Remember way back when? We played outside all day. We rode bikes to school, uphill both ways. We endured horrible discipline that taught us to respect our parents and elders. But remember the cups we used to drink from? They were cups. You know, tumblers, open-tops. It was way cool if you went to McDonald’s and got a cup with a lid and straw. Even better if you got a swirly straw party favor. Remember the food we ate? It was junk sometimes, like hot dogs and mac-n-cheese. But it was real food. Real fruit, like apples or grapes. I remember having a contest to see how many grapes my friend and I could shove into our mouths at one time. It’s amazing we survived childhood. But it was food we ate, not stuff that we sucked out of a pouch.
I walk through the grocery store and observe. Almost every kiddo I see has some form of sippy cup, and on many an end-cap there are pouch foods for kids. Organic or not, what are we doing? From a parenting standpoint, I get that we’re all “on the go”, but what are we sacrificing for that “go”?
From a therapeutic standpoint, I cringe at seeing all the little mouths sucking away on sippy cups that cause tongue thrust, or a reversed swallow. The next generation of lispers in the making. A “Sippy cup”, while looking like a cup, is nothing more than the publicly acceptable version of a bottle. If it has a valve, it’s simply continuing to promote a sucking pattern that the bottle started. The child’s tongue is NOT learning a neutral position that encourages a symmetrical palate and appropriate position for speech articulation. Instead the tongue is habitually pushing forward, much like it did when nursing or bottle drinking. And sucking food from a bag? More of the same.
Around 12-15 months, it’s important for the tongue to begin establishing what I mentioned before- a neutral position. This position is learned when a child begins to eat (or be fed) regularly with utensils. Spoons and open-cups or straw drinking reinforce the tongue’s retraction into the oral cavity. Straw cups offer lip rounding/strength building which is another awesome skill that a kid needs to master. It will serve him well for articulation and keeping milk from spurting out of his mouth when he’s giggling. If the cup MUST have a lid, opt for the straw cup, with NO VALVE.
Let me switch to the parent perspective again- I understand how tedious it is to have a stumbling little person walking around the house with a cup full of chocolate milk. Why not keep the liquids on a leash? Cups at that table. If you want a drink, come get it. Then leave it here.
From the feeding specialist perspective- kids need water. They need nutrition. But they do not need to graze and drink calories throughout the day.
One mom asked me, “what’s going on with all the kids and poor oral motor skills?” There is no simple answer, but there are things we can do to start them off in the right direction. Ditch the sippy cups and pouch food. Get them using their lips, teeth, and tongues.
Because They Grow 
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