I often talk about Emma and the things we deal as Cleft Parents…so I thought I would start a series called “Diary of A Cleft Mom…” and each time I use this title I will discuss a new topic!
Today’s topic is Sippy Cups!
A parent of a non-cleft child probably determines a time that they are ready to switch from bottle to cup. At that point they pick a cup based on a referral from a pediatrician or even another parent. Then they make the transition…
Well the process for Cleft Parents is very similar, however, we have a few other things to consider. Depending on type of Cleft, one of the most important things we have to consider is if the cup has a removable valve; meaning the cleft child can probably drink from the cup but if they sucking ability isn’t strong they need a cup that is going to pour into the child’s mouth versus a cup (and with that comes a BIG mess…usually because they understand pouring the liquid in their mouth but they don’t understand that if you pour it on your clothes; its still going to pour out). Which usually means that you have to try multiple cups before finding the perfect one…
The cup (below) is the cup we transitioned to after the Bottle…The Nuby Sports Sipper
Recently we would catch Emma chewing on the spout…and sticking her finger down the spout so we knew it was time to change cups!
So I took to the Cleft Moms Group I am in on Facebook to see what other moms are using, and I was sent private messages of cups, and the group sent all kinds of cups. There were a few that a all the moms swore by so I tried those first (remember no clefts are alike…so what works for your child may not work for another child)…
So here we are after about $40-$50 dollars in Sippy Cups (you know most of these cups come in packs of 2 and they are usually priced from $6 to $8 per set) and Im not even sure if this is all the cups we tried!
We have found a winner in the Nuby Easy Gripper. It’s actually a cup for smaller kids, but its currently working for us! So we will go with it until I feel she is ready for the next stage! I will still work with the green cup at the bottom because once she has surgery in a few months…she will probably have to drink from a regular cup.
Our transition to this cup was a little hard but I think we have finally transitioned 100%! We started by having her drinking out of the new cup throughout the day and only drinking out of the Sports Sipper at night
What Sippy Cups have you used? Was it hard to make the transition??
