5 benefits of drinking through a straw, i.e. why take a step forward and teach your baby to drink from a cup with a straw

The ability to suckle arises already at the stage of foetal life. After birth, a healthy newborn can satisfy its hunger. Sucking is also a training for the baby's mouth – the baby exercises lips, tongue and facial muscles. All this so that it can cope with solid foods at the next stage of development. These exercises also help your baby coordinate eating with breathing and prepare your baby to speak.

Over time, the sucking reflex disappears, and the baby is ready for new challenges. By around the sixth month, you should have already tried spoon-feeding. The next months are a time for training drinking from cups. When your baby is 8-10 months old, it is worth to start to teach it to drink from a cup with a straw. Remember to give your child time. Let your baby master one skill before moving on to the next.

Drinking through a straw can have a beneficial effect on your child's development if you follow certain rules.

Remember:

• The child's lips should tightly hold the straw.
• The straw should be more or less in the middle of the child's mouth.
• The straw shouldn’t come into contact with the child's teeth.

1. Drinking through a straw does not cause malocclusion

When drinking through a straw, lips should be involved, and the child should not hold the straw with its teeth. At some stage of development, sticking to the sucking may have an adverse effect on the child's teeth and oral cavity formation. At the same time, proper drinking from a cup with a straw does not cause the risk of malocclusion.

2. Drinking through a straw teaches your baby how to breathe properly

One of the essential skills for eating, drinking and speaking is proper breathing. The baby must also master the coordination of swallowing food with the intake of air. Thanks to drinking through a straw, the infant develops one of the extremely important skills – controlling the phase of inspiration and expiration, and this significantly reduces the risk of choking while drinking and eating.

3. Drinking through a straw helps your baby learn to speak

Exercising facial muscles, mouth, proper breathing, and good bite affects the child’s speech development. When drinking through a straw, the infant must engage the lips, tongue, cheeks that is the entire speech apparatus. Such training will be invaluable when the baby starts to talk. All the skills it practices while drinking afterwards will help to articulate sounds.

Remember: Specialists recommend giving your baby water. However, if you want to make your baby to work harder while drinking, from time to time, you can give your baby as a snack, a cocktail or a smoothie made of fresh vegetables and fruits.

4. Drinking through a straw is convenient

Children usually love drinking through a straw from their favourite cup. It's a lot of fun, and it's a new skill that gives them a sense of pride. The cup with a straw can be taken anywhere, and when it has a tight seal, you can be calm that nothing will spill out.

5. Drinking through a straw teaches self-reliance and self-control

A cup with a straw gives your child a sense of independence. Once your child has mastered drinking from a cup with a straw, it can quench thirst at any time, and this is a big step towards being independent. The infant has reason to be proud and happy, and each such achievement strengthens its self-esteem. Drinking from a cup with a straw teaches the child self-control because the infant drinks whenever it wants and as much as it wants.

At a certain stage of the child's development, the sucking reflex disappears, and for a proper, harmonious development it is necessary to switch to other ways of drinking and feeding. A cup with a straw is a good choice when the child is 8-10 months old. It allows the child to train mouth and face muscles and prepares for further challenges such as speaking. It does not cause malocclusion and helps the infant to go to the next stages of independence.