can't live with them, can't live without them!

these stupid sippy cups!!!! I swear I hate the ones with the valves they get all icky and the ones without get all icky in the top part too! I am thinking the ones with straws are even worse? I need some new ones! What kind are your favorite cups??

 

It's all bad. I hate them too. :crazy:

Actually, you know those cups Starbucks just came out with this summer? The insulated but clear plastic ones that look just like their regular cold drink cups? I bought a pair of those for my kids, because they love Starbucks, and really, they work pretty well as "sippy cups"! The straw is hard plastic, so it's a lot easier to clean than the little flexible rubber straws or valves on regular sippies. The cups wouldn't be 100% leakproof if you held them upside down, but for my kids' age (where they know not to slosh stuff around like crazy) they're pretty good. And it's not like the "leakproof" sippies are leakproof anyway - sometimes ours will leak when they're just sitting on the table, because of variations in temperature or pressure or something.

 

We buy First Years Take & Toss ones. They're still not great (and they don't even claim to be leakproof), but at least they're cheap.

I keep saying that when all the lids are chewed through, I'm NOT buying any more sippy cups, but DH and the kids keep talking me out of my resolution. They are mighty handy for the car and the stroller, and if we had nicer but more expensive ones, I'd worry more about losing them.

 

I just spend 30 minutes in Target the other day in the sippy cup aisle debating this very question. My two use only straw cups. I like the Take and Toss, but my DS hurls his cup every time he's done with a sip so I can't use those for him or it would be a mess. I use them for his smoothies or juice if I know he's going to drink a small amt quickly. We've been using the Munchkin straw ones and I like them but they've chewed the straws on the cover to shreds (which is why I was shopping...). I like the Playtex Lil Gripper. They each have two and we use those for water. They wash pretty well in the dishwasher but I have hesitated to use them for milk since I worry about getting all of the nooks and crannies clean. I may have to switch to these for milk shortly though. I did just buy them each the Playtex Coolster Tumbler. My DD does fine with an open cup but likes to carry her cup around, so this is good for minimizing spills, and I thought it would be a good open cup trainer for my DS, who should be learning to drink from an open cup but is having a tough time with it. I really like these so far and they will hopefully become their milk cups (my DD calls it her coffee cup, since it looks like my take-along coffee mugs!).

Anyway, I've spent way too much time on this lately b/c it really drives me crazy and I feel like, between all 4 kids, we've tried everything! BTW, only I have my system of which cup should have what in it and what color belongs to which child down pat... I think DH thinks I'm a bit crazy with all of the options we have!

 

We just got a couple Kleen Kanteen cups & I love them!
http://www.kleankanteen.com/products/kid/kid-kanteen-sippy-classic.html

They seem like they're a little big now for the tops they came with, but that's part of what I love; you can just use them w/o or get a different style.
I think I'm going to get some of these:
http://www.kleankanteen.com/products/accessories/klean-kanteen-caps-classic-sport.html next time I'm at the store. That's the lid I have on my cup & the kids have no problem with it.

 

I hate sippy cups so much. Over the years, I think I tried them all.

I found these Contigo cups @ Costco when I was looking for something for snack @ school for water. They were 4 for $20 and we have put them through the dishwasher hundreds of time(my must have).

I would recommend them.

 

I still use the Munchkin straw sippies. With a lot of use, some have started to leak a little, but it's not that bad still. Just a few drops, no major leaks. I haven't had any trouble with gunk in or near the valves. I do the dishes about every three days and there's no problem cleaning them. One thing that does help is rinsing them soon after they are done being used. That way no milk sours and sticks in the straws or in the cups. I find that to be a problem with all sippies and bottles. So I learned my lesson, rinse 'em!

I'm hoping to get the off the sippies soon, and they are doing OK with regular cups, but still a major mess often happens if I'm not there to help them tip the cups correctly. It's a work in progress, but we are getting there.

 

I absolutely hate sippies too. My kids do great with regular cups but I know they'd spill when not drinking so I'm still using them (plus when ds gets angry he throws things, and milk all over kinda sucks)... mostly the playtex Insulators right now. My issue is that it's impossible to give smoothies in any cups but the take'n toss straw ones, but those are a pita to clean. I hate cleaning straws so much, and they just fall through in the dishwasher, and my kids just take the tops off the sippies and make a huge mess with the straw anyway. Unfortunately I couldn't get smoothies in other straw sippies, so I'm stuck.

I bought a few tumblers that I'll probably switch to soon, although they probably have valves too...

 

We use the playtex coolsters with the flat rim, so it's kind of like drinking from a real cup, and both versions of the take n toss, the sippy cup kind and the straw kind. When the valves for the playtex get to be too gross, I just get new ones. I'm so not green.

I love the playtex cups because they are leakproof. Those are the cups that I let them take to bed for water. For milk we stick with the take n toss because TBH, sometimes we don't wash them right away (Ovaltine turns green!) and they get chunkybits in there and we toss them.

 

:good: These are the ones we still use on occasion (like car rides or drinking in the playroom)