great in the dishwasher. I also used to soak them in denture cleansers also.

we are headed into summer use a small regular cup outside for a easy clean up, serve water in the cup for easy clean up... but they will learn to use what ever you teach them to use...

All my children and my grandchildren were holding a small cup and drinking w/o help by 18 mos. of age. Sippy cups are a relatively new thing. I can see the advantage of non-spill cups, but kids will and do learn.

We use the Playtex sippy cups. They are BPA free and we haven't had any issues with them leaking. They are not the ones with soft, silicone like spouts. With our kids those were horrible! Both of my children would turn them upside down and press the spout onto the floor just to watch the liquid pour out!! What are the issues you are having with sippy cups? You may have to try out a couple before you find the right one for your son. At 9 months I wouldn't suggest a regular cup unless you enjoy scrubbing floors!! :)

To put your mind at ease; my teenage daughters used sippy cups, probably before the "BPA free" came out and they are fine and healthy. I don't think I would stress to much about it. If you use a regular cup, you will have lots of messes to clean up and lots of laundry to do.

Using a regular cup may be fine when you're at home, but what about in the car or at the park, etc? There are safe sippys and they are really convenient when your away from home. Don't get too stressed about what cup to use because there are so many other issues that will really stress you out.

We test-drove about 5 different kinds of sippy cups before finding one that was compatable with our child and vice-versa; the playtex soft-plastic. I think before sippys parents just stuck with the bottle for the next few years. Or breastfed. I suggest you reconsider your fear factors about plastic.

There are safe ones out there. Just never heat the sippys and handwash vs. dishwash. Yes, you can go right to a cup. Just a bit messier and less convenient. Good luck.

I would really reccomend using the cups and jsut resaerch which ones are ok.We used Avent bottles and they had an attachment to turn the spout into a sippy and you could also buy little handles.If you want to skip the cup just be ready for the mess.When we started training our son to drink out of a regular cup we did it in to bathub.This way he could master the skill but not ruin his clothes and get all wet.

I don't know if this would work at his age--I've given my older 2 year olds old stage 3 baby food jars to drink from. Sturdy, have some weight to them, don't break easily.