10/11/2022
Let's talk cups!! Is your little one sitting independently and at least 6 months old?! Although you don't typically transition babies from bottles to a cup until 12 months, you can start introducing cups as early as 6 months if your baby is sitting independently and your pediatrician clears it!
I highly recommend starting out with a small, open cup and/or a straw cup! These cups facilitate proper oral motor development that's needed for optimal feeding and speech skills! To break it down more, open cups and straw cups.....
- Allows baby to practice a mature swallowing pattern (different swallow pattern than used when sucking from a bottle)
- Encourages appropriate lip rounding (straw cup) and lip seal (open cup)
- Helps make the transition from a bottle at 12 months much easier!!
The baby market today really makes it seem like after breast and/or bottle, the next cup a baby should drink from is a spouted sippy cup and this is just not true!!! And actually, I recommend to completely skip the spouted sippy's and 360 cups!! Let's talk about why....
Spouted sippys and 360 cups inhibit proper tongue and lip movement which will in turn hinder appropriate oral motor skill development. Spouted sippy's press the tongue down on the floor of the mouth and inhibits tongue elevation which is need for a mature swallow pattern. 360 cups requires littles to bite down and suck, which is an atypical oral motor pattern. These atypical patterns that inhibit proper oral motor development can lead to picky eating, open mouth breathing, high/narrow palate, teeth crowding, & other speech and feeding issues.
Please know I'm not here to judge if you use a spouted sippy!!! I just want to educate on why it's best to skip or use them as little as possible! I get they are much more convenient and easier to clean than most straw cups! But in the long run, I promise open cups and straw cups are the way to go.
How did your little do with transitioning to a cup?! Got questions?! Drop them in the comment section!! ☺️
