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Reviewed.com / Sarah Kovac
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Credit:
Reviewed.com / Sarah Kovac
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The Green Sprouts Glass Sip & Straw cup is both versatile and sturdy. It features a standard sippy-style spout and a straw spout. Read More
A pretty cup made of vacuum insulated stainless steel and medical-grade silicone that doesn't leak when dropped or shaken. Read More
A nearly leak proof cup with a cool lid design that holds up well to abuse, despite being more difficult to assemble. Read More
This cup is easy for kids to use and comes with removable handles, but is difficult to reassemble and even harder to clean. Read More
This high capacity cup from Nuby is clear, making it easy to see if it's full (or clean). Read More
Here at Reviewed, many of us are parents, so we know that even the small everyday items for your tot are extremely important. That's why when it's time for your baby to transition from bottles (most doctor’s recommend weaning before 18 months), finding the best spill-proof sippy cup is vital.
To find the best sippy cups to replace bedtime bottles, I recruited my kids to help me test. After about seven years of using different transition cups with my kids, I had two make-or-break concerns: ease of cleaning and leakiness. These 12 sippy cups proved themselves to be adept at both tasks. If you, or your kiddo, prefers a straw option, then you should check out our best picks for straw sippy cups.
Based on our examinations, these are the best transition bottles and sippy cups you can get online right now.
The Green Sprouts Glass Sip & Straw was one of our favorite cups due to its versatility.
Vacuum insulated
Beautiful design
Doesn't leak when dropped or shaken
Hard to use cap
Too expensive
Cool lid design
Good leak coverage
Difficult to assemble
Lack of measurement lines
Easy to use
Removable handles
Clear measurement markings
Difficult to reassemble
Hard to clean
Fun designs
Easy to clean
Multiple drinking options
Smaller capacity
Some leakage
Between 12 and 18 months of age, most children will be ready to be weaned off their traditional baby bottle. There are different types of sippy cups, but a good one will help them make that transition with as few leaks and spills as possible.
The benefits of introducing a sippy cup to your child tend to outweigh the risks, but prolonged use can lead to tooth damage if the drink inside is sugary and increases the risk of tooth decay. Sippy cups can also become a breeding ground for bacteria if not cleaned properly and often.
Lastly, constant sucking on the spout could be detrimental to the development of the teeth and jaws, which could lead to orthodontic problems down the line according to McIntosh Dental.
As long as the sippy cup is used properly (as a bottle transition) and for the correct amount of time, parents should be able to avoid these potential dental problems.
By nature, these products are difficult to clean, even those noted as top-rack dishwasher safe. They are small, so it’s hard to get a scrub brush inside, and they have child-sized spouts and straws that are nearly impossible to get clean in a dishwasher.
Even if you have one of those dishwasher baskets made specifically for bottles and sippy cups, it’s unlikely that your dishwasher will be able to get every part of the cup clean. Frequent or occasional hand scrubbing is nearly impossible to avoid.
All this being said, some of the products we tested did way better in the dishwasher than others.
Spoutless 360-degree cups are very popular and can be useful when you're trying to teach a child to drink from a real open cup. A child can learn how to tip a cup back, how to sip from the rim, and they learn that you can drink from—and liquid can come out of—any part of the cup instead of just a single spout.
But they tend to be among the leakiest cups; there isn't much keeping the liquid in. They’re a great option when a child is ready, but if you specifically want a leak-proof cup, one of the above models is probably a better pick.
Babies and toddlers tend to choke and gag when they take a sip from a spout or straw that lets liquid flow faster than they are used to. For that reason, you want to ease them slowly from nipple to straw/spout to cup.
Some of the favorite sippy cups we’ve tested came packaged with several different spout and straw types to ensure its usefulness as the child grows. That also enabled us to use these cups with children of different ages, which is a big deal in households with multiple children, as such households are generally overflowing with kid items as it is.
One of our biggest surprises from the testing was that we could not get the glass sippy cup in our lineup to break. Despite repeatedly dropping and even throwing it against tile and concrete (because you know that’s the kind of thing real kids do) we couldn’t manage to crack it.
Manufacturers know that kids are going to be rough on these cups, so they are generally pretty well protected by the covers and sleeves that cover them. If you are worried about giving your child a BPA-free plastic cup to drink from, don’t be afraid to go for the glass or stainless steel.
If the cup comes with some sort of cover or lid, it can and will break or fall off. And once that happens, it will probably go missing until a year later when you find it hiding under the third-row bench seats of your Chrysler Town & Country (not that we would know anything about that).
But, in all seriousness, even on the models that tested perfectly otherwise, their lids snapped off almost without fail. You can’t rely on the lid to ensure your kid’s grape juice doesn’t come leaking out on the table and soak some important papers you left there (again, not speaking from first-hand experience at all).
If you want a sippy cup that isn’t going to create messes, the cup itself needs to be pretty much leakproof with or without a lid. Luckily, several that we recommend fit that description and don’t need lids at all.
Nobody enjoys having a cabinet full of not-quite-usable dinnerware. Over time, you will misplace a straw, your teething toddler will bite a hole in the cup spout, a handle will break off, a lid will crack. And you will be left with a pile of completely useless plastic that you can’t bring yourself to throw out because one of these days you might find that missing piece.
Save yourself the headache, and look for sippy cups that have very few pieces and have smooth surfaces. A cup that doesn’t have a lot of complicated parts is not only easier to keep together—it’s also much easier to clean. And, of course, investing in a glass or stainless steel cup makes sense in the long run.
Those materials are certainly more expensive up front, but if you can find one that is simple to take apart and put together, it’s very likely that it will last you for many years, as it’s going to be much more durable than the standard plastic sippy cup.
Sarah Kovac is an award-winning author and accessibility editor for Reviewed. Previously, she worked with a multitude of outlets such as Wirecutter, TIME, PCMag, Prevention, The Atlantic, Reviews.com, CNN, GOOD, Upworthy, Mom.me, and SheKnows.
Amber Bouman
Parenting Editor
Amber Bouman is the Parenting Editor at Reviewed. She has twin toddlers and has tested everything from smart breast pumps to leather backpacks.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.
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