I have bought so many different kinds of sippy cups over the past several months, I’m beginning to consider myself a sippy connoisseur. I tried the traditional cup with handles on the lid. I tried a few with handles on the cup itself. I have tried straw cups with and without sliding covers for travel. Some of our sippy cups feature valves and some do not. Some of them I would consider to be a little pricey and some of them are made to toss.
Interestingly enough, it’s the cheap valve-free, take-and-toss cups that I have come to appreciate the most, and here is why:
1. The more complicated the design, the harder it is to clean. As cute as the straw cups are, the straws can get really gross and require some creativity to get them squeaky clean again. The same goes for the valves, which I usually attack with the nipple brush attachment on my bottle brush. The inside of the hard plastic spouts really give me grief, since the sides can be hard to reach and clean well, even with the nipple brush. The cheap travel cups are easy to wash, and even if they do get grimy, they are easy to toss.
2. The more expensive the sippy, the more painful it is when your little one inevitably loses it. Some toddlers take their sippy everywhere, but are quick to throw it down in favor of a new toy or forbidden object. Where do sippy cups go when they are thrown to the floor? Sometimes they end up on the floor, of course. But sometimes, they miraculously travel to a parallel universe where mommies never find them again. It’s amazing how good my toddler is at losing stuff. It’s almost like he does it on purpose!
3. All cups leak, so why pay for the ones that claim to never do so. There is no such thing as a leak free cup. The more leak-proof they are, the harder they are to drink from, and that is not good for your toddler’s mouth and speech development, anyway. Your toddler will find a way to force drips and squirts of juice, milk or water from his sippy cup onto the floor for his own entertainment. The take-and-toss cups we use will drip very slowly if held upside down, but if tipped sideways, they do a pretty good job of not leaking. They also come with a handy travel cap to keep them from spilling when not in use.