Since we're all in the "mode" of talking about cup feeding and tongue
motions and swallowing, etc., I'll ask a personal question:  My 12 year old
(today is Peter's birthday!!) with Down Syndrome breastfed for 4 months
(only) and bottle-fed for several years, then moved on to sippy cup and
eventually to regular cups and glasses.  To this day, he extends his tongue
WAY out below the cup and slurps the liquid from the cup.  He is quite neat,
doesn't spill or dribble, and resisted all efforts of a flotilla of speech
pathologists, OTs and PTs to teach him how to drink "normally."  He didn't
learn to drink through a straw until he was 10 years old.  Any
ideas/theories about why the persistence of the extended tongue?

And I just have to share this tidbit -- last night Peter was thrashing
around in his bed, asleep, and managed to smack his head on the window sill
and cut his left eye, majorly.  Lots of crying and blood and debate about
whether it would be more traumatic to take him to the ER for stitches or
just leave it alone.  We left it alone (just pressure) and it stopped
bleeding soon.  Today it is swollen and puffy.  Peter thinks it is highly
amusing because it makes him look even more like his favorite hero,
Quasimodo.  If he could get a hump implant, he would!  ;)
Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Nutrition
Texas A&M University