clefts and sippy cups

Shawna - posted on 05/10/2012

My daughter is 11 months old, and I have been trying to get her to take sippy cup with her formula in it, and shes is just not doing it. Normally she will take water in a sippy or regular cup during the day, but if there's formula in it she wont have it. I am trying to ween her off that last night feed with the haberman bottle into a sippy cup. I dont know what to do she wont take it at all and they said her surgery was coming up in june or july, and I still need to get rid of the sucky ( this is what they told me ) Any ideas of how to get her off of it are very welcome.

Monica - posted on 08/12/2009

My daughter just turned one last month and we were having the same issue. I still can't get her to drink out of a sippy with a valve and if I use one of those and take the valve out she just dumps it out everywhere. What I found that really works is the Nuby transition cups. They don't have valves, but the are non spill. The spouts are a lot softer, and she has had a really easy time with it. I did have to take a knife and cut the slits a little bigger to make it easier for her. Hope this helps.

Malinda - posted on 08/01/2009

My Daughter who is now 6 1/2 years old was born with a complete bilateral cleft lip/ cleft palate. We bought a few of the soft spout sippys and got a bunch of the replacement valves and i would poke a hole in the valve. I started with poking a few holes in it and would test the suction by putting it in one side of my mouth and kinda keeping the other side open and would put enough holes in it that she didn't have to suck to hard to get anything out but so it didn't just pour out either, and would give her a few weeks to get use to it and when she seemed to get the hang of it i would get a new valve and put one or two less holes in it test it again the same way and let her have it for a few weeks, and I repeated the process until i didn't have to poke holes in them anymore. It seemed to help keep her from getting so mad and frustrated that she wouldn't want it at all.. And so i knew which valve was what i would write the hole amount on center piece between the valves with a sharpie and put them in a ziplock bag according to hole amount with the hole amount written on the bag too.. I hope this helps alittle........

Kerri - posted on 08/01/2009

My daughter is starting to refuse the nuby sippy cup now. She just throws it away no matter what I put in it. I have not heard of the nuk orthodontic cups with handles. I searched it online but I am not sure what they are. Are they also called Nuk First Choice Cup Trainer? I am just wondering since your little guy is doing good on them maybe my daughter may take a liking to them.

Beth - posted on 08/01/2009

My little guy is 8 months old and is learning how to use his sippy. We bought a couple of different kinds that all had the soft spout. We really like the Nuk Orthodontic cup with handles- we just cut the holes in the spout a little bigger. He's also using a Nuby but doesn't really like it much- maybe because the spout is so much bigger than on the Nuk. He loves chewing on it and since the sippy is the only thing we let him have any juice in he's really starting to figure it out. He's had one lip surgery, we've schedule another for September, and then they'll work on the palate in the Spring or early Summer.

Kerri - posted on 07/29/2009

I was told by the cleft palate clinic that the best type of sippy cups is ones with a short soft spout. I have one which is the Nuby kind like Jen explained above. My daughter is due for surgery in Oct when she will be 11 months old. I guess the short soft spouts will also be best for them for after the surgery. The cleft palate nurse instructed me that it may get messy but they will eventually learn. They advised me to start introducing the sippy cup to her at 6 months old so that by the time of her surgery she will hopefully have it mastered. They also said to get her into the cup then to give it to her right before meal time each time so that they will be more motivated to try and drink from it.
My daughter has cleft palate soft and hard and uses the habermen feeders. She is starting to get good at the sippy cup but still perfers her bottle.

Haven - posted on 07/23/2009

Hi, my daughter(born with BCLP) is 2 1/2 and is going in for her 2nd palate repair soon. She is STILL using a bottle regularly.(she also uses sippy cups for meals but I take the valve out). I've been using regular bottles with one hole fast flow nipples since birth. I just poke a metal sckewer in the hole to make it a bit bigger. It's worked fine for her! Good luck finding what works best for you!

Jen - posted on 06/24/2009

I have high hopes for the Nuby sippy with the soft spout with three slots in it's end - it makes it kind of like a bite valve, so sucking isn't really needed too much, but the milk shouldn't pour out too easily, either.

My daughter's only 8 months old, so palate repair is a little way off yet, but I'm hoping the Nuby will work for us when we get there! I've heard other moms have used it with a cut across the end for a larger opening even than what's already there.

Good luck.

Robyn - posted on 06/23/2009

I don't think I am going to be able to help either! While my oldest was born with a unilateral complete cleft lip/palate (he is 3 1/2 now) - he was great with the non-valve sippy's - never made a crazy mess.. but that is prob because he did not have a sibling laughing to encourage him ; ) Actually, now that I am thinking back.. the sippy cups we used did not just pour out.. so he had to learn to suck - in the very beginning we helped him by squeezing it (They were softer/no spout/sponge bob or dora).. but to get the milk on his own he had to suck (I can now remember the first time he sucked; ). We transitioned him right after his palate surgery at 11 months. Maybe a sippy cup like this would help? It can still pour out if squeezed but it might be easier to learn to suck from than with the valves.. those can be tough in the beginning. Also right after his surgery he still had the little openings along the sides of the roof (I think you have the right name) that will then come together with the gumline naturally, but that did not interfere with him being able to suck.

Melissa - posted on 06/23/2009

I wish I had some suggestions! My little guy only had a cleft lip and isn't old enough to be at the sippy cup stage anyway!