Every new baby gear company needs a Big Vision. For the Baby Boomers who founded Munchkin, the dream was to "excite and delight parents" and make their "lives easier and more enjoyable." Which meant first, a baby bottle with Dr. Pepper logo on the side [Haha! Delightful"] and after that, a Wal-Martful of plastics. Some ideas are clearly less big than others.
Contrast that with Kid Basix, which was founded with a "singleness of purpose: Making kids’ live better." [sic] Their first product is The Safe Sippy, a stainless steel-and-rubber cup that's been rigorously designed and tested to be free of toxic chemicals, potentially toxic chemicals, and even slightly negative karma chemicals. UNLIKE ALL THOSE PLASTICS OUT THERE, cough cough, Munchkin executive, cough, JPMA Chairman. cough cough.
What with the Bisphenol A and phthalates hysteria and all, The Safe Sippy seems to be sold out in just about every online retailer except--for the moment--BTVCo.com, where it's $14.95. Otherwise, making your kid's life better will involve making your life miserable, as you have to schlep all over town looking for the damn thing. Also, they're actually pastel. Wouldn't a nice charcoal color make kids' lives even betterer?
The Safe Sippy, good luck finding it [thesafesippy.com via dt reader jj daddy-o]
Take it from the woman who has personally spent well over $100 trying every "safe" sippy cup on the market...only one is leak free and that one is Foogo made by Thermos. They retail around $15, but I found that my local Target carries them (in stock) and those babies - pardon the pun - do not leak.
There are some cheat sheets on the upper left hand corner at www.safemama.com, it lists a bunch of safe products from sippy cups to teethers to cleaners.
I like my Klean Kanteen with the sippy cup adapter. The spouts are a national brand and easy to come by locally so you can replace them when they get lost or melted in the bowels of the diswasher without having to wait for the USPS.
Baby Bear graduated to a sports top pretty early on and we haven't had any trouble with it leaking.
Maybe it's just me, but I can't get all het up about plastic sippy cups. With all the environmental toxins out there, the fact remains that kids whose parents can afford a $15 sippy cup are the least vulnerable to the effects of pollution. It's no surprise that companies like Kid Basix are springing up to protect these kids/capitalize on this fear. But I have yet to see much action pressing for regulation of these chemicals, or for any of the hundreds of pollutants that pose widely known and acknowledged (not just suspected) threats to the health of all kids.
Bobbini,
The House Energy and Commerce Committee just began an investigation into this very topic last week. You can read more about it at the RegWatch:
http://www.ombwatch.org/article/blogs/entry/4507/26
It's a step, at least, in the right direction.
I found and bought two of the Safe Sippy cups when a friend offered and alternative to our Sigg (which my son just wasn't liking), one for my 3 year old and one for my infant, just in case I couldn't find them when she needed one. I wish I had only bought one. At first I was impressed. My son would use it and it looks good. Then I tried to take a sip from it myself and it took incredible effort. Maybe we have a faulty valve. Then I washed it and the bottom rubber piece slipped off while it was wet. I put it back on while wet and it later came off again. I tried to put it back on dry and it was so difficult. It's back on and we're still using it, but not loving it. The rubber that makes it easier to grip also makes it stick in my cup holder on my canvas cup holder on the BOB stroller.
I then got just one of the Foogo sippy cups (at limited Targets)and so far I'm impressed. The only drawback being that the cup is wider so it doesn't fit in our cup holder at all, but it tucks nicely into the mesh pocket in the seat where my son can reach it and it doesn't seem to leak.
Just an update that the Safe Sippy cups need a serious re-design. Not only does the rubber piece slip off but water gets stuck inside and well, gets moldy! Plus it is VERY difficult for my 2 year old to drink out of. The valve is obviously too much. Furthermore, we purchased the product from BTVCo.com because of the post here and I can't even return it because they no longer carry the product!