Product Review: In search of baby-friendly cups!

  Pictured above are just a FEW of the MANY cups I have bought for my daughter over the past year or so.

The three in front on the left with the hard spout and handles would probably work well now, but when I started Gracie on drinking from a cup, she had a hard time sucking on that hard spout.  Also, the valves were rather leaky.  When she first learned how to use a straw (just after she turned one), I got the cups in the back that have the straw.  She LOVED them!  The problem was that she also loved to play with them.  Rather than calmly drinking from it, she would make exciting discoveries such as, "Wow! I can take the straw out!  And when I shake it or turn it upside down, my drink comes out, too!"

 

I found these great cups (Nuby brand) to replace the ones with the hard spouts.  Gracie had a much easier time sucking on these soft spouts.  They are valve-free and are spill-proof!  Well, mostly!  If the bottle is, for example, upside-down in a car seat or a diaper bag and the spout is bent, then the liquid will drip out.  I started Gracie on these at about 6 months and we still use them a year later!  I primarily fill these with water.  I also have one (not pictured) that is similar that has a straw.

You probably also noticed the cute name labels!  I ordered these through Inchbug.

 

Once I started Gracie on milk (at a year old), I quit using her regular bottles (Gerber), and searched for something that was all-in-one (no valves or nooks and crannies) so that it would be easy to clean.  Nothing grosser than icky dried-up nasty milk residue!  These Ziploc cups have worked out great!  UPDATE:  I really do not like the lids on these.  I began using a different kind that is similar to this, Take & Toss cups, shown below:

My daughter is now (November 2014) almost five years old, and, besides regular cups (and special cups with straws), we use these the most, especially for when we go somewhere or early in the morning when she's too sleepy to pay attention.  They are easy to get on and off.  Since Gracie is older, there's not as much of a worry if she turns it upside down and drips all of the liquid out.  I downsized down to five cups and that's just perfect for now.

 

I found these cute little guys in the juice aisle.  They actually come with packs of juice and you screw these toppers onto it.  I like it in that it is spill-proof, BUT if they are dropped in just the right way (which, of course, toddlers have a special gift of doing!), the top comes right off.  If it had a taller screw-on part with more threads, it would stay better.  I don't really like to give her juice that much, anyway.  I did keep a couple of the container parts for when I want to give her something using these toppers.  They also have Clifford the Big Red Dog and Thomas the Train.  I forget the brand name.

 

 I picked these up to use for Gracie's Valentine's Day and Easter gifts.  The Snoopy one came from Walgreen's and the straw one came from Target. Strictly for fun.  The Snoopy one did light up by pushing a button on the bottom.  It eventually got stuck in "on" mode and stayed that way for several days before the battery ran out.  Now it's a dishwasher-safe cup!

I bought these from Walgreen's a couple of years ago to give to my Sunday School class.  I no longer teach that class, but I kept these extra cups.  They were super cheap.  Gracie loves to take them and fill them with water from our water cooler.  Actually, anything that resembles a cup or water vessel is fair game for the water cooler.  (We still use these 3 years later as well as similar cups that we have collected at restaurants.)

 

Here are a couple of my favorite cups.  My husband is somewhat of a germaphobe, and he became very concerned that Gracie and other children in our church's nursery would drink out of each other's sippy cup.  He told me to "find something so unique that could be customized so that EVERYBODY would know it's hers," and he also said, "I don't care how much it costs!"  Searching on Amazon, I found these two Create-My-Own Cups -- one with a straw that can be hidden away and one with a regular spout. They both come with several pieces of paper that can be put under the outer layer (easy to do).  Some are coloring pages and some are blank.  I created my own on the computer using a picture of Gracie and her name in large print.  I went to my local Knowledge Tree to have the labels laminated.  The cups are dishwasher-safe, BUT the labels, even laminated, are NOT.  So, I take the labels out each time I wash the cups.  It works great both functionally and for the primary reason for getting it:  all of the workers know which one is hers and several of the other children know that it's hers as well.  Now they just have to keep an eye out to make sure she doesn't use someone else's cup!

Disclaimer:  I have not been compensated in any way for reviewing these products.  All opinions are my own.