10 Best Sippy Cups, Tested by Parents and Toddlers

Parents rave about this Munchkin spoutless sippy cup, popular with both babies and toddlers. "It really, truly, honestly hasn't leaked for me, and it's been held upside down for minutes at a time and tossed across the room," one mom-in-the-trenches said. "My daycare also said that they love these cups for that same reason. My son is now 4 and still uses it. It's durable, doesn't look too babyish and it's easy to clean."

A child can drink from any side of this cup, hence the name, and it seals as soon as they stop sipping, which helps prevent spills. The only complaint we have heard from our parent testers is that young babies used to a bottle may not immediately understand how to get liquid out of this. "It takes time for them to get it, but once they do, it's very easy," said a mom of two whose kids under 5 both use the Miracle 360. "My oldest still takes it to bed at night because it won't spill."

The idea behind a weighted straw is that your child can sip liquid up the straw from any angle, so even if they're not tipping it "right," it will work through the magic of gravity — and they'll never have to tilt their head way back to get to the last drops.

As for the Click Lock lid, "You hear an audible click once it passes a certain point so you know it is on tight and will stay in place," says Rachel Rothman, the Good Housekeeping Institute's chief technologist and a mom of three kids under 6 who likes and uses this straw sippy cup. It's also a nice bargain! But keep in mind: any cup with a straw is tougher to clean. Munchkin sells this set of Bottle and Cup Cleaning Brushes to help with the detail work.

The Learner Cup is a GH Parenting Award winner, due to being a nice tool when you're ready to transition your baby from their bottle to their first sippy cup. We love its smart features, including a soft spout that’s gentle on gums, a vent to reduce the swallowing of air and removable handles that are comfortable for little hands to grip.

Our testers had highchair-age kids who were able to easily wield this cup by themselves. Because of that, the kids predictably tossed it at times, but it didn't show any signs of breakage in our testing. It is fairly baby-looking, however, and only holds 5 ounces, so a tot older than a 1-year-old might not think it's cool enough or big enough.

Some parents are drawn to silicone, which is what this EZPZ cup is made from. We're tickled by its tiny, right-size design for little hands to hold independently, without handles, so your baby can feel more like a big kid. It's age-graded for 9 months and up and we feel kids are best ready for it as 1-year-olds.

Eventually you can pull off the top and help your child learn to drink from an open cup, like a little adult. Because this only holds 4 ounces, you can trust that even if only half the liquid makes it into your kid and half ends up on the highchair tray, it won't be too much to clean up. (They have to learn somehow!)

Even with the straw, this cup is the least leakproof on our list. We don't recommend that you take this on outings and do recommend that you keep it in your kitchen to use while your baby is in the highchair. By the time your baby turns preschool age, this will be too small, but by then, it will hopefully have had a good run.

Your preschool kid is ready to drink more than 10 ounces and wants to look cool, which might mean no handles. This CamelBak looks like a big-kid water bottle but the spout is made for young kids who still bite down, while the lid is leakproof for when they inevitably pack it in their own backpack upside-down. It's a straw cup that Rothman has also used and liked with her three kids.

The eddy+ gets bonus points for using some recycled materials. On a super-practical note, this fits standard cup holders on most convertible car seats. It can go in the dishwasher, but the straw and the spout require some extra attention occasionally to get them sanitized.

Older babies and toddlers who are still regularly drinking milk might prefer this system that holds the same 8 ounces as their beloved bottle. The silicone handles are easy to grip and are removable; you can use them on most any narrow baby bottle, not just Dr. Brown's.

The silicone spout, however, is made to fit on any Dr. Brown’s Options+ Narrow bottle, and that's a reason Good Housekeeping Institute Nutrition Lab Director Stefani Sassos used this with her daughter: She was already a Dr. Brown's glass bottle user and transitioning to this handle and spout was a way to seamlessly move to a sippy. Note that the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests weaning your baby off the bottle and onto a sippy cup by 18 months of age to ensure they're getting more calories from food than from milk.

Double-walled insulation helps keep your toddler's water or milk cool for a couple of hours, especially if you add ice. And with the handy carry handles, this is a great sippy cup for playground playdates or Pee Wee soccer. Testers also praise this as a durable, fairly leakproof option that can survive the rough handling of active toddlers.

We like that though this is a cool-looking cup, it's got a soft spout that's easy on a toddler's mouth. When you have to clean it, the brand does not recommend steam sterilizing as it can negatively affect the insulation; you'll want to just give them a good scrub.

For parents of babies who are used to counting every ounce they drink, the transition to a sippy cup can be weird because there's often no measurement lines on the side. This sippy has ounce marks so that if you're serving breastmilk or formula, you can still accurately gauge how much your baby drinks, and it also makes it easy to mix formula right inside the cup.

This cup has the youngest age-grading at our list — it's labeled appropriate for 4 months and up, though we have not tested it on a baby that young. It takes some babies a little time to learn how to suck on this cup's straw because they must bite down a bit to get the tube to open up. The lid can be snapped shut to keep it sanitary when you're on the go.

These aren't for longterm use, but they're useful as inexpensive sippy cups for a kids' party, playdates, restaurant meals or travel. "I used to take these on camping trips because if one got filthy or lost, we didn't have to mourn it," said one mom. "And if you have a bunch of little friends or cousins over, these make it easy to give everyone a drink."

You can mix and match the lids and cups and write on them with a Sharpie to mark kids' names. They can be hand-washed or put in the dishwasher and reused but because they're not as durable as a regular sippy cup, you will eventually want to recycle them (if your town recycles plastic #5) or toss them (not eco-friendly, which is why we wouldn't use them as an everyday solution). We would not put these in a steam sterilizer either.

A tradeoff for the convenience factor is that these are not as leakproof as the other sippy cups on our list. We don't recommend putting them in your diaper bag with liquid inside; it's safer to travel with them empty, then fill them up when you're ready to serve. Also, if they fall from a height, the lid can detach.

This Korean baby cup is gaining a following. A mom recently told us, "All of my friends are now using this cup," which can transition through stages starting with a spout, then a beginner straw, then a weighted straw and finally the brand's Stage-2 straw (purchased separately).

The Grosmimi packaging and videos do a great job explaining to parents why the various parts appeal to babies of different ages. This is the priciest single sippy cup on our list, and you might end up buying replacement accessories for it — online reviewers sometimes say their baby bit a hole the straw or spout. But fans say it is worth the money because it's made of a hard polypropylene plastic that's long-lasting, so you won't have to replace the cup itself as often, just the smaller parts. That can make this a less wasteful choice as well.