How many babies more than 2 years old and even 3 years old are still drinking water from the bottle, and some children who are in kindergarten are still drinking milk and drinking water from the bottle. Experts in early childhood education tell you that this not only has negative effects, Hinder children’s growth.
The effect of delaying the baby’s withdrawal from the baby bottle
1.Caries
Baby’s frequent and frequent use of the bottle may cause dental caries. When sugar in milk, juice, and other beverages reacts with bacteria in the mouth, it can easily form acid that can erode teeth.
The risk of dental caries is higher if you have milk to sleep, night milk, or simply drink milk with a bottle for a long time to soothe.
Many children have bad teeth at the age of two or three. Mostly, they continue to use milk bottles to drink milk after 18 months. They fall asleep while drinking and drinking, and do not clean them in time.
2, hinder the development of lip function
The change from sucking milk from a bottle to sipping milk from a cup indicates that the child has relied on the function of oral pumping to feed milk, and then developed to drink milk from the lips, which greatly promotes the child’s oral function, especially the ability . Otherwise it will hinder the development of this process.
3. Obesity
Babies who are too dependent on the bottle increase the risk of obesity.
A 2011 study on obesity research centers at Temple University in the United States conducted a study of 6,750 American children in babies who were still using bottles after the age of 2 and who stopped using the bottles before the age of 2.
After excluding the influence of other factors, the researchers found that the probability of obesity at the age of 5 1/2 years is 22.9% for babies who are still using bottles at the age of 2 years, and only 16.1% for babies who do not use bottles.
Under normal circumstances, the milk volume of a baby after 1 year of age does not exceed 500 ml. But babies who are too dependent on feeding bottles will not consciously consume more milk, which will also cause the baby to get more calories than the body needs, which will cause obesity.
The benefits of getting your baby to drink a cup early
Maybe you think drinking water is such a simple thing. Drinking water for adults is simply to quench thirst, while drinking water for babies is more important than exercise!
Drinking water with a cup by yourself can train the small muscles of the hands and develop the hand-eye coordination, exercise the coordinated development of the limbs, eyes, hands, and brain. Using the baby’s cup to improve the baby’s physical development and cognitive ability Can play a key role. This is very important for your baby’s growth and development!
Begin training your baby to drink water with a glass as early as 6 months
The pediatrician recommends that it is best to start trying to drink water with a cup when the baby is 6 months old. This will give the baby plenty of time to adapt to the days without a bottle. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that the baby be gradually reduced from the age of 1. Ask him to use the bottle no later than one and a half years old.
At the age of 5 months, you can familiarize your baby with training cups and prepare them for drinking. At 6 months, you can try to get him to drink from a cup. Put a small amount of water in the cup and let the baby hold the cup with both hands. The parents help him to send it to his mouth. The water in the cup just touched the baby’s lips. Take care to let him drink slowly.
When the baby is holding the cup stably, the adult can gradually let go and let him carry the cup to his mouth. Pay attention to the temperature of the water in the cup and the amount of water.
Best drinking equipment for babies of all ages
When your baby starts drinking, he usually uses a training cup first. If your child is over fifteen months old, just use a regular glass. The best drinking equipment for babies of different ages should be like this:
0-6 months: feeding bottle + pacifier
Bottles are a must-have item for newborn babies. Since children at this stage cannot drink milk by themselves and need the help of their mothers, they can choose a bottle without a handle, but they have higher requirements for the pacifier’s touch.
6 months: pacifier training cup
When the child is at the age of six months, he can be trained to grasp and hold things with his hands. But at this stage the child can only suck food, so parents can give the child a bottle-type training cup to train him how accurately the cup is delivered to his mouth.
6-9 months: Duckbill training cup
According to experts, when the child is half a year old, let him drink water with a cup. If you want your child to stop relying on pacifiers and get used to drinking water with a cup, you need to give him a duckbill training cup. The drinking cup of this training cup is designed like a duck’s beak, which allows the child to drink more water in one sip, which is good for the child to use the drinking cup in the future.
9-12 months: Wide mouth training cup
At this age, children’s gripping and sucking abilities are improved compared to before, so you need to choose a cup with a larger amount of water than the duckbill training cup, which is the wide-mouth training cup. This type of training cup does not have a protruding spout and is more similar to a regular cup.
12-18 months: straw training cup
Parents are advised not to let their babies use this training cup prematurely, because children under the age of one year do not like to bite things, so they may bite off the straw on the water cup, thus causing serious crisis. Although the child will bite the straw after he is one year old, he can better judge the danger and the probability of swallowing the straw is very small.
Over 18 months: ordinary water cup
Through the training in the previous ages, the one-and-a-half-year-old child has mastered the method of drinking water. At this time, the child can use ordinary cups to drink water.
Tips: It is recommended that babies learn to use drinking cups as soon as possible, otherwise as the baby gets older, they will become more dependent on the bottle. At this time, it will be more difficult for the mother to try to let them use the drinking cup.
Precautions for the purchase and use of learning cups
1. Can it be disinfected?
The current school drinking cup is almost made of space glass, PC non-toxic plastic, which guarantees high temperature resistance and resistance to blows. Only a few brands supply disposable paper cup learning cups.
In this regard, parents do n’t have to worry about what kind of cups they can buy to hurt the baby. However, not all cups can be sterilized. Be sure to read them clearly when buying. The outer box must indicate: whether it can be machine washed and sterilized.
2.Duckbill style and straw style
Although each major brand has its own patented design, in fact, in the final analysis, it is nothing more than duckbill type and straw type, but the details are slightly different. Take a closer look, parents will find that there is a difference between hard and soft, whether it is a duckbill or a straw.
The soft mouth (tube) is generally made of active edible silicone, which is closer to the pacifier feel; the hard mouth is non-toxic plastic, which is closer to the title of the cup. Parents can choose according to your baby’s preferences.
3.With or without scale
All milk bottles have scales, but not all cups. It is not convenient to prepare formula milk powder without cups. Parents can choose according to actual needs.
4, with or without handle
Some cups have handles, and some cups are made into a shape that is convenient for the baby to hold, so there are no handles, and some brands use the handle as an optional accessory. Parents decide according to the habits of the baby.
5. “No dripping” function
There are a lot of hidden cups, so they can’t suck water, even if the whole cup is turned upside down, it won’t leak.
Coupling for baby using drinking cup
1. The cup must keep up with the baby’s growth
In principle, the baby should transition from duckbill type to straw type to drinking training type, from soft mouth to hard mouth. It can be done step by step, or it can be advanced by jumping. Parents should pay attention to the habits and preferences of the baby to upgrade the cup in a timely manner.
2. Save money by choosing a suit cup
If your baby is younger, you can choose a couple of suit cups. Because the cups of the same brand are basically universal, but the cup mouth is different. Therefore, many brands have introduced sets of cups. One cup body is equipped with different types of cup mouths, ranging from pacifier type to drinking training type. After progress, you can change the mouth of the cup, saving money and saving space.
3.The cup should be checked and replaced frequently.
The cup mouth, straw, and sealing ring may deteriorate during the regular boiling and sterilization process, and there may be cracks when bitten by the baby. Parents need to frequently check the various parts of the cup for timely replacement.
