When can babies drink from a straw?

The verdict

Nobody publishes an age for this, and it is worth saying so plainly rather than borrowing a number from a manufacturer's packaging.

What the NHS does publish is an age for cups: from around six months, offering sips of water with meals. And it publishes a preference about the type of cup, which is where a straw becomes an interesting question rather than a trivial one.

What the NHS actually recommends

Introduce your baby to drinking from a cup or beaker from around six months and offer sips of water with meals.

On the type: using an open cup or a free-flow cup without a valve will help your baby learn to sip and is better for your baby's teeth. It might be messy at first, but be patient – your baby will gradually learn how to drink from an open cup.

And on the comparison that matters: a cup or beaker with a free-flow lid, without a non-spill valve, is better than a bottle or a beaker with a teat, because it will help your baby learn how to sip rather than suck.

The valve is what the advice is about

Read that guidance carefully and the target is not the shape of the vessel. It is the sucking action, and the length of time a drink is held in the mouth.

A non-spill valve requires sustained sucking to get liquid out, which keeps the drink in contact with the teeth for longer and encourages a baby to carry the cup around and sip from it all day. That combination – sweet or milky drinks, in contact with teeth, repeatedly, over hours – is what causes decay. It is also why the AAP's advice on moving off the bottle discourages letting a child wander with a bottle or beaker to sip from through the day.

So where does a straw sit?

Somewhere between the two, and nobody has ruled on it.

A straw requires suction, like a valved beaker. But it delivers liquid to the back of the mouth rather than washing it across the front teeth, which is a point in its favour dentally. And straw cups usually have a valve of their own to stop them leaking, which is a point against.

The honest summary: there is no published guidance either way, and the argument can be made in both directions. What is clear from the NHS advice is the hierarchy it does publish – an open cup is the goal, a free-flow cup without a valve is a good stepping stone, and a teat is the thing to move away from.

If you use a straw cup, the sensible reading is to treat it like a free-flow cup: for water, at meals, sitting down, not carried around all day, and not the only vessel your baby ever drinks from.

The practical rules that do apply

Sitting down, every time. This is the one genuine safety point. A rigid straw in the mouth of a child who is walking, being carried, or in a moving pram is an injury risk if they fall – the straw can be pushed into the palate or the back of the throat. Red Nose Australia's general principle for eating and drinking is upright, seated and supervised, and it applies here.

Short and soft is better. A short, flexible straw in a lidded cup is safer than a long rigid one, and a straw that cannot be pulled out of the cup removes one small-parts hazard.

Water at meals is the target. The NHS asks for sips of water with meals from around six months, and notes that drinking water for babies over six months does not need to be boiled first.

Check the parts. Straw cups have valves, seals and internal tubes that harbour residue and can perish. Take them apart to clean, and replace parts that are cracked or discoloured.

How babies actually learn it

Straw drinking is a different skill from cup drinking. It uses the lips and cheeks rather than the tongue-and-tip action of an open cup, and some babies get it immediately while others take weeks.

Most babies who can sit upright and manage an open cup can be shown a straw. The usual trick is to fill a soft straw with water by dipping it and covering the top with a finger, then releasing a little into the mouth so the baby understands what the object does.

There is no rush. A baby who drinks well from an open cup at meals is doing exactly what the NHS asks for, and does not need a straw at all.

Straws for babies who find open cups hard

Some babies – particularly those with low muscle tone, reflux, or feeding difficulties – find a straw easier to manage than an open cup, and speech and language therapists sometimes use straws as part of feeding support. If your baby is under the care of a feeding team, follow their instructions rather than general guidance.

What goes in it matters more than what it is

This is where the real dental risk sits, and it is worth being clear.

Under twelve months, the drinks are breast milk, infant formula, and water. Cow's milk as a main drink comes later. Fruit juice, squash, fizzy drinks and flavoured milks do not belong in a baby's cup at all, and if they appear later they belong at a meal in an open cup, diluted, rather than sipped from a straw across an afternoon.

A straw cup of water at lunch is unremarkable. A straw cup of juice carried around a soft play centre is the thing every dental guideline in the world is written about.

Where guidance differs

Nobody names straws. Not the NHS, not the AAP, not the HSE, not Red Nose. Any age you see attached to a straw cup comes from a manufacturer.

The UK is the most prescriptive about cup type. The NHS actively recommends open or free-flow over valved beakers, and gives the reason: sipping rather than sucking, and better for teeth. American guidance concentrates on getting off the bottle rather than on which replacement to choose.

The UK cup age is around six months. That is the one number on this page with a health service behind it, and it is about cups in general rather than about straws in particular.