Did you know that spill proof sippy cups can be detrimental to your child or client's development?
I'm talking about sippy cups today.
Hi, I'm Doctor Mary Barbera, autism mom, board certified behavior analyst and best-selling
author.
I remember when Lucas was about four years old and an SLP by the name of Joanne Gerenser
who spoke really all around the world, I believe, was speaking in my local town for the autism
society and I was taking her out to dinner.
But before I took her out to dinner the night before she spoke, I brought her to my house
to do kind of a drive-by eyeball of Lucas and she just stayed for a few minutes in my
home, she observed him in the basement.
And the only thing I remember Joanne Gerenser saying was to get rid of Lucas' sippy cup.
And I was kind of shocked.
I never thought about it before.
But she told me that spill-proof sippy cups in general were no better than drinking from
a baby bottle, and they put Lucas' lips in an unnatural position and affected articulation.
She added that since these cups have spill-proof valves in them, it makes it really unnatural,
the way he would have to suck.
It's not like sucking through a straw, which is actually good for kids.
This was brand new information for me, so we went cold turkey and switched him away
from a spill-proof sippy cup into a straw cup.
Many children, especially those with autism, frequently use spill-proof sippy cups because
they tend to be messy and even typically developing kids use spill-proof for many years past when
they should be.
Many parents and teachers aren't even aware of any issues with sippy cups, like I wasn't,
but like Joanne told me, spill-proof sippy cups are bad for toddlers and older children
because they hamper articulation and they can also increase problem behaviors for items
if they insist on using these certain cups and having access to these cups throughout
the day whenever they want.
Also, drinking anything except water throughout the day will almost always affect mealtime
behavior.
Basically if the child fills up on milk or juice, he's going to be less accepting of
nutritious food at the table.
So getting your child to drink out of regular open cups and sport water bottles and using
straws is really what we need to focus on.
And for some kids this needs to be a gradual process of weaning away from a sippy cup or
for weaning away from having juice or milk throughout the day, but in other cases it
will just involve going cold turkey and presenting them with a spill-proof straw cup or an open
cup.
You can occasionally, if you're traveling or only in cars use spill-proof sippy cups
and you do want to take care of your home and the rugs and the sofas and all that stuff,
but really children should not be just drinking, especially anything other than water throughout
the day.
I also think spill-proof sippy cups and this unnatural movement with their mouths can affect
not only articulation but talking in general.
So we do want to make sure that we're focusing on not only can a child talk or not, but are
they using sippy cups?
Are they using pacifiers or bottles and what are they eating?
And all those kinds of things because these sucking and feeding issues have a lot to do,
I think, with vocal language as well.
So what can you do today if your child or clients are using sippy cups?
You want to assess.
You want to assess are they using them all day long?
Are they just using them during car rides or at church or some special occasions?
Then after you asses how bad the situation is and if they're insistent on one or two
cups, then you really want to make a plan with boundaries to wean based on that assessment.
So you could decide like, "Okay, from now on, I'm only going to give a sippy cup when
we go in the car.
Or I'm only going to give a sippy cup at bedtime or something like that."
And then the rest of the time, you'd want the child to be sitting at a table during
meals.
If your child likes or has more than one sippy cup that they love, you may want to hide or
dispose of all the others so they can't stash them away or accidentally find one during
non-sippy cup times.
While your child or client probably will not understand a complex plan, even infants will
respond to reinforcement and other behavioral procedures.
And at the very minimum, children should not have free access to spill-proof sippy cups
or anything except for water at any time they want during the day or night.
So they need help with boundaries and you can help them with that.
So to summarize, spill-proof sippy cups are not recommended for children and just like
any behavior you want to change, you'll need to start with an assessment and make a plan.
For more information about this, you can download my free guide at marybarbera.com/join or by
clicking the link right in the description below.
And I will see you next week.