What is Sippy Cup?
A sippy cup is a modified small cup that comes with a lid and spout. Sometimes, there are handles attached to its cup. It is namely as “training cup”. Parents usually use it on their infant or young child to transition from a bottle feeding to a regular cup. Modern parents view the sippy cup as a great inventory because this “on-the-go cup” can avoid spilling and keeping clean up time to a minimum. There are companies even advertise and promote the usage of a sippy cup by saying it can improve a child’s hand-to-mouth coordination. In consequence, the usage of a sippy cup is misperceived as a “must” skill to acquire before drinking with a regular cup.Disadvantages of Sippy Cup
Using a sippy cup can cause difficulty in pronunciation and speech clarity in some children. When a young child drinks or sucks from a sippy cup's spout, the spout is placed between his/her tongue and roof of the mouth (i.e., hard palate). Thus, the spout would limit the tongue movement or cause misplaced of the child's tongue. In the long run, the usage of the sippy cup could affect the child's oral motor, feeding and speech development. Some speech-language therapists have found that their clients who used a sippy cup for an extensive period of time developed “a lazy tongue”, produced sloppy “th” and “st” sounds, at least temporarily.Besides, the placement of the spout in the mouth, keep a child’s lips apart, that promote open-mouth breathing. The child's front teeth may be pushed forward and/or outward. Most typical children who develop speech challenges due to the usage of a sippy cup can be easily corrected. Their speech usually improves once they start drinking from a regular cup or straw. However, for children with oral motor issues (e.g. Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy), the problems could be long-lasting.
