Average Cost: $14.95/cup
Official URL: http://www.thesafesippy.com/
Age Range: 6 months and up
Rating:

The latest “toxic chemicals in your child’s environment” scare sent me hunting for a sippy cup free of Bisphenol A (BPA), Phthalates and DEHA. Chemicals which are present in most plastic (polycarbonate) bottles and sippy cups and which leach into the liquids or foods when the plastic is scratched or heated. These chemicals are apparently linked to hormonal disorders, infertility, cancers and childhood behavioral problems such as hyperactivity. While the “safe” levels of BPA exposure are under debate, I opted for the “better safe than sorry” route and set out to replace our plastic sippies with safer options made from stainless steel.

The Safe Sippy is a stainless steel sippy cup that is free of BPA, Phthalates and DEHA. It makes use of a silicon leak-free valve, non-leaching polypropylene spout and a thermoplastic rubber sleeve that insulates the sippy cup and provides a protective easy-grip surface for little hands. Icing on the cake: It looks cool and modern.

DESIGN/AESTHETIC

The Safe Sippy has a cute kid-oriented design that is appealing to adults as well. Rather than resort to over-used licensed cartoon characters, Kid Basix has paired playful color combos (blue & orange, green & orange, and pink & orange) with sleek stainless steel. Each of these three color combos is equally attractive and interesting.

QUALITY/CONSTRUCTION

The Safe Sippy is well put together and consists of 5 parts: the stainless steel body of the sippy cup, the screw-on top, the silicone valve, the handles, and the rubber insulation sleeve.

The Body: The body of the Safe Sippy is made from lightweight medical-grade stainless steel that has a slightly “brushed” appearance and that does a good job resisting fingerprints, scratching, and denting. It tapers in slightly about 1/3rd of the way down, providing a narrower easy-to-grasp area just below the removable handles. The stainless steel does not rust or tarnish with use or with exposure to liquids and air.

The Top/Spout: The top is made of two permanently joined Polypropylene (#5) plastic pieces. The center is orange and the outer rim is blue, pink, or green. The orange center contains the spout which comes out of the top of the sippy cup at a slight angle, and which extends straight down into the sippy cup about an inch. The rounded and elongated spout looks like a straw but it is not. This may confuse your child, it confused mine at first. He sipped at it for a minute and then handed it to me with a frustrated “DAH!” which loosely translates to “Parent, you fool, you have forgotten to put liquid in this cup!” He caught on quickly, however, and now knows to tip it back to drink as if it were any other sippy cup.

This obvious departure in ergonomics had me wondering so I pulled up thesafesippy.com and read a bit more about why the spout was designed the way it was. Apparently the wider and softer sippy spouts on the market can lead to oral development problems and speech issues. Who would have guessed? I confirmed this with a google search that turned up dozens of sites talking about sippy cups and how they can contribute to warped palates among other oral problems. The longer, more rigid and straw-shape of the Safe Sippy was apparently designed to avoid some of these issues.

The Valve: The valve (Pictured at left) is made of a soft flexible silicone. The top part of the valve is an elongated tube that fits firmly into the base of the sippy spout. The valve mechanism itself is a cross-cut in the silicone bubble that covers the bottom of the tube. If you have examined sippy cup valves from Nalgene, this style of valve will be familiar.

I have never had this sippy leak in the diaper bag, and it is unquestionably spill proof. When knocked over and left laying on its side for hours I didn’t notice any leakage. Two things that increase the risk of leakage are: 1- Mis-threading the top onto the base (make sure it sits level once it’s screwed on. If it’s not level then it’s mis-threaded.) and 2- Filling the sippy past the lowest thread. If you hold this sippy upside down and shake it vigorously it will sprinkle a bit, so it’s not fully leak proof the way some sippies have managed to be. I found it to be one of the less leaky of the BPA-free sippies on the market.

The Handles: The handles are a thin band of orange polypropylene that slides onto the neck of the sippy cup and that fits underneath the ridge between the top of the sippy cup and the stainless steel base. The handles curve out on each side of the cup and can be adjusted to make them align comfortably with the curve of the sippy cup’s spout. The thin shape and ridges of the handles make it easy for a younger child to grasp, but most older children will prefer to remove the handles and simply hold the cup as one would hold a water bottle.

The Sleeve: The thermoplastic rubber sleeve is my favorite part of this sippy cup. It feels great to hold and is very slip-resistant with three ridges along the top, and a scattering of little bumps. It serves a dual purpose of insulation and protection. It does an excellent job of insulating your child’s hands from the cold or warm liquids that the sippy cup may hold. As for the protective properties, if you drop this sippy cup on the concrete at the playground it won’t scratch or dent and if you drop it on your bare foot you’ll still swear loudly… Just not as much.

FUNCTIONALITY

This sippy cup is slightly more difficult to use than some others on the market. To start with, it weighs in at 5.2oz empty which makes it heavier than the polycarbonate sippies that generally weigh in at 2-4oz. The spout design also means your child will need to learn a slightly different pattern of sucking in order to get the liquid out. However, the sippy does a great job of preventing spills, and once my son learned how to use it he was just as happy with this cup as he was with the wide range of other cups that we have tried, with the added benefit of being healthier for his oral development. This cup also discourages the “sippy as a pacifier” problem that some parents notice in toddlers where the child becomes addicted to the sippy cup and carries it everywhere. (A problem that worsens any problems with oral development, as well as creating a problem with cavities if there is juice or milk in the sippy on a regular basis.)

EASE OF CLEANING

This sippy cup is about average as far as ease of cleaning. It has a few things that work against it, and a few others that work in its favor. The top is the hardest part to keep clean as it has a groove around the inside (see the picture above in the “valve” section of this review to get a better feeling for what I’m talking about). It also has the angled spout at the top, and a tube that extends 1″ into the sippy. The top and spout can be cleaned easily enough with a bottle brush or q-tips, but it is slightly more difficult to clean than some other sippy cup designs.

On the plus side, the body of the sippy cup is very easy to clean with only a gradual tapering in the center- nothing that an angled brush or even a toothbrush would have problems with. All of the materials used in the safe sippy are very easy to clean, resist staining and do not seem to retain odors even when a beverage is allowed to sit in the sippy cup far too long. The rubber sleeve resists mold and mildew, removes easily to allow you to scrub the cup more thoroughly, and has a generously sized drainage hole at the bottom to prevent the trapping of liquids.

LONGEVITY

The two things that tend to kill a sippy cup are odors and breakage.

The Safe Sippy, being made of stainless steel, has ZERO problems with odor retention. In fact, if you lose track of this sippy for half a week (after your toddler decides it’s fun to hide it behind the couch) and discover it with curdled juice or milk, a simple water-only rinse removes the odor. You’ll still want to scrub it half a dozen times and perhaps boil it to get rid of germs and the general feeling of creepiness, but it’s a nice departure from the plastic sippies which you regularly find yourself wanting to throw out after only a few uses. Have you ever noticed how plain water sitting in one of those things starts to smell gross after only a few hours? Not the case with the Safe Sippy. Water smells fresh even after a few days, although I wouldn’t let my son drink it after it had been sitting around that long.

Breakage is also not so much a concern with the Safe Sippy. The body of the sippy cup is impervious to breakage since it is made of stainless steel. At worse it may ding or bend, but the bulk of the body is protected from this by the thermoplastic rubber sleeve or the cap. The unprotected areas are tapered inwards, making it unlikely that they would bear the impact of a drop. One thing to be careful of is that you don’t drop this sippy while washing it, as it can quickly become unusable if the top rim bends out of shape. (Although this may be fixable with pliers) The only part that may break is the handle. I tested this by trying to break it and found that the handles will flex and allow you to bend them out of shape but they do not show any tendency for shattering, breaking or even weakening or creasing. I bent the handles on mine out of shape several times, and then bent them back into shape without them seeming any worse for the wear.

We tested these sippies with three different children, and over the course of a month the sippies were dropped from high chairs and strollers, smashed, thrown, dragged, and otherwise abused. The thermoplastic rubber sleeve is excellent at protecting this sippy cup from damage, and all three of the sippy cups look pretty good for the amount of wear and tear that they’ve been subjected to. They are free from dings and dents, and while the upper part of the metal and the polypropylene top are a bit scratched up, they are far from needing to be replaced.

Similar tests with polycarbonate and other BPA-free sippy cups yielded significantly more scratching and dings.

SAFETY

The Safe Sippy is about on par with other sippy cups as far as general safety goes. There are no small parts other than the sippy cup valve which is sealed inside of the sippy cup itself which is very hard for small hands to un-screw.

Chemical safety is one area in which this sippy cup absolutely excels. It is free of BPA, Phthalates and DEHA. The only plastic used in this sippy is a very stable polypropylene which is unusually resistant to many chemical solvents, and which the liquids will really only touch for a short time while the child is drinking from the sippy. Less contact means less chance of leaching. The stainless steel is medical grade and unlikely to leach anything into the liquid that it contains. Steel also does not scratch easily and makes it harder for bacteria to find cracks, crevices and scratches in which to hide and grow.

PACKAGING

I love a company that is Earth friendly in its packaging. The Safe Sippy has minimalistic retail packaging that consists of a recycled cardboard package with soy based inks. The only plastic used is a white plastic “cinch” that holds the sippy cup to the rest of the packaging. The outer printing clearly identifies the sippy as being BPA, Phthalates and DEHA free, making it easy for customers in a store to feel confident buying this product without requiring that they do extensive research online first, and without worrying that only certain versions of the sippy sold in certain states are BPA free. (Believe it or not, this does happen.)

SPECS

The Safe Sippy holds 11oz of liquid, is 7 inches tall, 2.5 inches at its widest (excluding handles), and weighs 5.20z empty.

BOTTOM LINE

The Safe Sippy is a great non-toxic sippy cup whose higher price tag is quickly paid off with its durability and the fact that it simply does not retain odors. Its slightly heftier weight and unique spout may make it more difficult for younger children to use, but it’s great for kids from about 10 months and up. It would be nice if Kid Basix figured out how to make it a bit more leak-proof, but it really does function rather well compared to other BPA-free sippies on the market. Its unique palate-friendly spout design and rubber sleeve make it a truly unique product, and its design is something I can’t help but love.