When you’re in search of the holy grail.
Last night @QueenofBiscuits and I were discussing a very important part of motherhood. Sippy Cups. But not just sippy cups, LEAK FREE sippy cups, and not just leak free sippy cups, but leak free sippy cups that a child will take it’s milk from instead of a bottle.
Sounds simple doesn’t it? You just go into a shop, look at the array of brightly coloured cups in the baby section, select one that claims to be leak proof, the one that has your child’s age range clearly on the packaging, and the one with the picture or shade which you think would suit your child the best. Bish bash bosh you’re done. You show the baby, he beams and reaches out to it, laughing and talking to the Waybufrickingloo characters on the front, throwing the mother of all tantrums when you take it off him to put it through the till.
You get home, and if you’re like me, you’re a little bit excited! You tear open the packaging, you give it a quick rinse under the tap and you happily plonk a drink into it before giving it back to your child. The child takes one look at it and throws it onto the floor where it lands next to the table.
This is when the honeymoon period with the cup is over in our house.
The cup has failed on more than one level. As it lies on the tiled kitchen floor it silently drips its contents out while I’m preparing dinner. It flows down the little grout rivets and trickles into the kitchen area for me to stand in it in my socks. I give it the benefit of the doubt, Fatso is hungry for food not drink, I mustn’t have put the lid on quite right, double threaded it or something. I wash it up and prepare for the excitment of bed time. It’s time to get rid of the bottles, we’ve had enough, they’re looking cloudy, and I’m sure there’s black under the teats, but I’m not buying any more, nope the time has come to break free.
Bath and bed time begins, I fill the cup with milk (although I’m experienced with this, having already been through it once, I’ve also brought an empty bottle up and placed it on the landing). I had the excited milk hungry fatso the cup of milk. He screams and throws it out of the cot. HURRAH IT DOESN’T LEAK! I empty its contents into the bottle, the baby is quiet, downs his milk in one and goes to sleep. The cup is washed and has retired to the drawer.
The cup is regularly retrieved from the drawer and is used for water, and because it didn’t leak milk all over the nursery, it’s even selected for a day trip. A cup can make or break your day out. If it stays dry all is good, if it leaks, everything is ruined, spare clothes, nappies, snacks, toys the list goes on! The cup leaks in the bag. The cup is in disgrace and is slung to the back of the drawer again, where it is squeezed between the one the baby point refuses to drink ANYTHING out of and the one that the toddler used to chew on, but not drink out of.
We’ve now found a cup that the Fat one will take milk out of. It however leaks if it is laid on its side for more then a few minutes. The only one we did have any success with with the horrible one appears to have been discontinued (this Amadeus 360). It was fab.
Has anyone any recommendations, because as you can imagine, I want to use my big draw as something other than a cup graveyard!