Monday, May 25

Blog Talk Tuesday: Straw Drinking


This might be the best thing we've ever done with Will. Early on, when we knew he had passed his swallow study (11 months), we also knew that he had little desire left to suck, and was getting too old for a bottle anyway. Especially if we were going to have to retrain him.

A therapist suggested a straw, rather than a sippy cup since she felt as though it worked more of the muscles. We started with this:


and continued on with this:

and he is still drinking from it today, at age 4. The method involved squeezing the honey bear (and later, the rubbermaid cup) until he began to get it. We squeezed the cups less and less until finally, he was drinking from a straw on his own. We also used the method where we put our finger over the end of a straw with a tiny bit of liquid...we started with this before trying a cup actually.

Along the way we used thick liquids to build up his endurance and now, he is able to drink anything from a straw. This has come in handy because pretty much anywhere you go has straws, and it looks age appropriate. I'm pretty sure if we had started him on a sippy, we'd still be stuck on the sippy.

The cups were stuck on my mind tonight as I ran out to get more from the store. ;)

What's been on your mind lately? Anything new and exciting with your kiddos? Any ideas to share?


***Edited Note: I am having trouble with Mr. Linky today and have been working to try and fix it. It worked when I published this post last night...but it turns out that Mr. Linky is having system overload, so it is not working today. Thanks for being patient and sorry for the inconvenience!

5 comments:

  1. Ok, I was gonna say I could swear I saw Mr. Linky last night. Tech issues can be tricky.

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  2. Seeing the Rubbermaid drink box was a walk down memory lane; Alex used one of those for quite a while! He also used the Playtex insulated cups with the straws. He currently uses (when at home) some larger cups I bought from Tupperware with good fitting lids that have a good seal around a hole for a straw to be inserted. They are in solid colors, and therefore not "little kid". We actually found Silk soy milk in juice box size containers through Amazon so he can take those to school. I try to look for anything like that which is easy for him, us, and makes him stand out from his peers a little less.

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  3. Cheryl, that's so funny....we have the same tupperware cups. I love them. Will still prefers his rubbermaid ones, but I think I just need to get straws with a smaller diameter. We send regular juice boxes to school for the same reason.

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  4. When we were desperate to get food into him, we saw that he had mastered the art of sucking the liquid to the top of the straw and holding it there. You would think he was drinking, but nothing was actually entering his mouth. (So much for "developmentally delayed"...this kid can think!) Anyway, I decided to buy larger straws, thinking he would get more in him that way. I found some "bubble tea" straws on Amazon and was amazed when they arrived...they are HUGE! He can slurp down a whole bottle of Ensure in seconds. I'm not sure that's a good thing, but the theory worked.

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  5. Kayla is five and that rubbermaid juice box is the ONLY thing she'll drink out of. I've learned to keep spares in the car in case I forget! I'm hoping one day she'll eventually drink out of an open cup, or even a regular straw!

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