Bobby’s drinking skills

Introduction

We have written this information to help and encourage children to drink independently and improve their skills.

Bobby’s top tips

• Ensure your child is in a good sitting position as this can make all the difference to helping them with their drinking skills. You can achieve this by making sure they are well supported in their chair, ideally with their feet supported.

• If your child uses a bottle, encourage them to hold their bottle. This can be started as early as six months.

• Encourage your child to hold handles with your hand over their hand to help.

• Avoid fizzy or sugary drinks.

• Use a small cup when first introducing an open cup.

• Place a small amount of liquid in the open cup to reduce the amount spilling.

• Is the cup too big for their hand to reach around? Is the bottle too big to reach around?  Is it too heavy, or slippery? Check that your child’s hands are not wet or slippy.

• Try a range of cups such as a ‘Doidy cup’, ‘360 trainer cup’, or ‘Sippy cup’ to assist with your child’s independence with drinking from an open cup.

Activity ideas to help develop drinking skills through play

• Encourage your child to look in the mirror as they do different oral activities or drinking, so that they can see themselves achieving different stages, e.g. blowing bubbles or sucking up drinks through a clear straw.

• Try practicing with different sized jugs and cups in the bath. Using water play, your child will learn how heavy the jug is before it is too difficult for them to lift and control and if they spill any, it won’t make a mess in the bath. 

Should you require additional support please consider a referral to our team:

Community Children’s Occupational Therapy

Level 3, Regent Point, Regent Farm Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE3 3HD

Tel no:  0191 282 3452

Information produced by the Community Children’s Occupational Therapy Service
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust