When it comes to weaning, everyone talks about food. The textures, the mess, the
milestone moments of a baby gumming their first piece of toast. But hydration? That tends
to get a bit overlooked — and as a dietitian, I know it probably shouldn’t.

This is our honest story of getting El drinking from a cup. It wasn’t straightforward. But then, what is with a baby?

A bit of background

El was exclusively breastfed from birth. She was never a bottle baby — and I mean never.
Despite countless attempts, different brands, different temperatures, different people
offering it — she refused every single time, regardless of what was in it. If you’ve been there, you’ll know the particular joy of sterilising yet another bottle that your baby will look at with complete disdain.

So when we started weaning at around six months, introducing a cup wasn’t just about
hydration — it was essentially the only option we had.

Why hydration matters more once solids start

As a dietitian, this is something I feel strongly about. Once your baby starts eating solid
food, their need for additional fluids — primarily water — increases. Milk (whether breast or formula) remains an important part of their diet in the first year, but it shouldn’t replace
water altogether as solids become more established.

Good hydration supports digestion, helps prevent constipation (a common issue when
solids start), and builds healthy habits early. Getting a cup introduced sooner rather than
later really does make a difference.

The current UK guidance recommends offering sips of water from around 6 months alongside solid foods — and a free-flowing cup is actually preferred over a bottle for dental health reasons.

Introducing the TUM TUM Tippy Up Sippy Cup

From the very start of weaning, I offered El the TUM TUM Tippy Up Sippy Cup alongside her meals. I’d heard good things about it and, given we’d had zero luck with bottles, I wanted something she might actually engage with.

A few things I really liked about it from a practical standpoint: it’s valve-free (which means
no fiddly parts to clean and more natural drinking), leak-proof (essential when it’s going to
spend a lot of time being hurled off a highchair tray), and it has a weighted straw — which
means the straw follows the liquid wherever the cup is tilted, so babies can actually get a
drink even when they’re not holding it perfectly upright. As a first-time mum, that last one
felt like genuine witchcraft.

At first, it was more entertainment than hydration. Watching a six-month-old try to figure
out how to get liquid up a straw is genuinely one of the funnier things I’ve witnessed as a
parent. She’d chew it, bash it on the tray, hold it upside down. Standard.

A tip that actually helped us — and one I’d seen recommended online — was putting a tiny bit of yoghurt on the tip of the straw. It encourages them to put it in their mouth and suck, which helps them make the connection between the straw and getting something from it. I also did a lot of modelling — drinking from my own straw in front of her and making it look like the most exciting thing in the world (the things we do).

And then, around 8 months, something clicked. She got it. She started reliably using the
straw and drinking water independently at meals. It felt like a genuine milestone.
Starting nursery and the beaker stage.

When El started nursery, she transitioned onto a beaker, which she got on with really well.
Nursery was brilliant at supporting this — it quickly became part of her routine, and having
consistency between home and nursery made a big difference.

Why I love the TUM TUM 3 Way Trainer Cup

As El has got older, nursery has started introducing open cups — which is actually exactly in line with current guidance. Open cup drinking supports natural oral development and is
great for building the muscle control needed for speech and swallowing. It can feel a bit
terrifying as a parent (so much spillage), but it’s genuinely beneficial.

This is what I particularly love about the TUM TUM 3 Way Trainer Cup. Rather than being a
product you use for a few months and discard, it’s designed to grow with your baby —
progressing through stages as their skills develop, right through to open cup drinking. That kind of thoughtful design matters to me, both as a mum and as a dietitian who cares about supporting normal oral development.

The fact that it supports the transition to open cup drinking — rather than keeping babies
dependent on valves and spouts indefinitely — is something I genuinely appreciate.

A quick summary of what worked for us

• Starting a cup from the very beginning of weaning (around 6 months)
• Offering water consistently at every meal, even when she didn’t seem interested
• The yoghurt-on-the-straw trick for straw cups
• Lots of modelling — babies learn by watching
• Being patient. It took until around 8 months for it to really click, and that’s completely normal
• Consistency between home and nursery

Our current routine

El now drinks water confidently throughout the day — at meals, at snack times, and on the
go. We use the TUM TUM Tippy Up Sippy Cup and the 3 Way Trainer Cup regularly, and she’s also using open cups at nursery. It genuinely feels like a long way from the days of rejected bottles and straw confusion.

If you’re in the thick of it right now — whether you’re dealing with bottle refusal, a baby who just doesn’t seem interested in water, or the general chaos of early weaning — I promise it does get easier.

This post was written in partnership with TUM TUM. All views and experiences are my own. As always, I only work with brands whose products I genuinely use and recommend.
Rach is a Registered Dietitian with 13 years of clinical experience. For personalised feeding
advice, please consult a healthcare professional. Visit on Instagram. Visit website.

By Rach, Registered Dietitian & mum to El