What is the definition of a good and functional mug for infants/toddlers? When I was buying Aidan's first mug, I thought the most obvious answer would be that it must be non-spill. Indeed, it is. However, I have learnt, from the process of searching for the ONE mug, that there's more to that.
The first mug I bought, was the Green Pigeon on the extreme left. It is non-spill...BUT only if you fix it right. Look at the Green Pigeon and you see 4 layers, the cup, green handles, orange teat holder and the teat. Every single part has to be aligned perfectly and believe me, it is a struggle everytime. The green handles has to go right onto the groove of the cup but it doesn't click on easily so you don't really know if you got it right. Next, the teat has to go through the orange holder. There're arrows on both and they have to be aligned exactly. Then you screw on the orange part with the teat onto the first 2 parts. The worst part is after putting it all together and you realise that it's dripping (it happened alot) so you have to take them apart and do it over. It's like a science experiment. Now when you are a mom with a kid screaming for his water, you don't have a lot of time to figure things out. You just want to pour in the water, screw it shut and go.
The second mug from the left is the worst aaaaand it's called the Avent Magic cup! I don't know what magic it can perform except that it just cannot keep the water in. The water seeps out from the mouth piece and faster than you can say "Abracadabra", everywhere is wet. The worst is when you bring it out, inevitably the mug gets shaken in the diaper bag and then the water escapes and gets trapped inside the cover, which is good. But when it's time to use it, you'll need to open that cover and yes, a whole lot of water WILL spill out.
By this time, I was obsessed about finding that perfect mug. Everywhere I go, I would go look at mugs and trying to figure out which ones would be good. By now, I had some fair sense of what is just by looking at the parts.
When I got the third mug by Nuby, I thought I had found it. It's pretty attractive, that's one of the criteria when I buy things, and it's really Non-Spill! I don't know how Aidan drank from it but when I tested it, out of curiousity, I couldn't drink water from it. No water passed through the straw into my mouth. But curiously, Aidan could use it just fine. However, after some weeks of using it, we realised that the straw got really really dirty. Because it was soo spill-proof, it was very difficult to clean or even to rinse the straw and eventually dirt accumulated and it got disgusting. If you look carefully, you can see that unlike the other mugs, this straw isn't translucent. You can't see the inside and maybe it's designed this way because the makers know that it will get dirty. You can't replace the straw and when it got dirty, the whole mug gotta go. Now that doesn't make sense, does it?
The best mug and the one that we're still using now is the Tollyjoy on the right. Of all the mugs, this has to be the least 'branded' one. Parents would know that their baby stuffs are on the cheaper side compared to Pigeon or Avent. It's normal looking and a little too big for my liking. Normally, I won't be attracted to it. But I was desperate and most of the mugs in the market I had ruled out. When I came upon this, I knew instantly that it would work. It's the most simply designed and very basic. Funny how sometimes, things work best when it's back to the basics. It passed all the tests. Fairly non-spill unless Aidan bangs it hard on the table. It's fuss free to use, water comes out easily from the straw when drinking and it's easy to clean.
Thus ended the search for the perfect mug :)
