Tip – Drinking from a straw

At about 10 months, I started to order kids meals for my daughter when we went out to restaurants. Many of these meals come with a drink, but if you do not come with an extra bottle or sippy cup there is really no way to get your child to enjoy this drink. Often, the drink comes with a straw but it is so frustrating to sit there and not know how to teach your baby to take a sip from it.

Babies instinctively know how to suck, but sucking from a straw is pretty confusing. They have a hard time understanding that if you keep sucking you will eventually be able to get the liquid in your mouth. One night out at dinner my mother came up with a perfect solution to the straw problem. She took the full straw and cut off a piece that was about an inch long. She put it in the juice and put the other end to my daughter’s mouth. My daughter took one short sip and immediately had the juice in her mouth. After a few practice sips we put a full length straw in her mouth. She immediately sucked the same way she had with the short straw and was able to reach the juice again.

Drinking from a straw is now her favorite way to drink as well as a much cleaner option then drinking right from the side of the cup.