Where does my milk come from? (Healthy Eating Cow Cup)

Member Name: KLockwood75

Product:	Healthy Eating Cow Cup
Date:	13/05/09 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to clean, removable valve, popular with toddlers

Disadvantages: Not actually bite resistent, despite the claims

The Healthy Eating Cow Cup is one of those toddler products which everyone in my immediate circle of friends seems to have - I can't remember whether we all recommended it to each other, or bought it independently, but either way, it's a product that works for a whole group of toddlers.

It is recommended that you try and wean your baby from the bottle and replace formula with cows milk at 12 months. Switching to cows milk from formula was no problem at all in our house. We simply finished the carton we were using, bought a very large bottle of full-fat milk and tipped that into our son's bottle - I don't think he noticed a difference as he drained it all in the usual way.

However, switching from bottle to cup was a whole different ball game. Our son had always been bottle-fed as breastfeeding just didn't work out for me, and he had a deep emotional attachment to his bottles. We tried several different types of cup over a 2-3 month period after his birthday and each was met with screaming and ultimately rejection. The cups were hurled across the room with strength that I didn't realise that a one year old possessed and he refused to even contemplate drinking from them, even the cups that he'd been happily drinking water from for the previous six months. So, we gave up and gave ourselves a new deadline to wean him off the bottles.... 18 months old.

When we reached that deadline, I was browsing the Baby aisle in Waitrose and came across the Cow Cup. I knew that his best friend had the same cup and was using it successfully (although she is 9 months older) and I thought I'd give it a try. We decided to go for the cold turkey approach with the bottles and hid them all - it was the Cow Cup or nothing. I filled it with milk, sat down with my son on my lap and started to explain to him that the bottles had gone now and this was a 'special cup, because it is like a cow and milk comes from cows'. I'm not sure how much he understood, but he drank his milk from the cup and the bottles are still in their hiding place so it definitely worked for us.

The Healthy Eating Cow Cup is suitable for babies from six months old. It is a sturdy plastic cup with a funky black and white cow print on it. It comes with a single-piece removable valve which slows down the flow of the milk for younger babies, but is very easy to remove for cleaning purposes and for when your child is old enough to drink from a free-flow cup. We only used the valve for a very short period of time as our son was confident with the free-flowing spout by the time we introduced the cup, but I know that my sister has had success with it with her daughter.

The cup is designed to be spill-free, although I think this is only with the valve inserted as vigorous upside-down shaking by an energetic two year old definitely leads to spilled milk in this house! They also claim that the spout is bite-resistant, although both our son and his best friend have managed to bite through the outer plastic on their Cow Cups so I'm not convinced by that claim.

It is easy to clean and goes in the dishwasher. We now have two of these cups - the first one we have been using for a year and it is still in relatively good condition apart from the bitten spout. The second one we have had for about six months and that still looks perfect.

Overall, I would really recommend this product for introducing your child to drinking milk from a cup. It is also good to explain about where their milk comes from - maybe especially true if you're weaning from the breast, as you can explain the difference between cows' milk and 'Mummy's milk. My little boy still loves his cow cup and won't drink milk from anything else, unless it's a Babycino in Starbucks which he'll happily have from a open espresso cup.

Summary: A great first milk cup for little ones - recommended