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.
Thanks for this helpful post. I have been trying this method with my 12 month old but she really just bites the straw and wants to chew it. Any ideas how to encourage sucking rather than biting? FYI she is bottle fed milk and has learned to drink water from a fully open cup. Just trying to introduce a straw cup for travelling. Thank you!
She could be looking for input, anytime she’s biting on the straw you can replace that with a teether, or something more appropriate to bite on. Also, you can try with working on having her blow bubbles through the straw. Sometimes this can help kids learn sucking up too when they are sucking in air to blow out. Hopefully that helps.
Best,
Desiree
I have a child who does this. Rest assured they do learn to drink from the straw, but some kids just really like chewing them as well. Most of my kids cups have flat straws lol.
My 10 1/2 month daughter has no trouble sucking liquid through a straw, but the problem is that once she gets the liquid in her mouth, she just lets it all run out. I’m not sure how to get her to understand that she needs to swallow it. She also has issues like this with cup drinking. For one thing, she frequently likes to just blow bubbles in the liquid in the cup (though she doesn’t do this with the straw). But if she does take liquid from the cup, she just usually lets it run out of her mouth or protrudes her tongue and pushes it out. Any suggestions?
Hey Rachel,
You can try to utilize thicker liquid to see if she is able to manage that in her mouth. She may just need some more time to practice and learn what to do next!
Best,
Desiree
My daughter just turned 3 and just can’t use any type of straw, I’ve tried them all, do you think that is worrying?
Hey Dan,
I’d keep working on it and utilize the strategies in the post, but doing them consistently to see if she can get the hang of it. You can also take a look at these Oral Motor Skills to try to help!
Best,
Desiree
My daughter only took bottles from 1mos to 4mos old. Then, she only breastfed directly from the breast until now at 14mos old. She will not drink from the straw but maybe a very small sip. She won’t let me give her the milk via your exercise either. I using a syringe, but even then, she has to be the one to hold it and put it in her mouth on her own time or she puts up a fight. How can I encourage her to use a straw and drink anything other than breast milk without having to force her? Note: this is my second kid, the first didn’t have any issues with bottles or sippies.
To add: she eats food just fine. Almost every food presented to her. This problem is exclusive to drinking.
Hey Thanks for reaching out!
So sorry you are having trouble with getting your little one to drink liquids. We know how hard the transition can be! Even though we do recommend straw cups, you can try something in the middle such as a sippy to start the transition! Also utilizing the breastmilk (if you’re not already) can be really helpful. I’d try to pick a cup with a cartoon or something interesting that she enjoys. And make sure to leave it out all through the day!
Hope that helps!
Desiree
My son first started using a spout sippy cup around 6 months, then a 360 cup around 9 months. At first he was fine with a cup. Then, he began filling his mouth up with water then letting it all spill out. This was often followed by giggles, so we decided to try a straw cup around 10.5 months hoping since he did not have to lean his head back he would no longer spill as much. He has been using a straw cup for over a month and there is still a lot of leakage though improved. How can I teach him to swallow after sucking? At first, it seemed like a game, but now he seems to do it unintentionally and is not swallowing much water at mealtime.
Hey Lauren,
Thanks for reaching out!! The straw does take a lot of muscles and strength in the mouth to complete, so continuing to utilize will help strengthening. I’d also look at doing some other Oral Motor exercises as these may help. I’d keep modeling you drinking a small sip and then pulling the straw out to model the swallow right after as well.
Best,
Desiree
My 4 month old baby hasn’t been able to drink from a bottle due to tongue and lip tie and inability to latch on the nipple. We have tried just about everything including a doidy cup and are going to occupational therapy but I just heard about a straw cup from the pediatrician today at her 4 month check up. Do you think it is possible a straw cup could work for her? How would you safely introduce a straw cup to such a young baby?
Hey Kristianna,
So sorry you are having difficulties with latching. I’m glad you are seeking outside help. As far as the straw cup you can read all about our recommendations HERE. This will help provide you with some tips. While we don’t recommend until 8-9months of age, Alisha does mention that he son learned at 5 months. Hope this provides some helpful tips!
Best,
Desiree
Thank you for all this info!! My 10.5mo old has been drinking water from a straw cup for a few months now, but she chokes 80% of the time. I have to hold it for her and try to make her sips short and even that doesn’t always help. She does the same with an open cup. She does this occasionally with her bottle too, but that’s gotten better as she’s gotten older (actually introducing the straw cup improved her bottle drinking). How can I help her?
Hi Ashley,
So glad that you noticed her getting better with her bottle after introducing the straw as well as starting her off with the straw. I’d try to make sure that she is seated in a supported position during straw drinking with 90/90/90 positioning. Also, I’d try to do some thicker liquids to see if that helps her as the thin liquid seems to be coming out too fast for her. Keep us posted!
Best,
Desiree
I know this is kind of technical but what gauge/size straw do you suggest for a young infant?
Hey Frances,
Just the standard size should work!! I do find if after completing these activities and the child is having trouble sucking the liquid up the straw that I can cut the straw to make it shorter for a quick fix then increase the length when they have more strength to get the liquid all the way up! Hope this helps!
Best,
Desiree
Hi
Just stumbled on this while searching for an insulated straw cup for my 1yr old. I cant decide on which one to but? She is fine with the straw, is practising drinking water for an open cup(360 muncgkin) for outside use. Pls help, the ones i saw on amazon are thick silicon straws , thankfully saw your article and didn’t order.
Hey Reva,
Our favorites are listed in the article. We do prefer the Munchkin or the Playtex but is all in what you are looking for. You can check out the Best Straw Sippy Cup to get section in the article for more pointers!
Best,
Desiree
Thanks so much, my daughter after a week of practice got the hang of the straw cup. She seemed to be swallowing and drinking great. However, recently she has started sucking up water and spitting it out and soaking herself. I’m not sure how much she is actually drinking. I usually have to change her shirt after she drinks water. Is this normal for her to play with the water like this ? She also becomes obsessed with the cup now and has tantrums sometimes if I take it away :-/ she is ten months.
This is normal, they start to play. I’d tell her swallow, and gently close her lips. It will take some practice and repetition.
Hi so glad for your help😃.. I just started weaning my 22 months she has been using the straw sippy cup since she was 6.. Now my fear is how do i know that she is getting enough milk coz she likes drink it laying down . Because theres alot of bubbles inside the bottle. Should i cut the straw?
Thank you
Hi, My daughter is 6 months old and breast fed. I’m about ti introduce a straw cup for her but I’m not sure if it’s better to have a free flow straw cup for easy sipping or something like the munchkin which requires stronger suction? When I try the ones with the valves myself they seem very hard to drink though, they require strong suction. Is this too much for a baby or do they actually require a slower flow/ suck differently/more strongly than an adult would?
Hi Amber! Thanks for reaching out! We have techniques for using both straw types listed in the above article, however, starting out with a standard straw with an easier suck may better help her get the hang of it at first. Then, once she’s learned how to use a straw, switching to something like the Munchkin straw cups with a stronger suck will help prevent spillage and choking/coughing. Hope that helps!
Best,
Kalyn
Thank you for this article! Has helped so much! My little one attached pretty quickly from sucking to the straw when I am holding it. Trying to transition to drinking out of the straw by himself. He was doing so good when I put my finger over the straw, but let him drink by himself once and he must have sucked too fast and choked and spit it all out. Scary! I’ve been keeping holding the straw for now, is that the best and then to try again without soon? Thanks!
Yes, that can happen! If he has the concept, I’d try to move to a no spill straw cup because it has a valve and doesn’t come up as fast, however, you have to suck a lot harder and for an extra second so he may not “get it”. If that doesn’t work, I’d try again slowly with the straw and when he goes to drink it himself, you could try pulling it out of his mouth super fast, reassuringly saying, “just a little” But, I’d continue to try the valved straw because that will help the most. If he still is coughing frequently, I’d wait a few weeks and cautiously try again.
I have a 14 month old who drink and his water and juice from the munchkin 360 cups. I try milk with that as a well, but he doesnt drink as efficiently. Is this type of cup better for him? Or a straw cup? I’d like to know which one is the overall best for him, for his teeth and speech development.
Either cup is fine but they do work different skills. Ideally, it would be awesome to have a straw cup to drink out of sometimes as well!
You are a saint for this site and all your responsive comments! My 13 mo. old sweet son loves food and loves milk and is a chunker (26 lbs). No aversion to foods/liquids of any kind (in fact the opposite where he cries when mealtime is over) and CAN drink from a straw cup for water just fine or tries to drink my smoothies or water when we’re at a restaurant. But when it’s milk time he wants to tip it upside down like he did with his bottle. We tried straw cups and the liquid doesn’t reach the bottom of the straw of course b/c it’s upside down. Honestly he doesn’t love the strawless cups either like the miracle cup or Life cup and might take a few sips and then pushes it away. I feel like I’ve spent $200 on cups trying various ones out and so he’s still using silicone spouts for milk. Is there a magic straw cup we should try that works at any angle, or just have him go hungry for a few meals to force him to graduate?
Unfortunately, there is no cup that I’m aware of like that. Just keep helping him when he is drinking his milk. It may take him awhile to get used to it, but just keep at it.
Try the munckin weighted straw cup. It may work. We have it and am looking forward to using it once my son masters the straw. He has low muscle tone, so it is taking a bit longer.
Thanks Leanne! Good luck!
Dr Brown has a weighted straw cup so the straw stays in the liqiud regardless of the angle of the cup.
O my goodness! It worked ! Just a Few attempts on practice on holding the straw with lliquid and 3 minutes later she starts drinking from the straw from her cup ! Thank you
YAY!!! You are so welcome! So happy this worked for you!
Best,
Desiree
Excellent! Great resources!
Thank you for all that your do in this area.
Our daughter has a history of feeding aversion. We tried to teach our daughter to drink water from a cup as outlined and it seemed to cause her aversion to return and she tensely refused her milk from the bottle those subsequent feeds. We emailed the consultant we had previously worked with for her aversion and she said “I can see how teaching a baby to drink from a straw in the way described could be problematic for a very sensitive baby who has previously been averse to feeding, as it involves placing the straw and fluid into baby’s mouth. If you are sensing it’s problematic for Alison, I suspect it could be, and in this case recommend you stop.” Do you have other tips on how to train a sensitive baby like our daughter?
Also, what are your thoughts on the Munchkin 360 and do you have tips on how to get her to drink from that?
Hi Lisa, yes with an extreme aversion that is possible! I’d offer her a simple straw with no valve like the take and toss, but NOT squeeze at all. It needs to be 100% on her own terms, which means that it could take longer.
Do you have the option for feeding therapy? If so, I’d look into that. For the 360 cup I’d let her experiment and practice. Also, in this case, as a feeding therapist I wouldn’t be totally opposed to a sippy cup.
Hello. Just wanted to follow up. We bought the take and toss like you mentioned. She started blowing into it and making water “bubbles”. Just a phase? Just let her experiment?
Yes, I would! She may be stuck there so you might want to take a break from it for a couple of days.
Are you saying to let her experiment and continue or take a break?
I have twins who will be 11 months on 04/02/2018 (9.5 months adjusted). They have figured out how to suck liquid from a straw, but tend to just let it fall out of their mouths. Does it just take a lot of practice or do you think I need to modify something? They do the same thing with the miracle 360 cup. They have always hated drinking from a bottle, so I’m eager for them to transition off the bottle soon!
More practice is always a good thing. Check out this post on oral motor exercises, this could help them with their drinking. I would also mention this to their doctor too.
This is cute- but how about teaching your child NOT to drink from a straw? Especially one made from plastic!
Training them to use something that doesn’t come naturally is fine in principle – but did you know 500 MILLION plastic straws are used in the US every SINGLE day!!?
They end up in the ocean and cause huge amount of damage and death to marine life.
In addition some researchers believe that when we drink from plastic straws and cups it can be ingested as micrparticles! – do you really want to be feeding your baby plastic?
Lastly drinking from a cup requires focus and coordination which can help your baby learn to their improve motor function!
So perhaps we should be teaching our babies to drink from a cup and teach them healthy, sustainable habits. To find out more about the issues with straws look for #SkipTheStraw #StrawsSuck #StopSucking
Happy sipping! 🙂 xxx
My son is 6 mo, and I have just started giving him those food pouches where they suck the baby food out with a straw-type opening, and my son took to it like crazy. Yesterday was his second pouch ever and he sucked all of the 4 ounces out in less than 5 minutes. I’ve been trying to get him to transition to a soft spout sippy with the thought of transitioning to straw cups at 9 months, but does this indicate readiness? I have ordered an Avent straw cup since those are the bottles we use, but I am definitely going to stop by my local Wal-mart and pick up some of those Munchkin cups- I had only heard of the honey bear trick and I had no idea that these would work the same way. Thanks!
Absolutely!
I’ll tell you that my second son learned to drink from a straw at 5.5 months old because he watched his older brother. I let him drink from it because he handled it well, meaning there wasn’t a lot of coughing and choking. If your son does the same then go with it.