Bledidoc Advice

It is important for your child between 3 and 6 years to use a cup when drinking all types of liquid; milk, water, juices etc… and this is for several reasons:

1. Longer bottle use often leads to cavities and decay due to the sugar often present in milk and juices.
2. Using bottles may also cause your child to drink more milk than he or she needs. Research shows that kids who are still using a bottle at age 2 or 3 are more likely to be obese.
3. Constant sucking can change the position of the adult teeth down the line. It can affect the development of the facial muscles and palate (roof of the mouth)
4. Drinking while laying down increases the chance of ear infections as some milk might gurgle up in the back of the throat, and sits there while bacteria grows, bacteria can crawl right up to the ear.(1)

What are the benefits of using an open cup?

Offering open cups to your child to drink his milk, water or juices has several benefits.

1. Open cups encourages sipping action rather than sucking action which requires the use of the oro-facial muscles needed for speech development. Thus, using an open cup will help strengthen these muscles.
2. It is also good for promoting jaw development and better for tooth positioning.
3. It prevents liquids from pooling around the upper front teeth: reducing the contact time between the drink and the tooth surface.
4. Using a small cup helps babies to develop their fine motor skills involved in gripping the cup and their hand-eye coordination in moving it up towards their mouth.(4)

Some helpful tips:

It can make you nervous at first, but it’s not as difficult as you might think.(3) However below you can find some helpful tips to help your child drink from an open cup:(2)

1. Role model drinking with a cup
2. Introduce an open cup at mealtimes gradually
3. Only put a small amount of water in the cup to begin with
4. A plastic sheet could be put on the floor to help with tiding away any spills
5. Use the cup for both plain milk and water. No other drinks should be given
6. To avoid mess while babies and children are learning to drink from an open cup remember the three Ss – small amounts, sitting down and supervised
7. Practice and praise. Children will need to practice this skill before they become secure in drinking from an open cup. Make sure they get lots and lots of praise while they are learning.
8. This is not always an easy process, keep positive and don’t give in. Children will learn a new behavior with repetition. Be persistent and be consistent.

Dr. Ali Abed Ali

Pediatrician

^{1- How to Transition Your Baby from a Bottle to a Cup (webmd.com)}

^{2- Bottle to Cup - Startwell_2020 (startwellbirmingham.co.uk)}

^{3- How to Start Weaning Your Baby Off Bottles and Sippy Cups – Cleveland Clinic}

^{4- Cups And Beakers For Toddlers - Baby & Child Nutrition - SR Nutrition}