Learn how to teach baby to drink from a straw in minutes using one of three different tricks quickly and easily. Plus, discover the best straw sippy cup!
Any parent with a baby or toddler knows that there are a multitude of sippy cups available to choose from. It can be pretty overwhelming when you’re standing in front of a selection of 30+ cups. To make it more confusing, parents have the choice between the traditional spout shaped sippy cup or a no spill straw cup. My vote, as a therapist, is the straw cup. In fact, this is one of the first recommendations I make to families I am working with to improve feeding skills and even give sensory input. I know, you didn’t know the straw had so much power! To say this simply, straw drinking requires the use of different muscles and a more sophisticated motor plan, meaning it is a little more challenging.
Using a spout shaped sippy cup is the same sucking motion a child uses to drink from a bottle, so it isn’t progressing their skills much. You may be saying, “So what? What difference does it make?” Well, those straw drinking muscles they are using are the same muscles they need to manipulate food in their mouth better and say more speech sounds. Sure, a kid will still eventually get these skills, but by introducing a straw, you are laying a stronger foundation and they may master these skills sooner! In addition, straw drinking gives a lot of sensory feedback, the force it requires to suck can be very calming and organizing. Sounds great, right? By now, you are ready to run to the store and stock up! Before you hop in the car or click over to Amazon, there are a few things to consider first, like what kind of straw to use, what age you should introduce it, and how to actually teach a baby to drink from one (most of them need some help to get going).
When Can Babies Drink from a Straw?
Let’s talk about age first. Most babies are capable of being taught to drink from a straw at 9 months. Typically, toddlers will figure it out by age 2 on their own. I was able to teach my older son at 8 months and my younger son taught himself at 5 months! That was crazy, and I’m not trying to brag, he just kept watching his big brother do it and put it together on his own. I was pretty amazed when he reached for it one day and just took a drink like it was old hat. Although, that is pretty uncommon, potentially, it is possible.
One important word of caution, straw drinking can cause babies or toddlers to swallow quickly if they are sucking fast, which may make them cough and choke on the liquid. Swallowing is a very coordinated action that most of us take for granted, when something “goes down the wrong pipe”, liquid may actually enter our lungs and we begin coughing to get it out. It is okay if this happens occasionally, but if it happens often (and it could with babies), then you may need to lay off the straw for a little while or try putting thicker liquids into the cup (milk, milkshakes, or even applesauce) until they get the hang of it. Otherwise, they could end up with pneumonia. Also, make sure they are seated, it can get difficult for a toddler to manage walking and swallowing. If your child is greater than 15 months and still coughing frequently while using a straw, mention it to their doc.
How to Teach Baby to Drink from a Straw
Alright, so let’s get into the meat of this post… How to actually teach your child to drink from a straw. First of all, try and stick a regular straw in their mouth. It is important that it’s just a good old fashioned straw, because the no spill straw cups require you to suck really really hard. A baby may try to suck and when they don’t get anything instantly, just give up. Who knows, they may take to it right away, without any help from you. More likely, they will just hold their mouth open or put their mouth on it, but won’t suck. In this case, I would try the siphon technique:
1. Take the regular straw and stick it into a cup of water, so it is touching the bottom, and put your finger over the opening at the top. Keep your finger over the opening at the top so you are holding the liquid in the straw as you pull the straw out of the water, as I am doing in the picture above.
2. With your baby sitting firmly in a chair, hold the straw up over their open mouth and release the liquid so it falls into their mouth, being careful not to allow too much water to go in at a time.
3. Repeat this a few times, if your baby seems interested. If they aren’t up for participating, then try again on a different day. Hopefully your baby will start to close their mouth around the straw. If they aren’t, then stroke the sides of their cheeks and demonstrate so they can imitate you!
4. Once they are closing their mouth around the straw, keep your finger over the other end of the straw so they have to suck to get the liquid out. Keep putting more and more water into the straw so they are sucking more and more through the straw.
5. Now try putting the straw directly into the cup and letting them take a drink. Some will have figured it out at this point and won’t need any more help. If they go back to holding their mouth open, then start over and this time, when they start to suck the water out of the straw, flip the straw down into the open cup of water. This is a little tricky, you have to be fast. The idea is that you don’t break the sucking action and hopefully they start to make the connection that when they suck, they get a drink!
It may take several “practice sessions” before your babe masters this skill. If this approach isn’t working, I do have one more trick!
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Another Way to Teach Your Baby or Toddler Straw Drinking
You will need to get yourself a set of the Munchkin Take and Toss Straw Cup
(this is in the picture at the top, but the straw is different in my pic), they usually come in a four pack and are super cheap. For some reason, when the lids are placed on these cups, it creates a vacuum. Put the straw in the cup, with the lid tightly on and put the straw up to your kid’s mouth and squeeze the cup. The water will actually shoot right into their mouth! Do this gently, again, you don’t want them to get too much. Encourage the stroking on the face if they don’t close their mouth and of course, demonstrate! Therapy supply companies actually sell and market cups designed to help your child drink from a straw, if you are interested in those, click here
, they look like cute little honey bears and are a therapists favorite for sure.
Once they have mastered drinking from a regular straw, then it is probably a good idea to move to a no spill straw cup. Besides your own sanity, they have to suck harder to get the liquid out, which will decrease choking and coughing. As I mentioned earlier, there are a ton of cups to choose from. I don’t have any brand that I particularly love, and if they fall the right way, they all leak a little (so much for no-spill). Also, they are a total pain to disassemble and reassemble. In my house, we have one water cup a day and one milk cup a day that I keep in the fridge between meals. I do this just to minimize how often I have put these things together. I hope I’m not swaying you away from the straw though, they are worth it!
The Best Straw Sippy Cup to Get
I have a few that I like and have worked well, but follow the steps below to make sure you find a straw that works well for you and your baby or toddler.
1. Is it a skinny straw? Some have really wide straws which give too much liquid and don’t work the muscles as well. Definitely choose a skinny or thin straw.
2. Is it insulated? I prefer these for milk, but buy plastic ones for water. Although, it’s your preference.
3. Can you flip the straw inside? Meaning is their a lid that slide to cover the straw. This helps minimize germs while traveling, but obviously isn’t necessary.
I have tried and like Munchkin 
and Playtex 
varieties well enough, skinny straws are the most important feature. Most of these need replaced after 6-12 months though because the plastic straws start to wear down and tear. If you don’t want to deal with threading the straw through though after washing, this Playtex version is really easy.
Keep in mind straw drinking requires a lot of muscle control and coordination. If you are trying this with a child with low muscle tone, it will be much more challenging, and will probably take multiple attempts before they learn how to do it.
I would love to hear how it goes with your little babe, let me know!
And, if you’d like to grab a totally free printable with my top 9 Tips to Improve Feeding (this is perfect for establishing good eating habits from an early age) then click here.
More on Feeding Milestones
Mega List of Finger Foods for Babies and Toddlers
The Complete Guide to Feeding Milestones
How to Wean Your Baby from the Bottle
Why You Should Let Your Baby Get Messy
How to Keep Your Child Seated for Meals
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Alisha Grogan is a licensed occupational therapist and founder of Your Kid’s Table. She has over 19 years experience with expertise in sensory processing and feeding development in babies, toddlers, and children. Alisha also has 3 boys of her own at home. Learn more about her here.
Thank you so much for this post…I am going to try working on the straw today. I have a 26 weeker preemie that is now 17 months actual (14 months adjusted). He refuses to drink from a sippy cup and I have tried them all. He will take two or three sips and then will throw them down. He still takes formula from a bottle several times a day for calorie boosts. I hope he likes the straw…so maybe we can get him drinking cow’s milk and milkshakes from a cup!!
I also have a 26 weeker preemie that is now 21 months (19 months adjusted). His Early Intervention teacher bought us a Honey Bear Straw cup to use for him. The cup is made of plastic but its flexible therefore you can help your little one by squeezing liquid into his mouth. This helped our son a lot. My little one likes to drink out of a cup but he does know what to do with the cup at all!! She encouraged us early on to start him utilizing a straw cup versus a sippy cup for speech development.
This didnt actually acted on my child.Instead she started spilling all the water.
My baby girl loves drinking out of a straw. I gave her the playtex straw cup at 4.5 months and she was able to learn within one day. Playtex is definitely the way to go if you want to teach your child to drink out of a straw. It has a squeeze feature that delivers liquid to the top of the straw which makes it a lot easier for babies to learn.
I’m pretty excited my baby did the same as yours. She is so excited to eat and drink that she started eating baby food from a spoon at 3 1/2 months and drinking from a straw at 5 1/2 months.
Yay!!!! Awesome!!!!
On the point of moving onto a no-spill straw cup, there is also something we found which has been great for our ‘sanity’ (as you mentioned!). Its called a Drink Buddy and it saved us having to buy any special cups as we were just able to use our normal plastic ones. Easier to clean too 🙂
Awesome, thanks for sharing! I will be checking it out!
I could not find this online. Does it have a different name?
Thanks for this post. I have a 13 month old son and he can drink easily from pouches but whenever i tried introducing a straw he keeps biting it and and playing with it. Any suggestions of how i can make him drink from ‘softer’ straws? Thanks
Forgot to add that he sometimes drinks from
The non-spill sippy cups with straws but mostlu he plays with it in his mouth. Today i tried closing one end and he did drink from the other side but then when i put the straw in the glass it was back to playing with it between his teeth.
Unfortunately this often comes with territory. I would use the no spill cups, he is probably less likely to bite. Give him reminders to take drinks from it. If he is excessively chewing and not biting just take it away each time he bites. After a few minutes give him a drink saying “take a drink”. Also, try to give it to him when you suspect he is thirsty. This phase will pass:)
Thanks for the post, this worked really great for our son and he was able to pick up drinking from the straw in just minutes!
Yay! That is awesome!!! Thanks for stopping back to share!
Thank you so much for this post! When I gave my 9.5 month old daughter a straw cup with water to drink, it took her less than 5 mins to figure it out!! My husband and I were surprised and thrilled. She loves her straw cup but after reading your post, I am a bit concerned.
Whenever she first sips from the straw each day, she does tend to overdo it and cough and choke a bit. She does recover and then drink fine from that point on. Should I stop giving her the straw cup based on your comments above or keep giving it to her so she gets the hang of it better.
Thank you so much!
Just introduced my daughter to the munchin straw cup. My issue is she will ONLY drink Milk from a bottle if its in a regular sippy cup (which she has been drinking water from since 6mos) she takes a couple of sips and throws it. She did the same with straw cup. Should I just get rid of the bottles cold turkey? She gets the concept of the straw (tips it up at times like a sippy) but wants her BaBa.
Hi Alisha, thanks for the great post. My little girl was the same as your son & picked up on the straw remarkably well at 6 mos from watching me drink water from a straw cup daily. She would pretend to drink out of it & one day we realized she really was and decided to get her one of her own (think baby thinkster). She’s 11 mos old now & does pretty well, other than the occasional choking from taking too much in (usually when she first starts drinking). However, she still prefers her bottle and seems to want to just play with the straw cup. We offer it to her with water during meals (only an ounce or 2) and she does great, but then when I put milk in it, she just plays with it and takes sips occasionally. If I walk around while holding her and hold the straw to her mouth for her, I can usually get her to finish most of it, but it takes about 20-30 minutes. Much of the time I get frustrated & end up putting the rest in a bottle, which she sucks down in just a couple of minutes. There have been occasions when she DOES finish her straw cup after 5-10 minutes, so I know she can do it. Would you recommend not using the bottle at all anymore & just going with the straw only, or just continuing to try and encourage it more frequently? My hope was to get her off the bottle by 12 mos, but at this rate, I’m not so sure. Thanks!!
Yes, the bottle can be tricky habit to break, and you are right to be trying to wean her from it. However, this is just a habit she has. I would wait to she is on cow’s milk- I’m assuming that you would start that after her first birthday. Of course, you will mix formula and milk to start, but maybe start the transition in her straw cup. Also, if she is eating enough, she doesn’t need to consume lots of milk anymore, it’s okay. Just put it back in the fridge after a few minutes. Let me know if you need more help:)
Great, thank you!! Yes, we plan on transitioning to cow’s milk next month when she turns one. I was planning on talking to her pedi about how to do that soon. She also seems to have an extremely sensitive gag reflex & doesn’t handle some textures too well. She eats a decent amount of food (about 20-22 oz/day) but she’s still having a difficult time with finger food & thick purees, and has even vomited after gagging several times the last couple of months. She does fine with some finger foods (puffs, pancake pieces dipped in fruit), but not so well with others. I was hoping maybe if I encourage the straw more, that perhaps it would build her muscles up better & help her to become a better eater. Hopefully she’ll grow out of this! It’s stressful for me, but it’s reassuring to me that she’s in the 75th percentile for her weight/height & is otherwise developmentally on track. Thanks again!
The straw will definitely help, but that is only a piece of the puzzle. Ask the dr about early intervention services in your area- or me, I can help with that. It sounds like she is doing really well, but it might be helpful to have a support like an OT move you through this transition of eating. Keep trying and read my posts on how to transition to table foods. Also, if you are interested, I offer consults, which would give you a lot more specific info. Let me know how it goes!
Hi, lovely post. Thanks! My son is 28 months and drinks from straw bottles, but my problem is that he drinks milk and other thick liquids with no problem. But when it comes to water, he just sucks it in n spills it right back out of his mouth. Am trying everything like different straw bottles, different places in the house, me imitating and nothing is working. Any suggestion as to how to get him to drink water from straw bottles? Thank you so much!
Well, it’s hard to say if he is doing this out of habit or because the liquid is thinner and he doesn’t know have the control to swallow it. If it is the first, I would say just keep trying. If it is the latter I would say to try and work on building the muscles he uses in his mouth. You can do this by making silly faces like kiss lips and fish lips. Also, get a bunch of different whistles (usually at a party supply store for very cheap) and have him practice this. Both of these things will help build muscles strength.
at 28m old your son sjould be able to drink without any aid out of a cup ?!
my daughter is 11 months old.. i try platex straw cup for water and juice. she knows how to suck but The problem was that she didn’t seem to know how to swallow while the straw was in her mouth. She would let go of the straw after each sip and a lot of the liquid would dribble out of her mouth. I don’t know how much she got down her throat, but her bib and shirt were soaked.I dont know what to do.she is exclusively breastfeed and i am planning to wean off in a month. I want her to be able to use a straw, but don’t know if there is something else I can do to facilitate this transition.
Try something thicker at first, like a yogurt smoothie. You can water down with juice a little if you need to. This will give her some more time to process the swallow and help keep the liquid from falling back out. Keep trying, she is young. She probably just needs some practice! Let me know how it goes!
So awesome! It took me about 60 seconds to teach my 9 month old after reading this. Thanks!!!
That is awesome, Jess! Yay!
I moved my son from bottles to a soft spouted sippy cup before I learned about the benefits of using a straw. My son is 14.5 months old and takes a sippy cup with water throughout the day. I tried a valve straw cup and he wouldn’t even try to suck, he just chewed on the straw. Then I got the take and toss and put some diluted juice in it (he’s never had juice so it was enticing) and he went to town sucking it up. The problem was that he didn’t seem to know how to swallow while the straw was in his mouth. He would let go of the straw after each sip and a lot of the liquid would dribble out of his mouth. I don’t know how much he got down his throat, but his bib and shirt were soaked. But he emptied 3/4 of the cup in just a few minutes. Will his swallowing get better with practice? My son don’t have any diagnosed delay, but he does seem to be a little behind his same age playmates in gross motor and coordination. I want him to be able to use a straw, but don’t know if there is something else I can do to facilitate this transition.
Hi Jessica, has he tried the valved straw cup again, since learning with the take and toss? If not- try again, he may have the hang of it now, if you have keep trying periodically. To help him get the hang of this, I would suggest trying something thicker in straw cup. First try whole milk, if that still goes everywhere, then make a thinner smoothie with yogurt and juice. Play around with the consistency, until he can suck it up without spitting it out. Let me know it is going!
We tried the valve cup again today and he did much better. I think if we keep practicing, he will be able to drink without issues of it spilling back out. Thanks for the suggestion!
That is great Jessica, keep up the hard work, it will pay off soon!
My 9.5 month old son drinks from a straw cup but places the straw in the corner of his mouth and sucks in from the side rather than placing it in the middle of his mouth, making it more difficult for him to swallow the liquid he has sucked. I have tried holding the straw in the middle of his mouth but he always reverts back to this position. Would this suggest he does not have the musculature to use the straw in a typical fashion? What might you suggest?
Well, if he were over one, yes I would say to work on some mouth exercises, but he is so young. Great that you are already getting him on the straw, but it is probably a little difficult for him to keep in the center of his mouth. Keep trying to move it over and demonstrate yourself drinking or sing a song to distract him while you hold it in place. This will help build up those muscles.