After my disappointment with the Munchkin Snack Catcher, I searched the internet for alternatives. I found the Munchie Mug Top Rated Spill Resistant Snack Cup for Toddlers. Ages 1 to 4 years. Made in AMERICA. BPA and phthalate free. FDA compliant materials. Blue Top with the screw lid was what I was looking for and was really tempted to purchase one, but was deterred by the steep $17 price tag for ONE mug-and that doesn't even include shipping! Good thing I am frugal and delayed my gratification. I went to Babies R Us today to check out their buy 1 get one 50% sale on baby feeding items, and stumbled upon these Playtex Flip Top Snackers. MUCH cheaper alternative to the Munchie Mug with the same concept. Plus it also has a handle which the Munchie Mug does not have. With the sale at BRU, I paid around $6.50 (includes tax) for TWO Platex Flip Top Snackers-which is almost a 1/3 of ONE Munchie Mug (without tax and shipping). But even without the sale, one of these Playtex Flip Top Snackers is still only 1/4 the price of one Munchie Mug.
Pros:
1) Twist and lock lid: no more worries of my toddler pulling off the lid while taking his hand out of the mug or him pulling the lid off on his own and food spilling all over the floor or car seats as a result.
2) Stay fresh lid which you can hear "snap" when you put it on the top and you can twist it to keep on the base so you don't have to worry about losing the lid.
3) Affordable (1/4 the price of a Munchie Mug)-same price as other not so good snack catcher cups so you can buy multiple ones and not break the bank.
Cons:
1) Sometimes if you try to put the stay fresh lid on or take it off too hastily it comes off, but you just snap it right back onto the handle if that happens.
2) If the stay fresh lid is not attached to the bottom of the base, then you don't have a full handle and would need to attach it to a stroller, carseat, highchair, etc with a leash like BooginHead SippiGrip, Blue/Green/White which can wrap around the cup instead of one like the Baby Buddy Secure-A-Toy, Navy/Blue which needs to loop through a handle.
3) Still not completely mess proof. If you have crumbs or small pieces and your child turns this cup over and shakes it, the crumbs will fall out as might the small pieces. But definitely much less messier than if the entire lid came off, and the shaking doesn't happen too often with my child.
Updated 9-30-12: A potential consumer asked me to test out these snack cups with smaller snacks such as Cheerios. What I've discovered is the following:
The slots on the lid where your child reaches in is graduated. It is larger towards the rim and narrows towards the center. If your child is a shaker (likes to shake the snack mugs upside down) then there is potential for the Cheerios to fall out from the large end of the slots. Cheerios are just small enough and the slot is just large enough at the rim that if you shake the cup like a salt shaker then smaller Cheerios can fall out from the larger end. This is not an issue with the Munchkins lids as the slots are consistently slim. Thanks for helping me find a flaw to these mugs! But my son is not a shaker (at least not upside down) so for me it would not really be an issue for me. But because I know that Cheerios is a popular snack (this is what I started out with with my son as well), this could be an issue for many. Therefore I have subtracted a star bring down my final rating to a 4 out 5. I've posted a photo with a Cheerio that is not large enough to fall through the slot on its own sitting in the large end of the slot to give an idea of how large the largest end of the slot is.
With my first child I used the Munchkin snack cups because that it all they had at the time but this Playtex Flip Top is a definite improvement. The Munchkin snack cup doesn't come with a lid so your snacks will go stale in your diaper bag and you have to remember to empty an refill. I love that this comes with a snap on lid and keeps everything fresh. The best feature of this cup is that it's a twist on lid so my child can no longer pull the top off and dump all of the snacks!
Buy Playtex Flip Top Snacker with Twist 'N Click, Color May Vary Now
We love these for our son! We started off with the Munchkin brand snack cups, but after repeated instances of snacks all over the floor and car seat, we found these. He could get the lid off of the Munchkin ones too easily. The tops of these screw on. I'm sure he'll figure that out soon, but for now, these work so great. AND they have a lid. I don't know how many times I dumped snacks out of the old snack cups because they'd gotten stale. The lid on these just pops up so you can rotate it and snaps securely on the bottom of the cup. It stays attached to the perforated screw top so you don't have to keep track of the lid. I will say that my son has figured out how to rip the lid off, but most of the time, it stays attached without him messing with it. I don't know why I don't see more kids with these. They are the best out there!
Read Best Reviews of Playtex Flip Top Snacker with Twist 'N Click, Color May Vary Here
I've a few different versions of this product and this one is by far the best. My 2 year old son loves to carry it around and feed his 1 year old brother goldfish crackers. He has to work to get the snacks out, which is a good thing or else he tends to grab hand fulls that just end up smashed on the carpet. The game changer for this product is the lid. The way it flips to snap onto the bottom and easily moves to the top. It does come disconnected a bit easily and if I leave it on while my kids have the cup I end up picking it up off the floor or digging it out of the couch. So if they are using the cup in the house I remove the lid and save it for when we leave home or for storage. Speaking of storage! The lid is also nice that I can store snacks in the cup without them getting stale. Overall great product. I sadly lost my first one and have since purchased two more, one for each of my little ones. I was disappointed on the colors. I received one blue/yellow and one pink/green. With girls any color goes, but with having boys I would have preferred not having a pink one.
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I like that this snack cup has a sealing lid. However, the lid is hard to seal and then it does not stay sealed. The grooves to hold the two pieces needs to be deeper.
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My Grandson has reflux and his pediatrician prescribed 2 tablespoons of cereal per ounce of formula. It has been a challenge to find nipples for him to take this recommended formula we have tried Dr. Browns but they are kind of flimsy and eventually tear after about a month of use. I thought these would be the answer but the baby has a hard time sucking them. I will give it more time and update this review if things change and he "learns" to work with these new nipples they will certainly hold up longer than the Dr. Browns.
