Sippy cups are from hell

Example: Consider the sippy cup diagrammed above. The lid forms an air-tight seal with the body of the cup (a good thing, so that, if the toddler -- e.g., Mimi -- knocks the cup over, its contents will not spill out all over everything...).

However: The lid also forms an airtight seal around the straw. This is a mixed blessing: (1) It is good because, again, it helps keep the liquid in the cup from spilling all over everything if the toddler knocks the cup over. But also: (2) It is frustrating, because, unless you remove the straw before pressing the lid onto the body of the cup (at least remove the straw far enough that it's end is above the liquid in the cup after the top is pressed on!) -- if you do not remove the straw, the bottom of the straw will be below the top of the liquid, and consequently: when you seal the lid with the body of the cup, the air that gets trapped will press down on the liquid and send it squirting up out the top of the straw (all over everything...).

Some sippy cups don't have any this problem. Some have little parts that, if not carefully taken apart and washed, can accumulate germs that can make the toddler ill -- insofar as these parts are difficult to take apart and put back together, this other category of sippy cup is even more nefarious than the kind herein considered....

I think the best sippy cups are the simplest: ones that have a little protrusion in the top with small holes for the toddler to suck the liquid; the downside of these is that the toddler needs to hold the cup up and tip it so that the liquid is over the little holes in the lid. If none of this kind of sippy cup are available, I try to minimize my frustration by giving the toddler only a little liquid in an open cup -- trading having to refill the cup [multiple times...] for minimizing the amount of liquid the toddler can spill out of it. "If you drink it all you can always have more, but I don't want to waste any...."

Read: The voyage of the Mimi....

http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/GO/sippyCup.html Copyright © 2004 Brad McCormick, Ed.D. bradmcc@cloud9.net (2006-03-09 ISO 8601) 09 March 2006 v01.04