when did your asd (or even your nt kid) start drinking from a cup?

[aja-belly]

one of my twins is still unable to drink from a cup. he can do straws and that is it. he used to do valveless sippy cups if we held them up for him, but now he won't let us hold them. we let him practice often (any time the other kids get water in a cup he does too - many times a day). it's a combination of arm strength issues, coordination issues, oral issues and sensory issues. 

it just seems like at his age (30 months now) we should be making some progress. but we just aren't. his OT doesn't seem to think it's a concern at his age. is this something i should push for? or should we just wait another 6 months and see where he is? 

[askew]

My oldest could drink from an open cup by 10 months. He used to shock people at restaurants drinking from big water glasses. My youngest, my SN kid, just turned two. She can drink from a cup but can't put it down nicely. So she will lift it up and take a sip and then throw it down, spilling everything. She drinks fine from a sippy cup or a juice box with a straw etc. If your son can't drink from a cup, how is he drinking? Bottles? Neither of mine took a bottle, so maybe that helped. They both went straight to sippy around 5 or 6 months. Another way my kids like to drink is from a sport cap, they both have kleen kanteen bottles with a sport cap. Maybe that would be more fun for your son?

[aja-belly]

he uses a straw. only a straw. he won't hold up a cup/bottle with a sport top usually and when he does he gets mad that it doesn't come out fast enough. we are having steady temps of 105+ so if we leave the house without a straw then we have to go back. he never took a bottle or sippy cup really. he started drinking milk from a straw at 12months. 

[aja-belly]

we are experimenting with these recently. he gets some of the water, but most ends up on him/the floor/up his nose and he gets really really upset about it.  i don't know if he's just going to get turned off at the idea completely and we're doing more damage than good by trying. 

http://www.amazon.com/1-5oz-Neon-Blacklight-Reactive-Glasses/dp/B003IUSNQC/ref=pd_bxgy_misc_img_b

[beachcomber]

DD has been drinking from a cup at preschool snack since she was 2 1/2 but at home we find sippy cups still work better much of the time. She tends to knock things over easily. I'm encountering some resistance from her dad over transitioning her to a cup mainly due to the messes. Also, it's hard to transition her when we're actually trying to get DS to drink from a cup instead of from bottles. Hah.

[Emmeline II]

Now that I think about it, it took a looooooooooong time for ds to use utensils and drink from a cup without getting it all over himself or knocking it over. 1st grade was a huge improvement in that spilling his drink only happened 1-2 times a week. I think dd was about 1yr when she could drink from a cup, though we usually used lidded cups with straws up until last year to reduce messes. Now they use "party" cups that are stocked with the character party supplies; they have a wide bottom and seem to be less prone to tipping over.

Edited by Emmeline II - 8/4/11 at 9:21am

[insidevoice]

My oldest used a bottle until she was almost three.  If we didn't give her a bottle, she became dehydrated.  It was far too much effort to coordinate a cup.  At about three, she used sippies, but didn't transition from that to an open cup until she was well into 4. 

My three  year old does well with straw sippies. 

My youngest (NT child) took to sippies well by 12-18 months.  If I'd offered sooner he would have been fine.  I was shocked after two kids who did not take a cup at all until much older. Apparently those milestones just happen with NT kids, you don't have to work quite so hard to get there- who knew?

[LynnS6]

Dd at about 15 months, ds (my SPD/dyspraxia kid) was older, somewhere between 2 and 3. 

From what I've been told by speech pathologists, straws are better than sippy cups for oral motor development. If he gets really frustrated by the open cup (I'd skip sippy cups altogether, honestly; they teach a weird suck anyway), then I'd wait a few months and try again. 

ETA:

Have you tried sport bottles with straws like this? Are they too slow for him too? http://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-3160RDEDAY1-Sip-Bottles/dp/B0028LTIE8/ref=pd_bxgy_hg_img_b

[babygirlie]

interesting! I always thought if she can't do a sippy cup she surely couldn't use a straw!  I am going to pick one up. At 27 months it's just so not happening. First she seems to choke on water and about dies but doesn't on formula. She also sticks her tongue into the cup to play with the water rather than getting it in and down which is very frustrating. She can get liquid out of a sippy cup but then she spits it out all over herself and she ends up sopping wet. She does have a fascination with water though. I was letting her (she was whining about it) have the foam off of an orange julius via holding the straw out for her and she figured out if she bit the straw the foam slid out. I hate to give her juice or sweets but that may encourage her to swallow rather than spit it all over the carpet. Perhaps I should try the straw. It always looked so hard to use but maybe I was wrong.