The Best Sippy Cups for Every Age

When my friend recently asked me to recommend a great sippy cup, it got me thinking. Is there such a thing?  It seems like over the past 5 years and 3 kids, I’ve purchased just about every possible brand, spout, size, and valve on the market. Most of the cups turn out to be a waste of money (they leak! the baby can’t get the water out! the valve is too annoying!), but a few have managed to earn a constant spot in our cabinets.

If you’re like me and you stand in the baby aisle at Target staring at a vast wall of sippy cup options, then allow me to save you some time, money, and experimenting! Today I’m sharing a list of The Best Sippy Cups for Every Age, as determined by me and my other expert mom friends. Let me know if I left your favorites off of this list…

For Baby:

Nuby No-Spill Super Spout Grip n’ Sip: this is the cup that baby Spence has been using since he was about 6 months old. It’s easy for him to hold (thanks to the two handles), and the spout is soft and comfortable on his teething gums. It doesn’t leak, either, unless he’s chewing on the spout and actively trying to dump it (which he does regularly!). I also appreciate that there’s no extra valve to clean.

Playtex TrainingTime Soft Spout Cup: My sister-in-law, Jackie, also has three kids and she swears by the Playtex sippy cups. They do have valves to keep track of, but that’s why Jackie loves them: because the valves really do work to prevent any leaking. If your kids like to travel with their milk, this is probably the cup for you!

For Toddlers:

Playtex Insulator/Playtime Cup: This is the more grown-up version of the Playtex TrainingTime cup. Again, my sister-in-law swears by them (see above for the reasons why!).

The First Years Insulated Sippy Cup: These are the cups that I repeatedly used with Gibbs and Casey when they were younger. I loved the fact that they don’t have valves to keep track of, and I found that they were pretty good in the no-leak department. Not 100% perfect, but definitely good enough for our needs. I also like that they are insulated (just like the Playtex version above), so milk stays fresh a bit longer.

The First Years Take-and-Toss Spill-Proof Cups: My friend Kristin and I loved these for our toddlers. First of all, they’re cheap! When your child chews on the spout and the cup gets nasty, just throw it away and start fresh. That said, they’re still dishwasher safe and they seem to hold up well for a long time. No valves on these cups either, so they may leak a bit if your child dumps them upside down, but they’re perfectly acceptable for using at meal time when your little one is not quite ready for a regular glass. Casey had multiple sets of the John Deere tractor Take-and-Toss cups, which he used daily and loved for the entire second year of his life!

For Preschool+: Once your child is using a cup to drink out of at mealtime, it’s still nice to have a leak-proof water bottle to carry with you on car trips, to pack in lunch boxes, etc. These are our current favorites!

Contigo Kids Auto Spout Kids Striker Water Bottle: My friend Jill introduced me to these water bottles because she swore that they don’t leak! And Jill was right…these are great! At age 2, it took Casey a little while to figure out how to suck up from the straw since he was so used to tipping his water cups, but otherwise we have loved them. Once the boys are in school and drinking milk out of a regular glass at mealtime, I like to switch to keeping water in these bottles so that the kids can easily grab them out of the refrigerator on their own, or take them with them in their lunchboxes to school.

Nalgene Grip-N-Gulp Water Bottle: Our other favorite water bottles these days! We have multiple colors/versions of both these Nalgene bottles and the Contigo bottles. They’re both really nice. This version is great if your child prefers to tip their cup rather than use a straw. There is a valve, making it entirely leak-proof!

So tell me: what have I missed? Are there other great options out there?

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