Bickiepegs Doidy Cups

The Doidy Cup.

Your baby is growing up and until now they have been happy guzzling milk from a bottle with a teat or being breastfed. With their meals you want to start introducing them to water what do you do?


****How I discovered the DOIDY Cup****

My little boy had been bottle fed and breast fed for the first 3 months of his life, followed by being bottle fed alone, so I knew he was happy drinking ...
...showing signs of needing solids, at which point I wanted to start giving him water with his meals. So (probably like most parents), I filled up one of his bottles with water and offered it to my boy. He put the teat in his mouth and sucked. The teat was in his mouth for a couple of seconds to allow a couple of sucks before he spat out the water and refused to take the bottle.

Its amazing how children so young know their own minds. ... more

The Doidy Cup.

Your baby is growing up and until now they have been happy guzzling milk from a bottle with a teat or being breastfed. With their meals you want to start introducing them to water what do you do?

****How I discovered the DOIDY Cup****

My little boy had been bottle fed and breast fed for the first 3 months of his life, followed by being bottle fed alone, so I knew he was happy drinking his milk from a bottle. At 5 months he was showing signs of needing solids, at which point I wanted to start giving him water with his meals. So (probably like most parents), I filled up one of his bottles with water and offered it to my boy. He put the teat in his mouth and sucked. The teat was in his mouth for a couple of seconds to allow a couple of sucks before he spat out the water and refused to take the bottle.

Its amazing how children so young know their own minds. He would happily drink milk from his bottle, but refused water or even diluted fruit juices. So what to do? Off I went to the local supermarket to buy a training beaker. After half an hour of looking at the vast selection on offer I picked up a small beaker with a spout which prevented spills if the cup was dropped. Happy with my purchase (having spent £2.98), I went home and tried the beaker to no avail. We continued for a week thinking time will help him get used to the new beaker, but oh no, he wasn't having any of it. So for the time being my little boy was drinking water from a spoon, so I knew he liked the taste of water, but he just didn't like the beaker. So off I went, this time to my local Boots, and again having spent another 30 minutes looking at an even bigger selection of training beakers, I selected one with a 2 way valve and a spout that was a lot softer. Having spent £3.99 I went home ready to try him on his new beaker, but again he was not having any of it. Now I was getting quite concerned, as I had visions of my little boy growing up thinking that you drink water of a spoon. Then a friend mentioned the DOIDY CUP. It is a specially designed cup which encourages babies to drink from a rim rather than a spout.

****The DOIDY Cup****

Up till this point I had never ever heard of the Doidy cup before, so had no idea what one looked like. Following a Google search, I found that they were available from John Lewis, Blooming Marvellous or Bickiepegs. We purchased ours from Blooming Marvellous, 2 cups for £6.99.

The cups arrived 2 days later. Each cup was packaged in its own re-sealable bag. The cups have a unique slant which allows your child to drink easily as they can actually see what they are drinking. The manufacturers state that Health Professionals promote the cup as they help prevent long term health problems (tooth decay; speech problems; poor chewing skills; poor feeding to name just a few) that can be caused by delayed weaning from a bottle or spouted cup. However, the Health Professionals I had come across had never mentioned any sort of drinking cup or beaker let alone the Doidy cup.

The manufacturers also state that the cup can be used from as young as 3 months with adult assistance and supervision. We started our little boy on the cup around 6 months and from the first moment we gave him water in the cup, he started to drink. It was amazing!! To start with there was a lot of spillage and wet clothes, however with time the spillage does stop and the wet clothes can be avoided by buying a large plastic bib. We used our cup to give our little boy water at lunch time and dinner time, and he was given a few sips of water following a nap. At first it can all seem a bit of an effort, as you have to have a bottle of water with you, a bib, some tissues and possibly a change of clothes. But trust me it is all worth it in the end. A few weeks later he seemed interested in holding the cup himself, and it wasn't long before all I was doing was pouring a small amount of water in the cup and saying "hold with 2 hands", and my little boy would do the rest without spilling a drop. At around 11 months he became so grown up that he refused to hold the cup with 2 hands, and one hand is much better, so there is on occasions a bit more spillage.

Unlike a bottle or beaker where you can fill it up with say 7oz of fluid and let your child drink how much they want. You need to fill the cup with a small amount of water (say a tablespoon), hand the cup to your child or assist your child by holding the cup for them, let them drink and fill again. Now this can be time consuming, and it can be hard to tell when your child has had enough to drink. However I feel that this teaches your child the importance of drinking slowly, through out the course of their meal, without guzzling their drink in one go. Over time we have noticed that when he is thirsty he will happily drink from the cup with out a drop being spilt, but when he is not so thirsty or doesn't want any more he will take a sip from the cup and then let it dribble down the sides of his mouth, as he hasn't quite figured out how to say when he has had enough. So we can quite easily tell when he has had enough to drink. At the age of 8 months, we started to give him freshly squeezed fruit juices in the morning with breakfast again from his cup. At 10.5 months we decided to cut down the number of times he was having milk from a bottle. Within a couple of days he had dropped his bottles altogether and was happily drinking milk from his Doidy cup without any fuss.

****DIODY on the go****

Drinking on the go is just as easy as drinking at home. Yes you may have to carry a bottle of water around with you, and yes you may have to stop to let your child have a drink, and yes you may have to have napkins around (unless it is a nice hot day). But I don't feel that this is a problem, I always have a bottle of water with me, so my boy can share my bottle, and every time I have some water I make sure he gets some to, and if it's a nice hot day I don't worry about bibs and napkins. More recently we have been out and I have to say I did forget to take his Doidy cup, however he has happily managed to drink water from a normal glass, a plastic glass, a pint glass and even from a plastic bottle (in this case you do need to make sure there is plenty of water in the glass, so that your baby can get to it easily without having to tip the whole glass or bottle upside down). So I say DOIDY is the way to go!!

****Dirty DOIDY on the go****

Out and about with the Doidy cup as mentioned above is as good as being at home. However once your child has finished drinking the water or juice you are left with a dirty Doidy cup. So what do you do? Simple, when you receive your Doidy Cup it comes in a re-sealable plastic bag, which is designed to carry your dirty Doidy cup. When you get home you can wash both the cup and bag ready for your next outing. The bag also doubles up as a useful toy to keep your child entertained, as it is colourful and makes a great sound (to little ears).

****COST****

I bought 2 for £6.99 (£3.49 per cup), which may sound a little expensive for what you buy. However I know that when my child turns 18 months I don't have to buy him a different beaker to drink from as the spouts change dependent upon your child's age. So instead of having to spend money on beakers (which can range from £2.98 - £4.00) at 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 18 months etc. you can make a saving knowing that your child can drink from an open cup. Therefore, I feel £3.49 per cup including re-sealable bag is great value for money.

We have had our cups now for 6 months, and both have been dropped on to tiled, wooden and concrete floors and neither have broken or got cracks. Both cups have been sterilised using a microwave steriliser and have been washed in the dishwasher on the top shelf. Again neither has signs of any cracks, so £3.49 per cup seems to go a long way. The only marks that we have on both cups are little scratch marks made by our little boy's teeth. So whilst drinking from the cup, it can also double up as a great teething toy to alleviate teething pains.

I don't understand why Doidy Cups are not advertised more widely. I my opinion they are an amazing invention.

© Anjuna 2008 

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