no words, no sippy cup?

dd, 19 mo., still not saying words. We're in the process of setting up an evaluation for her, which seems to take forever. Anyway, I was wondering, have any of your dc not used a sippy cup, and was it related to a speech delay or other issues? we have not been able to get dd to use a sippy cup since she was 8 months old or so. People tell us to wait her out, when she gets thirsty enough she will use it, but she gets to the point of tears and it really seems like she can't use it. Maybe I give in too easily, was just wondering if anyone else still had kids her age still on a bottle. we have just about every kind of sippy cup there is too, it doesn't seem to matter which cup it is, she just won't use it...

tia

no words, no sippy cup?

DD did not use a sippy cup until she was three, she just started drinking from an open up about 3 months ago and she still can not drink from a straw. She is six now and mostly drinks those Poland Springs sports drinks because it replicates a bottle almost. She has PDD-NOS but I don't think the drinking issues were because of that, she also has high anxiety and is just afraid to do it and bring it to her face. My only advice is to keep trying. Try every day but don't force it because you don't want her to start to be afraid of it. Also, definitely bring it up at evaluation, the speech eval should be able to tell if she is having any mouth issues that is prohibiting her to drink from the sippy.

no words, no sippy cup?

thank you! I like what you said so much more than when I hear I should wait until she is dying of thirst, then she will drink from it! That doesn't work for her. I will keep trying though, you've given me hope.

no words, no sippy cup?

I heard that all the time. Her ped and her some of her therapists were like just take the bottle away she will drink eventually. Sometimes that doesn't work. I tried it once and then she became so dehydrated that I had to give her liquids in a dropper. Well she got the bottle right back after that. She drank her bottle until three and everyone had something to say about it but too bad. Do what is right for your child, you know them best. Do follow up with the evals through and check with your ped to make sure it's nothing medical.

Re: no words, no sippy cup?

Have you tried removing the no-drip spout from the sippy cup? This is what I had to do with my DD at first to get her to get the hang of how to drink from the sippy cup. Once she understood how the liquid came out, I was able to put the spout back in. Also, if your DD still isn't talking, it could be that she has weak oral muscles, which would impact her ability to drink from a sippy cup. My younger DD has very weak oral muscles and never got the hang of drinking from a sippy cup. She can now drink from a straw, but still not from a sippy. And getting them to drink from a straw is better anyway, to develop those muscles in the face. We had to start the straw by giving her a straw with the liquid already drawn up into it (you know, when you put your finger on the opposite end to hold the liquid in) and then eventually she figured out how to get the liquid to come out. Only then were we able to put the straw into the cup for her to drink. It took a while, but she eventually got it. And I also would not wait til my DD was desperate enough for a drink.

no words, no sippy cup?

thanks pharmcat, I'm going to try that with the no-drip spout and the straw, good ideas. We got the evaluation set up for 3/11 so at least I can find out at that point if she has weak oral muscles or anything like that. I'm glad at least we have a date now.