SPOUT CUP vs STRAW CUPS
Oh no, the beloved sippy cup (Spouted cup). I know, I know, it makes your life easier and your kiddo loves it. Aren’t you supposed to just go straight to sippy cups after bottles anyway?
Oh the sippy cup………
Here is the thing, Sippy cups may have their advantages but there are also several disadvantages. More and more, as I evaluate kiddos I am seeing the lasting impacts sippy cups are having on our kiddos speech, language, and orofacial growth. Oftentimes, I have a kiddo coming to me for a simple Speech & Language assessment and a sippy cup is holding him or her back. Their mouth reflects growth around the hard spout and parents reluctantly divulge the information that he or she is taking the beloved sippy cup to sleep at night and the oral cavity is paying the price. Let’s adopt healthy habits early on and skip the Speech and Language evaluation altogether. (though I am sure I would love to see you )
I hope to nudge you to put the sippy cup behind and step into the world of straw or open cups.
Hard spouted cups are glorified bottles, keeping your child’s tongue low, forward, and hindering the development of an adult swallow pattern. Your child is often tilting his/her head back, allowing gravity to do all the work, missing crucial muscular activation of the face and lips, later needed for good speech production.
Straw drinking differs from using a spouted/sippy cup because your child is having to engage his/her lips to suck liquid up from the straw. The tongue will also move up to make a seal around the straw, allowing for a posterior/adult swallow pattern.
Open cup drinking also promotes activation of important muscles. As you or your child tilt the cup up, your child will round his/her lips sucking in liquid. Later, your child will be able to elevate his/her tongue to engage in a posterior/adult swallow pattern.
Both open and straw cups promote lip rounding and allow your child’s tongue to move up. The sippy cup takes away opportunities for both of these important movements, usually resulting in a low and forward tongue position that can cause a handful of speech issues.
For teaching straw drinking I love to start with the bear cup, this allows you to squeeze on the cup to teach your child the relationship between sucking and liquid rising into the oral cavity
Here are some great cups to look into when you are ready to transition off the bottle.
Munchkin Straw Trainer Cup
Munchkin splash toddler cups
Contigo straw cup ( not to be confused with Contigo Spouted cup, straws are small enough for the tongue to contact the top of the mouth around it)
Mushie
You can start teaching straw drinking as early as 6 months. Look for your baby’s signs and readiness. By 12 months of age, we want to say goodbye to the bottle and hello straw/open cup!!!