I read about Pigeon’s Magmag cup (see details here) from forums and decided to buy one for Darius so he can start practicing drinking from a cup himself. Previously, we were using the old NUK milk bottle to feed him water but I noticed that he likes to hold onto my fingers as if they are the side handles for the bottle.

Dar loves drinking water. He always fusses when drinking his milk and sometimes does not finish a full feed. But with water, we have to tear the bottle away from him before he drank more than a few suckles. (Water in great amounts can cause water intoxication in babies).

Older folks always tell us to feed young babies water while nowadays scientists say it is harmful to babies. This advice is passed down from their parents who got it from their parents and we were all fed water too. Nothing happened to us so why this ‘new’ finding?

According to Dr Sears:

Breastfeeding babies do not need extra water, though formula-fed babies often do. Formula contains higher concentrations of salts and minerals than breastmilk does, so that extra water is often necessary for the kidneys to excrete the extra salt. Also, because of less efficient metabolism, formula-fed infants lose more water.

I didn’t feed Darius much water initially when he was 1-2months. I believed that formula is adequate for him since he was drinking 2hours intervals. Then, he had some bouts of constipation when I started the three hour intervals so I gave water in between and he was less irritable too when he drank water.

Now, whenever he wakes up crying in the night or during daytime naps, I give him a few sips of water from the training cup and he calms down immediately. Give him the pacifier again and he will mostly go back to sleep. I also gives him sips of water after he spits out some milk as he dislikes it and often complains. Water seems to soothe him.

When we first bought the Magmag All-in-One Set on 14th Nov, we helped put his hands to the handles and let him practise putting the teat into his mouth. It ended up hitting his nose or face, ha. He’ll also be holding it using his left hand more and letting go with his right so it swings here and there. Luckily, the cup teat is leak-proof so no worries about spillage.

I was pleasantly surprised that on the 19th of Nov, 5 days later, he started getting the hang of it. This is a series of photos I took of him drinking properly by himself.

And here’s the video of him drinking:

Soon he’ll be able to hold his own milk bottle, but it might not be a good thing as he will likely push it away than finish drinking his feed. Right now, I’m already having tugs-of-war with him.

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