Are Sippy Cups Used Too Often?
N E W Y O R K, Feb. 15, 2002 -- The unedited, uncorrected transcript below is from Good Morning America's segment on sippy cups, which aired on Feb. 15.
ABCNEWS' CHARLIE GIBSON:Welcome back to the Good Morning America day care center. We have anumber of kids here joining us this morning and I suspect all ofthese kids, probably like yours, at one point or another, had one ofthose sippy cups, the little cups with the holes in the--in the lipfrom which kids drink. But there was a Wall Street Journal articlethis week that caught our eye because some medical experts areraising concerns about whether these cups can promote tooth decay oreven speech problems. Joining us this morning, Dr. Julie Barna,she's from the Academy of General Dentistry. Also with us, BrendaLiistro, who is with Playtex, the leading manufacturer of theseno-spill cups. And joining us also, parenting contributor AnnPleshette Murphy, and as I mentioned, a number of children, probablyall raised with these cups.But Ann, give me some sense of what the controversy is here.
GOOD MORNING AMERICA'S ANN PLESCHETTE MURPHY:
Well, the journal piece reported on a study that was originally donein Germany, which showed that there was a correlation between toothdecay and the use of these cups. They did not say that it caused thetooth decay, but the implication was that, like a bottle, which ifyou have a child drinking from a bottle, drinking sweetened juice anddrinking milk all day long, it can cause tooth decay. We know this,this is established, that the sippy cups are more like a bottle thanlike a cup. And so, one of the things that happened was that theythen responded, the dentists responded, and Julie will talk aboutthat, but speech pathologists were saying that because the mouth doesnot get exercise the same way they do when they drink from a cup,that some of the speech problems that speech pathologists wereseeing, they felt, were exacerbated by the use of these cups.
GIBSON::All right. Let me take those one at a time, and Dr. Barna, let mestart with you. Why in the world would the cup cause the toothdecay? It seems to me it's the juice or the sugary drink inside thatwould be causing it.
DR. JULIE BARNA, ACADEMY OF GENERAL DENTISTRY:You're right about that. The one thing that I do want to let peopleknow, is that do you know that dental decay is the number one chronicchildhood disease in America today?
GIBSON:: But the cup's not causing it.
BARNA:The sweetened liquid inside the cup is what's causing it.
CHARLES
GIBSON:All right. So, there's nothing wrong with the cup intrinsicallythen, it's just the liquids that are inside?
BARNA:Sippy cups are great. A traditional cup is even better.
GIBSON:Why?
BARNA:Because the time that the sweet liquid is on the child's teeth isless. The child has a tendency to drink quicker from either a strawor from a traditional cup, whereas some children carry thissippy cup around with them 24 hours a day.
GIBSON:
All right. Let me turn to Liistro and ask her to give me an answer on that. I mean, I suspect you're going tosay what was my first reaction, is that it's what's inside, and notthe cup itself.
BRENDA LIISTRO, VICE PRESIDENT, PLAYTEX INFANT FEEDING:I absolutely agree with you. It is what's inside and parents shouldknow what's good for children. They know they shouldn't be puttingin sweetened things or putting lolly pops in their mouth all day.It's not the cup.
GIBSON:But what about the doctor's contention that there's greater exposureto the teeth from the sugary drink in this kind of cup, as opposed toa regular cup?
LIISTRO:The cup is not designed to be there for you to drink. It's notdesigned to be a pacifier. It's not designed to be a teether. It'snot designed to be used all day.
BARNA:Yeah, I think that's an important point. And as I said before, Ithink the key thing here is sippy cup is a misnomer. If you think ofthe cup part of it, that's real--it's much more like a bottle. Thislittle duck-build shaped spout does--when--what the child has to doto drink from that is much more like a nipple than it is like a cup.And I, therefore, think you have to really think, `OK. This is greatin the car, it's great when you're on the go,' but it shouldn't beused 24/7.
GIBSON:Do parents stick with these too long after, I mean, after the childis capable of drinking from a regular cup? Parents might beinclined when the child is older than needs to be?
BARNA:Every child is different, but we do know that these--that the sippycup is a wonderful product for parents that are on the go. Thesuggestion that I can do is say that, use the sippy cup as an interimtool for your child until they get used to having a regular cup anduse it only at meal times and snack times. And if the child insistson using it any other time, fill it with water don't fill it with asweetened liquid.
GIBSON:I'm curious as to your reaction to this study that--that Annmentioned that was done in Germany, you said?
MURPHY:Yeah, the original was done in Germany.
LIISTRO:The study was done in Germany and was about a year ago, and webelieved it is very flawed. The study had no baseline, it had nocontrol. It was done looking at children who already hadteeth--tooth decay and going back two years and asking parents whatkind of vessel did they drink from. Did they drink from bottles, didthey drink from cups? You had to remember back two years to exactlywhat happened. And then the conclusions were--were anecdotal. So webelieve it's not good research at all.
GIBSON:And how about the issue that it can--that it can, because of the waythe tongue works around it, exacerbate speech defects if they exist?
LIISTRO:We've not--we've not seen any speech defects or heard ofprofessionals talking about that. There was a quotation by ProfessorMoore in the article as well, that talked about, `it's not the cup.It's--there are other factors that could have influenced that.' Butthe cup--it's a cup. It's not--there's no evidence, there's noscience, that says there are speech defects being caused at all bythe cup.
GIBSON:OK. Final comment?
BARNA:I think that the sippy cup is a wonderful interim tool so that youcan have your child go from the baby bottle to the sippy cup. But assoon as you can, as soon as the child has the hand-eye coordinationand the dexterity, a traditional cup is the best thing to--to weanyour child on to.
GIBSON:And a final word?
MURPHY:Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think that, in fact, if your kid--also,if your kid has a speech problem, take them to a speech therapistearly. And they may say stop the sucking the thumbs, the bottles andthe sippy cups. Just be prepared.
GIBSON:All right. Thanks very much.