My kids are 2 and 4 now, and OH, How I miss the Sippy Cups! I was reading online about the problems with sippy cups and mouth/teeth formation, germs, cavities, speech problems, etc... when Brody just turned 2. At the time, I was still using sippy cups, on occasion. Well, I found out that initially the sippy cup was only meant as a transition from a bottle to a cup. They were never meant to be used for YEARS, but only for weeks or months.
So, when we found that out, we took Brody off the sippy cups and went to cups with straws. We did the same with Seth at about 10 months. The kicker, Seth doesn't like to drink out of straws. He always says he just wants to drink out of the cup. He is much better at it than Brody is, and I am sure that is because we waited so long to make Brody drink out of cups.
I am so glad we did. I don't know if it is related, but people always tell me that my kids are so easy to understand, that they speak very well. I wonder if that has something to do with how quickly we got them off the cups.
Here is the problem. With cups, you get SPILLS. So, we have started putting just a tiny bit of drink in each cup to keep from wasting all of the milk/juice/water. So, we still have spills which are relatively small, but we are having to refill drink cups about 10 times a day. *sigh* I don't know what is worse... malformed teeth with cavities, spilled drinks all over our kitchen floor, or having to stop working every 10 minutes to refill a cup!
There are days I *can't wait* for my kids to reach a certain milestone... like being able to keep all their liquid in their cups. But then again, when I really think about it, I think I can put up with a few more years of sticky floors. :)
For those of you hanging on to the sippy cups... I understand. I feel your pain. But start doing a little research online. I was amazed at all I found about the problems they can cause with cavities, crooked teeth, jaw problems, speech problems, germs, etc...
Here is just one link...
http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Sippy-Cups-Slur-Speech12feb02.htm
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2 comments:
It's interesting you bring this up. We just started our baby registry (OH MY GOD, we STILL can't believe it!) and we didn't put any sippy cups on there because we have read and heard tons about their problems. We know some kids have issues with straws. But, we are going to try to avoid sippy cups. We shall see how it goes!
Jen, I have to admit, I've been hanging on. My kids definitely don't have the teeth problems, we never put soda in them and if it's juice it's diluted and they don't just like leave them hanging in their mouth all day. BUT - Zach does have a problem with TH and Addison cannot say the SL. Zach says "funder" and Addison will say "freepy" for sleepy. Maybe this is a contributing factor, I don't know - I know these have been tough sounds for kids way before sippy cups were as popular as they are today ... but I think I might have to look into transitioning to real cups or using only sippy cups with straws maybe, when they are not at the table? Interesting, I honestly never really gave it all that much thought. The girls still use bottles for milk, crazy as that is, they're 2 1/2. They will NOT absolutely will not drink milk from a cup. And they have a routine that is set and they expect it and it's almost like a "blankie" to them. They know when it's time for bed, they get a bottle, they get their blankie and a pillow, and lay on the floor and wait for it to come. It's actually pretty cute. They get a couple ounces of milk before nap/bed time and that's it and if they don't finish it - it gets dumped, they don't get to hang onto it. They don't drink it any other time - plus they hate any kind of cheese, so I need to get them milk somehow(though they love yogurt...go figure.) Thanks for your usual words of wisdom! :)
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