Best open cups for babies

You walk into Target. The cup aisle has 47 different sippy cups. Cute animals, colors, characters. They are everywhere. And almost none of them are what your baby needs.

Here is the unpopular truth feeding therapists have been saying for years: traditional sippy cups (hard spout, valve, no-spill) are bad for oral development. Your baby should be drinking from open cups or straw cups by age 1, not sippy cups.

Why sippy cups are the wrong default

A traditional sippy cup with a hard spout requires the baby to suck and swallow in a pattern that resembles bottle feeding. Their tongue stays under the spout instead of moving up and back as it would for adult swallowing. For most babies, this is not a big deal. For some, it contributes to:

• Persistent tongue thrust (tongue stays forward in the mouth).
• Delayed transition from immature to mature swallow pattern.
• Speech sound issues, especially with /s/, /z/, /t/, and /d/ sounds.
• Higher cavity rates from extended sipping of sweetened liquids.
• Habitual sucking patterns that delay weaning from the cup itself.

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends limiting sippy cups and transitioning to open or straw cups by 12 to 14 months. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association agrees.

Why open cups and straw cups are better

Open cup (think tiny shot glass): baby has to use lip closure and tongue control to manage the liquid. The motor pattern is identical to how adults drink. It builds the muscles needed for clear speech.

Straw cup: baby has to seal lips around the straw and use the back of the tongue to draw liquid up. This builds different muscles than the bottle and is closer to the adult swallow than a sippy.

Both options support typical oral development. Both can be introduced at 6 months alongside solids. By 12 months they should be the primary cups in your household.

When to start each type

• 6 months: Offer a small open cup at meals with 1 to 2 ounces of water or breast milk. Expect spills. This is practice, not the main drinking vessel yet.
• 6 to 9 months: Introduce a straw cup with water. Most babies figure out the straw within a week or two with modeling.
• 9 to 12 months: Both cups in regular rotation. Bottle starts to phase out as primary milk delivery.
• 12 to 15 months: Bottle gone. Open cup or straw cup for water and milk. Sippy cup, if used at all, only for car or stroller messes.

7 cups that work

Open cup picks

1. EZPZ Tiny Cup. The gold-standard 6-month introduction cup. 2-ounce silicone cup with weighted base. Easy to grip, hard to tip, easy for tiny mouths to fit. The single best first cup.
2. Bumkins Silicone Mini Cup. Similar concept, slightly cheaper. Works just as well.
3. OXO Tot Training Cup. Slightly larger (4 oz). Hard plastic with a weighted bottom. Better as a "second open cup" once they have the basics.

Straw cup picks

4. ezpz Mini Cup with straw. Soft silicone straw, weighted base, 4 oz capacity. The easiest straw cup to use for early learners.
5. Munchkin Miracle 360 Trainer Cup (transition only). Technically not a sippy or open cup. It is a 360 rim that requires lip seal. Better than a sippy as a transition tool, though feeding therapists still prefer straws or open cups.
6. Honey Bear straw cup (occupational therapy classic). A flexible bear-shaped bottle with a straw. Therapists use this to teach straw drinking by squeezing liquid up the straw the first few times.
7. Munchkin Click Lock Bite-Proof Straw Cup. For older toddlers (15+ months). Insulated, leak-resistant, the straw stays put when bitten.

How to teach straw drinking

Most babies pick up open cup quickly because it is intuitive. Straw drinking can take a week or two of modeling. The technique:

1. Show baby you drinking from a straw. Make it a big deal. "Mmm, look at me drinking from this!"
2. Put a tiny bit of liquid in a straw cup or honey bear. Squeeze a small amount up the straw and let baby's mouth catch it.
3. Repeat. They will start sucking on the straw themselves within a few tries.
4. For the honey bear approach: dip a regular straw in a drink, cover the top with your finger to trap the liquid, place the bottom of the straw in baby's mouth, release. They get a sip without any work and learn the seal-suck pattern.

The spill question

Yes, open cups will spill. The first few weeks of open cup learning are messy. Strategies that help:

• Start with 1 ounce of liquid in the cup. Even a full tip-over is just an ounce.
• Offer at meals when baby is already sitting in the high chair with a bib.
• Hold the cup with them initially. Tilt slowly. They watch and learn.
• Use a weighted-base cup like the ezpz Tiny Cup. Almost impossible to tip.
• Accept some mess as the cost of the skill.

By 9 to 12 months most babies can manage a small open cup alone with under 4 oz of liquid. Big cups full of water are still a long way off, but the foundation is built.

Sippy cups: when (if ever) to use them

If your daycare requires a sippy or you need a no-spill option for the car or stroller, choose a straw cup over a hard-spout sippy. If a hard-spout sippy is the only option, limit it to 1 to 2 specific situations (car, stroller) and keep open and straw cups as the primary household options.

Common mistakes

• Waiting until 12 months to start an open cup. 6 months is the start. Earlier is fine.
• Using a sippy for milk all day. Encourages grazing on milk, fills baby up before solids, increases cavity risk.
• Letting a toddler walk around with a sippy or straw cup of milk. Bath, snacks, milk, sit-down. Drinks at the table.
• Tossing the cup because of spills. Spilling is the learning. Cleaning is the trade-off.