Product designer request!

Hello! Anyone there? I’m looking for a product designer! (Psst – that’d be you – Donald).

Hey bro, I could use some help here. I’ve been trying to teach Edda to drink from a straw with very little forward progress. This is really the first step towards weaning her, she’s not taking any liquids except from me and I’m tired of it. So what I’ve been doing is putting a plastic straw into orange juice, holding my thumb over the end and capturing some liquid in the straw and then placing it into Edda’s mouth and releasing the suction and she usually sucks the liquid into her mouth OK. There are a few problems with this..

  1. When Edda sucks from the straw, the liquid is on the “bottom” of the straw, my hand is usually above her head at the “top” of the straw trying to maintain the vacuum and she remembers this position and can’t translate this to sucking a straw from a cup in the normal cup/straw position.
  2. When I place the straw in the “normal” cup/straw position, she tends to bite the plastic disposable straw and mangle it so it doesn’t really work.

So I was wondering if you could make a contraption for me…

It would involve a cup with 2 straws protruding from it. I would blow in one straw and Edda would be at the other straw and so the cup/straw would be in the normal position and I could force liquid into her mouth and maybe she’ll learn to drink from a straw. I have seen her at least twice pull liquid from a cup through a straw, but she can’t remember to do it again.

A few requirements:

  1. Non-breakable parts
  2. Washable parts
  3. Rigid straws.

Jeremy says that you can go to Target and buy a sippy cup that has a straw in it and drill a hole in it and blow into the hole, but I want it a little more easier to use. Can you help me with this? I’d need it as soon as you could make something. Thank you! Thank you!

6 thoughts on “Product designer request!”

  1. okay some questions… is the point of this

    1) to get her to take liquids from a source other than you?

    or

    2) to get her to drink properly from a normal cup and straw?

  2. OK, I’ve thought about this for a little bit and I guess I want both! But the order of priority would be another source and then second would be a straw, I guess I should try and get her to drink from a bottle first? She still likes to chew the nipple. It’s just that I’ve seen her drink from a straw and I want that soooo much. Does it make a difference? BTW, I went to the kiddy store and bought some baby, baby bottles, not sippy cups.

  3. How does she like the baby bottles?

    well here’s one random thought that’ll take you back to the 3rd grade. 😛 You can just use a juice box. stick the straw in as normal and just blow a little bit into the juice box. you can control the amount of liquid that comes out by squeezing the box while Edda can learn to partially suck and use a straw.

    the downside is of course, that you have to hold the box. if you want edda to hold the cup, here’s my original thought (sorta modified)…

    get a camelbak and a coat hanger, and hang the camelbak at about Edda head height while she’s in her little dining area. She can bite on the nipple all she wants and since the camelbak is at head level, the liquid should be right there for her to suck up. if she drops the hose, then it’ll seal up. no mess!

    if you want to promote her sipping from a cup, then I’d just drill some holes in a sippy cup and tape it to the hose. that way she’ll be able to assosiate the cup with drinking, although the action won’t entirely be the same….

  4. She’s such a biter. She bites the baby bottles, milk comes out, but not because she sucks them. It’s hilarious actually, I feed Edda with the baby bottles and then she drinks a few mLs and then I put it down on the table and Vince finishes the bottle of milk in 2 minutes flat. He drank 4 bottles of milk yesterday! I will endevour on the bottle front.

    I tried the juice box today, same biting problem. She likes to mangle the straw. I can push liquid into her mouth, but she just smiles and it kind of dribbles out.

    It’s not necessary for her to hold the cup/bottle/box. Do you think I should try the camelbak?

  5. hrm. i’m thinking the camelbak might be overkill now. you just need a really really hard straw. 😛

    hrm.. she does suck when you’re breatfeeding right?

    maybe you it’s just too many things are different for her to catch on that she’s supposed to suck?

    the obvious variables are

    1) place
    2) time
    3) you
    4) device
    5) drink
    6) perhaps drink temperature…

    maybe if you just setup everything the same, but changed your nipple for the baby bottle nipple? or just a silencer to see if she’ll have the same action?

    of course, I also think if you just go cold turkey and deny her the teat, then she’ll eventuall get the idea that she’s not getting any of that anymore. 😛 but then that takes some commitment from the parents not to cave in which, i’m not sure you or jeremy have demonstrated very much. 😛

    laff.

    what do i know about raising kids?

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