I am a little perturbed because I keep hearing that sippy cups can cause speech problems in children. However I am not the only one that is thinking that this must be an exaggeration as Teresa Zwierzchowski who writes for Pensacola News Journal is wondering the same thing – 'Is this a fact or a rumor.' If it were a rumor by the way, who would start it? Bottle manufacturers. This is why at first I was inclined to thin it was true.
I don't know where the rumor started but basically the valve on the sippy cup is supposed to lead to developmental speech delays. I have a four year old who uses a sippy cup and he is a litte slow with the speech so now I am wondering what I have done? However this is a boy and boys are supposed to be slower learners than girls so who knows what the truth of all of this really is.
The threat is supposed to be that if your child is not off the sippy cup by the age of 18 months he or she is likely to develop problems. It is supposed to be even more damaging than thumb sucking.
Teresa Zwierzchowski who has a two year old looked all over Dr. Spock's book and could not find anything on the subject. Neither than I. There also doesn't seem to be much on the web about this except on medinenet.com in which a woman named Denise Mann penned an article in February of 2007 that claimed that toddlers that use these cups could develop lisps from using them. Mann is not a fly by night mom with an opinion like me or like Theresa Zeierzchowsk. She is a certified specialist. An orofacial myoligist from Coconut Creek. Her opinion is that staying on that sippy cup causes problems with articulation and clarity of speech in some children.” Thank God it is only some children and not my child. Right?
So what do you do if you think have a child that you suspect has this problem? You are supposed to trade in the sippy cup for a straw. This way the tongue is not misplaced causing a speech impediment.
So are sippy cups such a bad thing. To tell you the truth I am a mystified. There does not seem to be any studies done on this. However should there not be some studies done at least by the companies that make these things so that we know the effects on speech from the prolonged use of a sappy cup? Why shouldn't this be done? After all there have been hundreds of studies done on breast-feeding and on using the bottle and the effect of those on speech.
Don't think you will have much luck talking to your child's doctor about this. It is unheard of. However I bet my dentist has something to say about it that makes more sense.