Saturday, January 22, 2011

Big Kid Cup


Sam got this cup in his stocking this year. I decided it was important for him to have a more age appropriate cup to take to school or out in the community. It is not that I want to "hide" his autism, that is pretty much impossible due to the constant stims and noises, I just don't think he should use sippy cups forever. He CAN drink from a regular cup but he has to be very closely supervised. He is so stimmy with his hands that the cup often gets knocked over. Also, he has a bit of an obsession with how he "releases" objects. He doesn't place things down gently, he has to release quickly so that they fall a little - not always good with an open cup. Sport water bottles are not good because he loves to let those drop as well and they make a bog mess. He gets a kick out of water dripping on the floor or on himself. This cup has been almost perfect. It doesn't leak in his bag and it doesn't leak when he "drops" it. He figured out the bite valve with no trouble. It is age appropriate (I have one myself but it doesn't have the cool pictures on it). The only issues with it is that, as with everything, Sam had figured out how to stim with it. He holds the spout/bite valve with his teeth and walks around flapping his arms and making his stimmy noise. I take the cup aways as soon as he starts that so hopefully we can defeat this behavior before he ruins the spout. Overall, this big kid cup was a great buy.

4 comments:

Time Lady said...

Neat cup, what brand is that? We have the similar issues and my almost five year old daughter still uses a sippy. I found one that kinda looks like a coffee mug with a valve that I don't mind so much.

Emma said...

The cup is a Camelbak. It was a bit pricey - $14 - but it holds up well. I just bought one to start to see if it was worth the money.

AutisticWisdom said...

Emma, have you tried a straw cup? It took us a while to teach Alanna to use a straw but it is a very handy skill, especially if we are caught without a cup. To teach this we used drink boxes and squeezed the juice into her mouth to show her what to do.

Emma said...

Yes, he can use a straw cup but most of them still look like toddler sippy cups. The ones that don't, tend to leak like crazy and I don't want to supervise every siip when he has a drink. He can manage a juice box when he is with some one but if he is alone and he can get the straw out he will chew it up. The nice thing about this one is that the straw doesn't come out unless you take the cup apart.