Teaching my EBF 7 month old how to use a straw
When my daughter was born, I assumed she would take bottles as my son was combo fed for the first six months.
Turns out, this time around aside from a few bottles in the first week she is exclusively breastfed! But that means now that I am going back to work 9 months postpartum we had to teach her how to use a straw as she doesn’t remember how to use a bottle.
If you’re in a similar place, especially with a breastfed baby who refuses bottles, this can be such an empowering, practical alternative. Learning to use a straw is easy, fool proof and a skill they will need for life, so no need to worry about weaning.
Below I’m sharing exactly how I taught my seven month old to use a straw, what worked for us, and what to expect along the way.
When Can Babies Learn to Use a Straw?
Babies can begin learning to use a straw around six months of age or older, once they have good head and neck control and are starting solids.
If your baby is younger than six months and struggling with bottles, please know you’re not alone, and help is available. I offer bottle refusal and bottle rejection consults and can help you find the best bottle option for your younger baby.
But if your baby is six months or older, and you don’t want to deal with:
Getting baby onto a bottle
Then having to wean off the bottle around a year
Teaching straw drinking can be a fantastic, low stress option.
What You’ll Need: The Honey Bear Straw Cup
I highly recommend starting with a honey bear style squeezy straw bottle. This type of cup lets you gently control the flow of liquid, which makes learning much easier for babies.
👉 Honey Bear Straw Cup — Amazon link here
This cup allows you to squeeze liquid up the straw to help your baby understand how straw drinking works, without overwhelming them.
What You’ll Need: The Honey Bear Straw Cup
You can totally start with just breastmilk or formula if you haven’t started solids yet or baby is struggling. But you can also lean into it if baby is really into foods.
You can use:
Water (cleanest for first learning)
Milk / Formula (Good to encourage at the sucking up the straw phase)
Smoothies
Watered down purees
The key is choosing something motivating enough for them to want to keep tasting/trying.
Step By Step: How I Taught My Baby How To Use A Straw
Step 1: Introduce The Straw At The Lips
Bring the straw up to your baby’s lips and squeeze a tiny amount of liquid up the straw so it touches their lips and goes into their mouth a little.
This isn’t about sucking just yet. It’s just about making them realize, “Oh, something homes out of this.”
Let them taste it. let them explore. No pressure.
Step Two: Wait For Mouth Closure
After a few rounds of step one, baby should start closing their lips around the straw. This will be inconsistent and may take a while, but baby will get there.
Once baby closes their lips around the straw THEN squeeze the liquid into their mouth.
Biggest thing here is reinforcing that closing their lips is the correct next step.
Practice squeezing the honey bear or whatever you’re using so you know how much pressure to use so make sure you are only offering little amounts with little pressure.
Step 3: Create Positive Feedback with Tiny Sucks
Once baby is getting better at closing their lips and drinking what you press in, pause when their lips close and just squeeze the liquid 3/4 of the way up the straw.
This keeps the liquid close and gives positive feed back from even the smallest amount of suction. It is the stepping stone to teach baby that sucking is what gets them more from the straw, without expecting them to be able to pull it up from the bottom.
That comes next.
Step 4: Support The Process
You may find that you may get stuck at one phase for longer than you’d hope. Or baby starts to suck during one practice, but the next time they’re just chewing on the straw.
Give it time, keep the pressure low, and encourage any positive actions along the way.
How long does this take?
Every baby is different.
With my son, I didn’t even have to ‘teach’ him, he was just obsessed with my postpartum water bottle that never left my side. I offered it to him just to let him chew on it and one day he sucked up water and surprised us both!
With my daughter, we had to be more intentional. It took a couple weeks of very unstructured practice, with Christmas in the middle somewhere.
Why Straw Drinking Is Such A Powerful Skill
Learning to drink from a straw:
Supports strong oral motor development
Doesn’t get in the way of jaw/teeth growth
Piggy backs on skills baby already has from breastfeeding instead of asking them to learn new mechanics to use a bottle
No need to wean, just transition to just water instead of breastmilk
It is a lifelong practical skill!
For many breastfed babies who never took a bottle, this can be a real game changer. Both for baby’s ability for independence, but also for the breastfeeding parent!
A Note for Parents of Younger Babies:
If your baby is under 6 months old and bottles are not going well, please reach out here.
Bottle refusal is super common but can be solved when we understand the mechanics of how baby uses breast vs. bottle and find the bottle that is best for your baby.
But if you are starting this journey around 6 months, this is a gentle, easy to use and developmentally appropriate alternative to bottles.
If this helped you, make sure to check out my Instagram or TikTok reels where I talk through this process visually, step by step! And don’t forget to follow along as I post more tips like this.
You’ve got this! ♡
