Training your baby to drink from a cup

At about 9 months old it is recommended to start teaching children to start using a cup in addition to bottle feeding and nursing. Personally, I am glad we live in the age of plastics so we can not only have sippy cups, but cutes ones as well! Can you imagine having to train your little one to drink from a cup with no lid ever? Sure, I teach my kids that from a young age, but there was no Independence to drinking because they cannot do that without spilling every where.

Sippy cups have become a life saver for parents, but we need to be selective at first. Many sippy cups don't teach our children how to really drink from a cup, they still have to suck and tilt the cup way back to get it all out, like a bottle. Other cups are confusing, like ones with straws, they don't leak, but then when the child gets a straw cup from a restaurant they tip back and spill it every where, usually on a good outfit. Who like cleaning out those nasty valves? Those are a problem for me, too.
Some parents decided that they wanted the best sippy cup on the market and went about inventing it. They called it the Tilty cup. It solves several problems, while still training a child to actually drink from a cup, not sucking like a bottle.

Tilty is not spill proof, it leaks, but that is intentional, so the child doesn't spill it all, but still learns to keep from spilling. There is no sucking because there is no valve, so the child learns how to truly drink from a cup. Tilty also solves the tilting the cup up to the sky problem by having a slanted base in the cup so when the child drinks, the liquid goes to the mouth easily without having to tip their head way back, causing spills.
(dentists recommend not using a cup with a valve when teaching a child to drink from a cup for better dental health)

The Tilty is also BPA Free, PVC Free, Dye Free and Pthalate Free. So many companies we trust with our children are not making products that are proven safe. This cup is made safely.

How did I like this cup? I wasn't too sure about the tilted bottom, but it has worked out really well. Sam and Trinity both ask for this cup, so it is a good thing it comes in a two pack! They both really like it, and I am not sure why they prefer it to their fancy character cups, but they do. One thing that I don't like about it is the lid. It snaps on, but there are tabs so you know you set it on right, it has to go on a certain way because of the tilted inside, but the tabs are not kid friendly. Trinity is 5 and is old enough to handle getting her own refills, but this lid is too confusing for her. It is a minor function problem, though, and I just have to make sure she brings the lid to me to put on so we don't have any more disasters.

I think this is a great training tool to teach a child the actual mechanics of drinking from a cup. It won't replace our insulated and spill proof cups for playing around the house and in the car, but they are great for table use and teaching.

Thanks to MomSelect and Tilty I am able to give away a 2-pack of Tilty cups to one lucky reader!

Please leave a comment about what feature you like about this cup from the Tilty website. The giveaway is open to US residents only, sorry.

Giveaway closes on May 10th, 2009.