And then what I hate about the Playtex sippies is the fact that I don’t feel like I’m getting the valve clean. Sure you can soap it, but really, is water pressure from the faucet good enough to get it clean? Even after the sippy was found under the couch two days after it was lost? The valve is so tiny that I’d have to bust out the nipple brush to wash it. I’ve breastfed for over a year with each child and didn’t have to deal with nipple brushes that often — I’m not about to start now, just so I can wash a little sippy valve. So that brings me to my favorite sippy:

If you want a simple sippy that is about as leak-resistant as the Playtex one, take a look at http://www.babyant.com/bh037060.html. I get mine at Babies R Us and I love them. The lid’s got a flip-top that keeps the spout clean. There’s exactly two pieces — the cup and the spout. The flip-top is attached to the spout by a hinge, and the whole assembly is easy to clean. The valve is a membrane that’s smoothly integrated into the spout. And the inside of the spout is wide enough that I feel confident that it’s clean when I’m done washing it, and I don’t need a nipple brush! (Heck, it’s wide enough for my thumb!) And it’s got handles. The handles are great because I could attach toy chain links to it and attach it to the stroller — no more dropped sippies! And no licensed characters to boot.

The sippies pictured are made by the same company. The spouts/valves are the same, and are just as easy to clean. Only problem is, there’s the pesky licensed characters.

Nuby sippies seem to be similar to my favorite kind, but I’ve never tried those. My friend used them, though, and she loved them.

I will sacrifice number of parts for cleanliness and portability.

The older one can drink from a cup, and does, but when we are trying to minimize spillage (car, other parts of the house), we give him the straw insulated cups from Playtex.

I try to avoid the plastics, but the playtex insulated straw cups is the #5s, which isn’t so bad (and is the plastic material found in products like Klean kanteen for the plastic portions).

The 1-year-old will NOT have anything to do with a sippy cup. I was trying to transition her from the bottle, but she refuses to really get anything from them. She does know how to drink from a straw cup so it’s either that or the bottle (though I sometimes sit with her with a regular cup and give her sips).

I also remember reading articles awhile back how sippy cups were not as good for development because of the way they require your tongue to be positioned, but I don’t remember when/where I saw that one.

Incidentally, when they get a little bigger, SIGG water bottles are effectively indestructible, and marginally less horrendous for mobile water consumption than plastic bottles bought 24 at a time.

These are cool because they don’t leak and are easy to drink from when driving, etc because you don’t have to tip your head back to drink. They also have a handle of sorts that makes it easy to carry with one finger or clip to your bag.