Sippy cups should no more be used than 1 month
Sippy cups are manufactured for babies but ironically they are great for parents and damaging for kids. Did you know sippy cups deter speech development & prevents a child from learning healthy food habits? Sippy cups make great training cups for transitional period of your child but it must not be used for more than a month. For optimal health, experts opine about skipping it altogether & using a straw cup instead.
Why Sippy Cups are bad for your Child?
Sippy cups have hard spouts, sucking on to which deters baby’s oral motor development. Although they are great training cups and spill free; they cause innumerable health problems from reduced hunger pangs to irregular sipping, tooth decay, delayed oral speech & absent oral motor development i.e. failing to learn mature swallowing pattern. If sippy cups are irreplaceable for you because they are convenient, lightweight and break proof; we do have an alternate for you. Try Kids Tupperware for instance a straw tumbler.
Kids Tupperware during Transitional Phase of your Baby
- Sippy Cups leads to Picky Eating
From ages 6-12 a baby learns to push and move his tongue up just like adults to swallow his food. This is a transitioning phase for your child from liquid to semi solid food & purees. Sippy cups during this phase may be addictive more for parents than for a child as they are easy. It provides freedom to parents since a baby can grasp sippy cup on his own & may take it just anywhere along with him. This pattern leads to reduced hunger pangs. As he continues to suck on it whenever feels hungry, he will be dependent on sippy cup and will reject solid food/filling items.
2. Sippy Cups Deter Speech Development
Sucking on to sippy cup pushes the tip of the tongue down and inwards. This causes delayed speech in babies who have been put on sippy cups for longer duration. Instead of learning to move & turn tongue around in the mouth it is pushed to the floor of the mouth.
3. Sippy Cups cause Tooth Decay & Unaligned Teeth
Because sippy cups misplace the tongue position in mouth, it prevents proper suction of saliva. Due to this saliva can no more rinse off the sugary substance from the milk that leads to tooth decay. Sucking on the long tube/spout of the training cup pushes teeth outward and forward that may lead to braces in later ages of his growth phase.
A wise parent would prefer straw cups over a sippy cup. Find a colorful & bright straw tumbler in kids Tupperware section at your local super mart or buy Tupperware online. Sucking on straw uses energy from cheeks, tongue & lips. It promotes natural resting position of tongue leading to proper saliva suction hence ensures swift oral motor & speech development.
When should I Introduce Straw Cups to my Baby?
As soon as he begins to lick & suck puree & semi solid food off his finger and from a spoon. Smooth purees are thickened liquid that make it easier for your child to hold, control & breathe while he takes multiple sips on his food. Once he masters at sucking food from straw in a few months, you can introduce him to open wide mouth cups.
It is better to avoid training cups even if they feel breezy for the better development of your child, but if you must then it should not be for more than a period of one month. Invest in reasonable BPA free kids Tupperware to promote timely development of your baby.
