Thursday, April 12, 2012

Sippy Cup Warning!

This is just from my own personal experiences and those that I've heard while waiting to see the dentist in the waiting room. I'm seeing these soft tip sippy cups everywhere! They are so popular and they look fun to drink out of and since they are soft you think your toddler/baby will take to them more easily than a hard tip sippy. Well, that is all true. They are fun and baby's and toddlers love them! My son was fussy about drinking out of a hard tip sippy so I got the Born Free soft tip attachment for his bottle. When he outgrew the bottle, I moved on to the larger soft tip sippies that are more common in stores. He loved them! He also HATED the hard tip ones. He wouldn't touch them. I was fine with that.

Okay, fast forward to 1 year later. His teeth are messed up from these! I never knew these soft tips could hurt their teeth, but the more I began to think about it the more it made since. ALSO the more I kicked myself in the behind for it to! I always bought the "orthodontic" pacifiers to protect his teeth. They seriously have a very low risk of messing up teeth. The newer paci's are super thin at the handle part now a days. This prevents "pacifier teeth", but your still recommended to have them off of it by age 3 so they don't get bucked teeth. So, why didn't I ever consider that a sippy cup could do the same thing!? I get mad at myself now because it seems so obvious that YES it can mess up the teeth.

Sitting in the waiting room at the dentist I came across many new moms with the same exact story as me. They also didn't think these posed as a problem, but they did for them as well! These type of sippies are becoming more and more popular and there are no warnings about this. As I spoke with my dentist I showed him the NUK paci's and then pulled out the tip from the Born Free bottle (the soft sippy attachment I had used the most). He said the paci didn't cause it, but the sippy tip DID! He said he see's it more and more now. He said as they drink from it their teeth get used to the shape of the soft tip and kind of "grow around the soft tip".

What do his teeth look like? Well, I can't get a picture of it, but I'll try to describe it. His top teeth do not touch the bottom teeth when he shuts his mouth. He now has a lisp when he speaks. The dentist said I have to take away his paci's now since the damage has already started anything can make it worse. Good news: At his age (2years old) this will likely correct itself since it was caught early. Here is a picture I found online:


So I hope this makes everyone think twice before using these cups. Let them be cranky a few days while they adjust to a hard tip cup. It'll be better for them in the long run. :)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I didn't know that! My daughter still uses these, but not all the time. How much do you have to use them? I will buy hard tip from now on and throw out all of the others. Stopping by from the Flock together blog hop. Hope you will join me at True Aim. New follower. Thanks!

Unknown said...

Gosh, I never knew this. We had soft and hard tops, usually soft for bed time. I think/hope we got lucky avoiding damage... Thanks for sharing, I'll keep this in mind for our next lil one!

Angie G. said...

Wow, never knew this, just by luck my children do use the hard tops. Thanks for sharing. I am now following and found you via 'Flock Together Blog Hop'. If you would like to follow back you can find me at http://thebargaingame.blogspot.com/
Hope you have a great day!

Jenny said...

We used the soft tip ones about 2-3 times a day when I weaned him from the bottle. He used the soft tips for maybe 4 months at the most. It doesn't take long and is worse than any pacifier since paci's are now made to prevent this kind of damage.

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