An Ontario mother says a tremendous weight has been lifted off her shoulders, after internet users helped her locate a steady supply of the disposable sippy-cup lids that her child with autism exclusively drinks from.
Jessica Szucki says Deejay Inc., a wholesaler based in Montreal, has agreed to send her dozens of the precious silicone sippy-cup lids that her son Dryden desperately needs to keep himself hydrated. The company shipped four cases of the lids to Szucki free of charge, bringing a happy ending to the Tecumseh, Ont. mother's harried search.
"I was sobbing, I was just so relieved," she told CTVNews.ca on Thursday. "It was exactly what we were looking for."
Her son Dryden, 6, has an extreme form of autism that causes him to be particular about certain things, including the type of sippy-cup lid he uses. He has been using (and chewing through) the same type of silicone lid for years, and simply will not drink from anything else.
But when the lid manufacturer recently stopped making them, Szucki was unable to find a replacement source. She says she briefly ran out of the lids early this week, and her son simply would not drink anything for a day and a half, until the first lids from Deejay arrived.
"He was definitely stressing about it," she said, adding that she found it just in time. "You can see the relief in him," she said.
Szucki, whose two younger sons also have autism, says she originally turned to CTVNews.ca in desperation, after other efforts to find lids for Dryden came up short. "I'm in panic mode," she told CTVNews.ca last week.
She says she's feeling much better now, thanks to a few readers who pointed her toward a sippy cup that she hadn't seen before.
"That gave me a good jumping off point. I had something to go on," she said.
Szucki tracked down the sippy cup manufacturer and got in touch with Deejay Inc., where Gioavanna Rizzolo, from the company's product development department, offered to help her with her problem.
"We are happy to help," Rizzolo told Szucki via email on Tuesday. She said she would send two sample bottles to Szucki's home immediately, and ordered another four dozen after that.
"Please consider this our way of helping you have a great day," Rizzolo said, adding: "Keep us posted on refills."
"I happy-cried most of the afternoon. It was such a relief," Szucki said. "Knowing that we have a sippy again, you don't even know the weight off my shoulders."
She added that it was worth it to go public with her plea, despite facing harsh criticism from some internet users.
"The comments were just unbelievably cruel," she said. She explained that she wasn't looking for "freebies or handouts," but was simply asking for someone to point her in the right direction.
Szucki says her friends told her not to read comments from internet "trolls," but she did it anyway because she hoped to find tips among the angry remarks.
"I can handle whatever lovely internet trolls want to throw at me… if it means my son is going to get the help that he needs," she said. "Then I can take it."
