Sippy vs straw

Lemonlolli

This is a shoot off from a post below, but I didn't want to hijack that post. My son is 18 months, and still uses sippy cups. I noticed a lot of you saying yours use straw cups now. Ds knows how to drink from straws but I just haven't bought him one yet. Should I switch to straws? Is there a benefit to them or drawback to sippys at this age?

blu-eyedwife

I don't think it's an age thing or that there's any drawback to him using a sippy if it works for you.  My son started with straw cups, but only because he always wanted to drink out of DH and my straw cups.

The benefit to straw cups is less impact on teeth/mouth development and the fact that you don't have to carry around a cup if your kid can drink from a straw because most food places have straws/cups with lids.  But again, eventually they're all going to be drinking from open cups, so I don't know that you need to switch from sippy to straw if the sippy is working.

jnnfrrose6

The only thing I can think of is it depends on the type of sippy-soft vs. hard mouthpiece.  A friend of mine is studying pediatric speech therapy so I asked her opinion and she said to go with hard mouthpieces if you go the sippy route, though we did just go straight into straw cups as well (LO didn't seem to like the other type that we had received as a gift).

eyenigh

We use one of everything, depending on what's clean and what the situation is. I send the soft spouted ones to day care because they're easier to clean and the silicone openings are now so wide, it's just a step beyond drinking from a regular cup. If we're out all day, I use an insulated sippy with a hard spout. With meals it's a regular cup or a straw cup. Whether or not we use a real cup depends on how much I feel like wiping up water that day because we're definitely still in the learning stage. I think the most important thing is to just not use any cup like a pacifier, both for dependence or dental purposes.