Straw Cups vs. Sippy Cups: Why Experts Hate Sippies
Walk down the baby aisle in any store, and you will see hundreds of sippy cups. They are cute, spill-proof, and seemingly the next logical step after the bottle. But if you talk to a pediatric speech pathologist or a dentist, you will get a very different opinion: Skip the sippy cup. It sounds radical, but there is a growing consensus among experts that the traditional hard-spout sippy cup might actually do more harm than good. Here is why making the switch to straw cups is the smarter move for your baby’s development. The Problem with the Hard Spout The mechanics of drinking from a hard-spout sippy cup are surprisingly similar to drinking from a bottle. The child has to thrust their tongue forward to stop the flow of liquid. This "tongue thrust" is exactly what they did as infants. To develop mature swallowing patterns and speech sounds, babies need to learn to lift their tongue tip to the roof of their mouth (the alveolar ridge). Sippy cups can physically block the tong...