8 year old constantly spilling drinks???

[Samantha1292]

S 8 is the clumsiest child you have ever met-(he’s constantly tripping over his own feet). He also has an extremely annoying habit of knocking over glasses at the table. For some reason he’s gotten much worse at it in the past few months. Its gotten to the point now where hes knocking over his drink at least every other meal. We got him some really heavy- bottomed cups that in theory shouldnt be able to topple - but he finds a way to knock it over. Its really disruptive because it goes everywhere and over everything so almost every meal time im having to clear up a mess half way through dinner. We use a table cloth to protect the table but the carpet normally gets a soaking.
Anyway we having a new cream-ish carpet tomorrow and imdreading the enevitable first spill on it. We had to replace as it was incredibly worn. Me and DH are thinking of using a sippy cup at the table for him to protect the carpets. Hes had them before at relatives with new sofas and been fine with it. I don’t want to upset him but equally he already gets upset at spilling every meal so think he might even prefer a sippy.

Why a sippy cup? He's not a baby. Why not a sports bottle?

try a wow cup, they are made for kids like this and they look like a proper cup not a sippy one

www.babycurls.co.uk/wow-cup-spill-free-360a0-cup-blue

Have you ever questioned dyspraxia?
Please don’t give him a sippy cup. It’s cruel.

My 9 year old ds has a fine motor difficulty and a history of spilling drinks. He does have a glass at the dinner table but with a straw in it so he does not have to lift the glass. At my mum's house he has one of those glasses that have the lid with a hole in it for the straw. If ds has a drink away from the table it is always water in his sports bottle.

It will be less stressful for your ds if you can give him a cup that won't spill. I am always adjusting things for my ds to make his life easier.

What's his balance like? Does he bash into things; misjudge the corner of the coffee table when walking past and knock himself, for example? I'm also wondering about dysplasia, but perhaps it's something you've already looked at.

I think you've brave having a cream carpet with kids clumsy or not!!! That would be the last colour I'd get - is it to late to change your order??

Having a cream carpet in a dining room is a brave move... I'd even mess that up!

But about your son; if he's this clumsy and trios over and drops things then he may be dyspraxic. If not then he's just not paying enough attention and you maybe need a few weeks of telling him "pay attention and be careful" every time he picks up his class.

I meant dyspraxia in my post, not dysplasia - autocorrect!

My advice is take him to an optician and ask them to specifically test his binocular vision. On the recommendation of another parent with a dyslexic/dyspraxic child I took my son who is very clumsy to an optician who specialises in school vision and sports vision. He now has glasses with prisms in and a tint. The prisms correct severe convergence and divergence in his binocular vision. Since getting these he is less clumsy and his reading and writing have greatly improved.