I bought two of these straw cups for my 7 month old daughter and they are great! She learned how to suck out of a straw without me ever having to "teach" her and loves these cups. Personally, I love the safe plastic and the fact that the weighted end of the straw keeps the straw in the liquid no matter how they have the cup turned.
The one concern I had about using a straw cup instead of a traditional sippy was possible spilling. But even when she has it turned upside down it hardly ever leaks. Maybe a few drops of water here and there, but no big deal. The end of the straw that baby drinks from is almost solid, but with a few slits cut in it. So baby can easily suck liquid out (no special biting the valve or anything) but it helps minimize spilling.
This cup is great and has survived being thrown to the hard floor many times.
**Update: Some leaking issues and a solution:
My daughter is now almost 14 months and these cups are still my first choice. However, I have had a few problems with them one cup cracked on the bottom (but my daughter does bang them around a lot) and I've had more leaking issues than I had hoped. First, ZoLi was great and replaced the broken cup with no questions asked (and it had been many months since I purchased it). Second, I figured out that the top "mis-threads" really easily. It's hard to even tell that it is not threaded properly unless I look at it from the side because it will feel like it goes on right, but is actually a bit crooked. When I fix this and am really careful to thread it levelly, I have no leaks.
Delilah would not drink from a regular sippy so I decided to go the straw route. She loved this sippy and so did I. She picked up on how to do it immediately. I love the straw on this cup. It is very flexible and not hard to drink from and the weight at the bottom is fantastic. There are 2 very large downsides! First one is they are not easy to clean. You have to get a special brush from Zoli to clean it appropriately and I would not put the top into the dishwasher. Second (and this is a biggie in my opinion) they are not durable at all! I believe if you are going to design a cup for an infant/toddler it must be able to withstand a few throws now and then...not this cup. The top cracked after about a week. I contacted Zoli and they immediately sent me a new cup...unfortunately that one cracked as well. I will definitely give Zoli customer service a 10 in customer satisfaction!! They sent me 2 replacement cups, a replacement kit which consisted of 2 extra straws and the aforementioned cleaning brush! So far the new 2 have not cracked but I am not holding my breath. I am giving this cup 3 stars mainly for the customer service I received and not the cup itself. Although you can feel good knowing if something does go wrong with the cup they will take care of you!
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First of all, it is a decent cup. The small size combined with easy-to-hold handles make it a great choice for little hands. The weighted straw really does get almost all the liquid out, which is a nice change from some of the other cups out there (hint, hint PLAYTEX!!!) that leave a 1/4 inch or more in the bottom.
Unfortunately, the cons have outweighed the pros, in our opinion. First, the straw is kind of a pain to get out and put in. It's made of some sort of stretchy plastic/rubber/silicone/whatever so that when you pull it to get it out of the lid it just keeps stretching. You really need small fingers to grasp the straw where it meets the underside of the lid to take it out without risking snapping the straw. Similar problems exist when putting the straw back in the cup. It stretches when you pull it through the hole in the lid. The key is wiggling the straw as you pull to prevent it from breaking.
Second, it leaks. No, it's not a huge amount we've definitely seen worse. However, for $15 we don't want to see leaks at all! The problem is that liquid does not go back down the straw into the cup when the child releases suction. It remains in the straw. As soon as the straw is tipped and touches something (ie your carpet) the liquid is released from the straw and comes out, creating a mess. Again, it's not a huge mess when it leaks it's just something to keep in mind.
Third, the price. In order to pay this price for a child's cup, we expect great things. However, the cheap 2-for-$7 Munchkin cups give about the same results. This cup just isn't worth it. We have found, for those interested, that the Vital Baby Straw Cups (about $5 each) are EXCELLENT.
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This is filled with juice however, the product does this with any fluid at all. I don't give my son soda so, unsure as to how the product would respond to that. I really wanted to love this sippy as my son is in his "straw phase." It seems like such a great idea. The great effort it takes to clean the straw would be worth it IF it actually WORKED and didn't ruin most of my furniture. For some reason the mechanism on the bottom of the straw which, in theory sounds amazing, pulls fluid up into the straw and then pushes it out. It actually empties itself. Ridiculous. I contacted the company and the email was polite and insinuated that I might have a defective one. Since I had bought both the green and orange one, I decided to try the other out in hopes of saving this idea as my son does love the cup. I'm now off to rent a carpet shampooer and to research how to get water stains off of my brand new wooden tables. Thanks Zo-Li.
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I thought the idea behind the cup was ingenious. My 1 year old took to the straw immediately and I was relieved to finally find a sippy cup that she would use. At first I only used water and it was fine. Then I started to put milk in it and like other posters have commented on, it started to leak. I was really frustrated because I didn't know why milk was coming back up the straw and making a mess. My instincts where to screw the top tighter and that just made it worse. I discovered after a couple of days that if I left the top looser, the pressure would lessen and milk would stop coming up the straw. When I say loose, I don't mean so that the top doesn't stay on. Instead, just screw the top on but don't force it tight. Liquid will not leak from where the cup and top meet if you tip it over AND it prevents the pressure from building up inside the cup and spilling from the straw. We love this cup!
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I purchased a set of these with the rabbit on them for my younger child (3yrs.) and she has loved them. She uses them whenever we have anything that remotely resembles Asian food. I figured a set that was more mature would be great for my 8 yr. old (the suggested age from the manufacturers website) as she is not well versed in the use of chop sticks. While these are great for general use they are a bit immature for that age and a bit small. I would recommend you get these for a 5 year old and get a training set designed for an adult. I will say that they are well made. I'd save these for my younger child, but she is right handed. Of course the website does suggest using the "other" handed chopsticks for intellectual development.
