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SN children

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Original poster

Drinking difficulties

14 replies

badkitty · 19/01/2010 16:52

So it seems from the under-3 food calculator (thank you for posting this BTW Glittery!) that my DS should be having 6-8 cups of drink a day. At present I am still giving him 2 bottles a day (he is 13 months, has cp) as it is my only way of getting any fluid in him really. He hasn't worked out how to drink from a beaker (I have tried quite a few different ones!) and he has a doidy cup, but he can't have thin drinks in there due to aspiration risk, and the thickener we have been prescribed (Vitaquick) makes everything far too thick and taste rank, so he tends to have smoothies. But even then, it is very hard to get more than a couple of sips down him out of the cup - he is not very interested, he is not very good at drinking out of it (can't form lip seal around it according to SALT), and on the odd occasion when he does decide he wants a drink out of it he tries to grab it and it gets spilled all over the place! Absolutely no chance of getting 6-8 cups of drink a day down him. I would love for him to learn to drink out of a beaker. Does anyone have any tips? He has seen SALT once but all they have done is given him the horrible thickener. His eating is largely fine, it is just drinking that is the problem.

OP posts:

silverfrog · 19/01/2010 18:22

I don't have any tips for getting dc to drink ou of a beaker I'm afraid - dd1 (ASD) is 5 and still uses a lidded cup!

Sorry for ignorance, but is there any reason your ds couldn't use a straw? or a spouted toddler cup? dd1 struggled to work them out too - have you tried free flow ones, so you can tip it to help him out?

dd1 used to use the boots/vital baby beakers/spouted cups. not the ones where you have to tip them, as she still doesn't get this, but the ones which hace a straw which runs to the bottom of the cup - like these

they do have a valve in to make them non-spill, but it is easily removable to turn it into ree flow. there's not much difference between these and bottles, other than the comfort of sucking is removed.

dd1 now uses these - just a more grown up version, really again, they have a valve, but I have taken it off to make it free flow for her.

I'll try to have a think what else I have used with dd1 - she has been through most cups out there as she is a drink refuser - she once stopped altogether for 9 months

herjazz · 19/01/2010 18:43

we found this cup with the stage 2 sipper lid quite good. DD had thickened liquid too.

However, we struggled horrendously to get dd to drink. The more we forced it, the more chest probs she got. She did end up with a gastro for fluids / overnight feeds. Obv am not saying that is going to be case for you. I know plenty of people who still find drinking a struggle but don't have a tube.

herjazz · 19/01/2010 19:43

oh also soups / liquidy food / fruit purees / jelly etc counts as well. Maybe just add more of that to diet?

Original poster

badkitty · 19/01/2010 20:10

Thank you for suggestions - will give those a try. I hadn't tried cups with straws as they always seemed to be aimed at older toddlers who are moving on from the normal spouted beakers, but worth a go! I do try to use the beakers with free flow spouts - but all he gets out of them is what I tip in to his mouth (which is not much!).

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glittery · 19/01/2010 20:59

ds moved from bottles onto the superdrug little stars bottle to cup trainer, it seemed better as it had a soft spout rather than a hard one that he just kept biting!
nursery used a flexi cup and would sit behind him with the cup in one hand and using their fingers to close over his lips.
he now uses a sip tip cup which has a valve in it to keep the fluid up at the top of the straw so it requires less effort to suck, like the pat saunders straw but he didnt like those as they are hard.
he also drinks well from a straw in a carton if you squeeze the sides and keep the pressure up

anonandlikeit · 19/01/2010 21:06

ds2 has mild CP (spastic diplegia) but still found learnign to drink very hard, he went from a bottle to a straw & wasn't able to drink froma cup until about 4.5.
It is a very hard thing to master & the salt helped loads with facial excercises.

For a long while he could only take thickened liquids & the salt & paed said not to worry about clear liquids as long as his overall fluid intake was OK.

Original poster

badkitty · 20/01/2010 08:09

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions - will head off today to purchase some more cups to add to my collection...

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glittery · 20/01/2010 10:40

i remember when ds was younger i had a cupboard that everytime you opened about 40 cups fell out, i couldnt get rid of any just incase it was one he could manage to use in the future...ah memories!

meltedmarsbars · 20/01/2010 11:24

I still have them! - and dd2 has been nil by mouth for 3 years now - better have a clear-out

glittery · 20/01/2010 14:57

i actually kept one that he quite liked for a while, he hasnt used it in 4 years mind!

meltedmarsbars · 20/01/2010 15:06

D'you think the charity shop would like them? Or straight in the bin?

herjazz · 20/01/2010 16:38

haha friends of mine with babies / toddlers would come to my 'cup shop' to try out the various products out there

I kept many to try with my ds. Was staggered that he could drink from the first cup he tried

mmb - yeah I'd give em the charity shop. Not like they can't be sterilised

feelingbetter · 20/01/2010 17:49

DS (19months, CP & stuff) still drinks from a bottle and I am in no rush to move him to a cup (despite buying and trying loads - he just isn't able yet). He has drinks thickened with thick & easy and we vary how thick we make it depending on how well he is - full sachet normally, but not very much if he is unwell and not eating when we need to get the fluids in.
Doesn't really have any kind of taste so it may be worth you asking for a different thickener.

Howa are things, Badkitty? Did you get the EEG done?

Original poster

badkitty · 25/01/2010 22:03

Sorry FB, haven't been back to this for a while - yes we had the EEG, didn't reveal much except that he is "liable to seizures" - yes we know that already! But he is doing ok at the moment, touch wood. I hope you guys are ok, saw from TTR that you have not been having a great time lately & have been thinking of you.

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