The first step is the hardest:
Training bottles and cups for babies
Dear Customer,
The purpose of a training cup, bottle or mug is to make it easier for a baby to switch from a feeding bottle to drinking from proper cups and glasses.
The first step is the hardest:
Training bottles and cups for babies
Although practical for parents as they are unbreakable and leakproof, such training aids should only be limited to a transition period until the child has learned how to drink from a glass. Even at an age of five to six months, babies can get used to drinking from such training aids. At the latest when baby food is introduced, babies should be increasingly offered water or tea to drink. Drinking then no longer serves the mere intake of food but has much more to do with quenching thirst. Opinion is divided on the sense or futility of drinking aids. Nevertheless, they are very popular among parents. The market now offers numerous types of drinking aids. All of them are suitable for the transition period from breastfeeding or bottle feeding to using a normal children’s drinking glass.
- Training bottle: This looks very much like a standard feeding bottle. Not only is the teat particularly soft, its wide slit also enables babies to regulate the flow rate themselves while drinking. Suitable from the fourth to sixth month.
- Feeding cup: A classic product which involves drinking from a bent spout on the rim. Also available with bite-resistant spout and valve for leakage protection. Suitable from the sixth to twelfth month.
- Bottle with straw: Suitable for both infants capable of sucking strongly and extensively – from nine to twelve months – and as a leakproof training bottle when out and about.
- Training mug/cup: Complies most with drinking from a normal glass but with the difference that it is unbreakable. Here, too, there are numerous models available, e.g. with an inclined design providing a better view of contents, with a 360° drinking rim which means the cup/mug can be used on all sides, with a valve or lid for leakage protection, with permanent or detachable handles, with a capacity of 150 to 340 ml, and some are even microwave- and dishwasher-safe. Age recommendation: from about eight months.