4 Comments:

well, you're in luck. Since many dentists and pediatricians say that juice is just empty calories and bad for your teeth, you can just put plain water in there! No carpet stains!

We still find sippy cups very much a necessity, especially in the car, or for packing drinks on the go. I don't think they're so bad. It's just a drink container. The boys get practice with "big boy" cups while sitting at the dinner table or to swish water after brushing teeth, but they're not practical anywhere else really.

I think it's ironic that people discourage sippy cups when many of the containers that adults drink out of have spouts, straws or small openings where we must purse our lips to drink, similar to how a child drinks from a sippy cup. I bring my very own sippy to the gym with me every day :-D

By  Candy, at 7:54 AM  

hi sarah -

it'd be great if you could sucke^H^H^H, er, convince your local expert to comment on The Great Sippy Cup Controversy, at least in terms of oral motor development. it's hard to evaluate the real risks based on stuff you find online, with the usual array of poorly supported anectodes on both sides of the argument. e.g. are they thought to "cause" delays in otherwise healthy, full term infants or do they exacerbate underdeveloped skills in "at risk" ( e.g. premature ) infants?

and were sippy cups really designed to be used only for two months during the ( see comment in the linked post ) transition from bottle to cup? inquiring minds want to know!

By  e3, at 9:36 AM  

I also have to wonder the correlation in these studies to whether they were breastfed or bottle fed or both, and whether or not they had any prior oral fixations (paci's, thumbs, etc), and and if they had a tight frenulum or not. (the skin under the toungue, not the skin of the same name on the penis LOL) and, of course, if there was any family history of a lisp or other speech problem that could be part of a genetic developmental delay. Do they take all of that into consideration? To have a real controlled and accurate study, I'd think they would have to factor in all of this and accept data only from breastfed-only children with normal frenulums and no family history of speech problems, otherwise, the study could be thrown off by other factors that could be causes of a speech problem. It is similar to the studies done on co-sleeping - there are just so many factors that can throw off a study to imply that sleeping with your baby is a death sentence and a baby in a crib is super safe.

Both my breastfed boys initially did do better with the straw type sippy cups, at least until they caught on to the whole gravity concept for the other kind. But, we do use both types of cups now. Common sense tells me that, the child takes a drink, the child pulls the cup back out of his/her - it's not like an oral fixation where there is pressure constantly on the child's teeth and toungue. No lisps in this family.

Of course, it is super fun to watch them at first when they use a "big boy" cup - they get that surprised look when they tip it a bit too far and get a rush of liquid. LOL. Priceless. It's a good lesson in gravity control for sure. :-D

By  Candy, at 11:01 AM  

My son who just turned 9 months old today, has never used a sippy cup. he doesn't even like them. he has always preferred to drink the way mommy and daddy does instead. however he also never really had a bottle so that might have something to do with his resistance toward the sippy cup. we also had our good friend who just happens to be a lactation consultant tell us that it is better this way because you dont have to try and wean them off the sippy cup down the road. Plus it teaches them a new skill, drinking, as opposed to the old skill, sucking. Just some thoughts, and happy late 10-month birthday Odin!!!

By  Anonymous, at 12:43 PM  

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