Gearhead Mom

Thursday, September 20, 2007

The Land of Sippy Cups

Posted by Missy W. @ 1:00 PM

Like diapers, I feel like we’ve tried all the sippy cups there are to try. I currently have two in rotation, and yes, I have tried them all too.

1) Born Free Sippy Cups
BPA-free and all that. This cup/bottle is easy to hold, has a removable handle and you can go from a bottle nipple to a sippy cup spout without changing the bottle on your kid, too. The flow is fast while using the hard spout attachment and it feels more like drinking out of a cup with a lid

There are six parts to the cup while cleaning which feels a bit excessive. I usually throw them all in a big bowl of hot soapy water at the end of the day and wash ‘em all up. I put them in the dishwasher once a week for an extra clean since they are dishwasher safe. I’ve noticed that the soft spout tends to break down pretty quickly. I even had to throw one away as bits of the rubber were breaking off and Sy handed me one straight out of her mouth. I did not worry because she does not swallow things unknown to her, but it might give me pause if she were younger. I now use the hard spouts only. They sell the nipples and spouts separately and all work with the same basic bottle.
9/29/07 update: I just had to throw away another spout because the opening basically disintegrated into a bigger hole and there were little bits hanging off. I am going to attempt contacting the manufacturer about this and see what their plans are for fixing the problem, I doubt I am the only one with this issue.

Snapshot for Born Free
• I love the idea behind it, to have a safe bottle for my kid, but how safe are the spouts?
• Not so cheap, but readily available both online and at Whole Foods.
• The bottles also come in glass.

2) SIGG metal bottles

9/15/09 Ed Note:
I would like to retract the positive SIGG review now that I know they actually had BPA in them the whole time and deceived all of us consumers. Boo on you, SIGG. Boo on you.

The SIGG site does not list a beginning age, but my girl started really liking hers when she was two years old, she has friends that figured out the mechanics earlier.

This Swiss-made water bottle is 90% metal (lid/spout has some plastic, none “bad”) which is nice if you want to avoid plastic containment devices. It also means it is a bit heavier than its plastic counterpart and hurts really badly, I mean a whole heck of a lot, when your toddler chucks it off the table and onto your poor, helpless foot below. It’s more like drinking out of a sports-water bottle type spout only smaller. SIGG bottles have different sizes (from ten to twenty ounces), patterns (seasonal, of course) and even Hello Kitty! At first Sy had no idea how to get the water out, but by the time she was two she figured it out. I am sure she’d have figured it out earlier if it were her only choice. Sy loves that there are cats on her water bottle (and I am thrilled to be free of Dora, Diego and Boots!). Once she figured it out, I gleefully got rid of all of her old massive assortment of plastic sippy cups. They sell bottle handles separately which I would have gotten her earlier had I known since the bottle can be heavy and I think this would help little paws lift it.

There are only three parts to the lid, one being a removable cap which I lost in the first week. It’s quite easy to clean the spout part which I really appreciate at the end of a long day. The opening to the bottle is narrow, so I use one of Sy’s bottle brushes to clean it. I also put this in the dishwasher a few times a week. SIGG has a cool site with all these ridiculous accessories: bottle handles, bandits, bottle cleaning tablets and brushes, replacement lids for people like me who lose them, product lines for grown-ups and even backpacks.

Snapshot:
• These things are not cheap (MSRP starts at $15.95). You can get them online but I’ve also seen them in the baby product aisle at Whole Foods.

• The SIGG site had a staggering statistic: Americans put 30 million plastic water bottles in landfills DAILY. I found that a bit horrifying. Wow. Sign me up for some more SIGG bottles for my whole brood! After reading that statistic last week, I picked one up for myself at Whole Foods.

Oh, and just to add to the mix, here’s a not-so-good review of the Brugo from Rookie Moms.

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