What sort of cup at almost 8 months?

[GingerNut]

My DD will be 8 months next week. She drinks water happily with her meals, out of a breaker with a flimsy plastic spout, because it happened to come with some bowls we bought. It doesn't have handles, so I don't think there's much chance of her trying to hold it herself. We have a cup with handles and she'll explore the handles with her hands while she drinks, which is a start, at least! But she doesn't like the spout on it, I think she finds it too hard. It was sold as suitable for 6 months +, but it doesn't suit her!

What sort of cup is everyone using? Handles or none, spout or straw, anti-spill or messy? I don't want to end up buying a new one every week till we find one she likes, if I can possibly avoid it!

[~inbalance~]

Often you do have to try several until you find the one that YOUR baby is most comfortable with.  She might not like the same ones that other babies do!

With my DS1 we tried all kinds but had the most luck with a Born Free soft spout one early on.  But he did not hold it himself until almost a year, and then it took even longer for him to figure out how to tip it properly.

He also did really well with a straw one a little over a year.  A lot of moms say their LOs like the straw sippys.

DS2 has soft and hard spout ones and he does ok with both, but he won't hold them yet even though they have handles.   

When it comes to sippy cups it's all about practice. 

[Mama Kate]

My DD is the exact same age and has a few different types.  We started her on the Doidy cup (it's an open cup with handles) at mealtimes in her highchair.  At first I would just put a tiny bit of water in and hold it for her.  It took a while (about a month) before she figured out it was for drinking and not chewing, but now she will take about one ounce of water from that with her meals.  I still mostly hold it for her but now she tries to hang onto the handles at the same time.

In between meals or when we are out and about she drinks from a straw sippy (Nuby).  She took to that quite well (within 20 minutes) but I still have to hold it for her most of the time.  I think because she doesn't have to tip it up it's easier for her.

We initially tried the Avent magic cup with a hard spout but she couldn't figure out that one at all.  A friend suggested taking off the no-spill valve for a few days so she could learn that there's water inside, and that actually helped.  Now she can drink from it with the valve on (but I still hold it).  I give her milk in that every couple of days as I'm planning on moving her straight to a sippy cup when I stop breastfeeding.  I'd prefer her to take milk from a straw sippy but I only have one at the moment and haven't tried milk in it yet.  Straw sippy cups are supposed to be better for speech development than spouted cups.

[Chicane]

We never used a sippy and I only take one when we go out and about. I bought a miniature plastic cup from a cookware shop. Its about 5cm tall. We started by me holding it for him and he soon started holding it himself - its small enough he can get his hands around it - and drinking with it with not too much problems. His now 16 months and can drink from any kind of cup I give him...I guess each one is different but I really don't think you need anything fancy or expensive, just an old fashioned small cup or sippy cup should do fine.