Sucking Required (Tommee Tippee Easiflow Beaker)

Member Name: noodlesandwich

Product:	Tommee Tippee Easiflow Beaker
Date:	02/05/09 (273 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: seemed okay at first

Disadvantages: leaks, spout is easily chewed and broken

The baby/toddler cup market is a very confusing one. I know I am not the only mum to have stood in front of the selection available in Boots with my mind being boggled. There are cups, beakers, hard or soft spouts, orthodontic varieties, straws, flip lids, magic cups, the list goes on, all with different ages attached to them, presumably so that you feel as if you should be constantly changing them so your child keeps up with the right age group. All this is rather unneccessary in my opinion.

This is the fourth drinking vessel I have bought for my daughter after bottles. The first one was an Avent bottle to cup trainer which is still in use but a bit of a pain as it leaks if she holds it the wrong way around, (and also, strangely, when she shakes it all over the place). The second one I bought was a Boots own brand trainer cup which was fine apart from the fact that the lid wouldn't stay on, and then we lost it. As my daughter is able to drink out of an open cup I was hoping to get away without buying another one, this would work for mealtimes, but it is convenient to have a cup with a lid if you are out and about, (I imagine it's quite difficult to drink neatly when you are not yet two and riding in a pushchair). I then bought a beaker with a straw which was aimed roughly at my daughters age group but the straw got chewed and broken its on first use! Of course I took it back and got a refund - then, having read a positive review of the Tommee Tippee Easiflow cup on Dooyoo I decided to try their easiflow beaker, from which I had originally been put off because it is aimed at age 9months + and my daughter is 22 months (Oh the anxiety!).

They seem to come in four colours, the obligatory pink and blue and the more neutral lilac and green. They are a roughly the size of a half pint glass with a flat lid and a soft yellow thimble like spout which has its own flip lid. (There are two types of Easiflow beaker, the current Dooyoo picture does not show the one with the spout.) Both lids seem both secure and easy to take off and put on, I have had no problems with them so far. The spout can be removed for washing and screws back in. I wonder how long the spout will last, it seems hardy enough, but I will update the review if it gets knackered too soon! There are replacement spouts available to buy.

I have noticed that they do seem to get grubby quite easily. I actually noticed this before I bought mine, not after my toddler got her hands on it! I had noticed a few quite dirty looking cups in a couple of different shops. The material is two different types of plastic, one clear and one more soft and rubber like, presumably to help with grip, unfortunately this part seems to attract dirt like erm, a dirt attractor. They wash clean well enough though, so it's not a big problem.

The instruction leaflet states; ' How to Use: Apply pressure to the base of the spout. This releases the pin underneath and allows the liquid to flow through the spout into baby's mouth. No sucking is required'. I think this is a bit odd; firstly how would anyone get a baby to "Apply pressure to the base of the spout"? and secondly having tried the beaker out myself I can say that sucking is almost certainly required. Okay you can get a few meagre drops by chomping on the base, but for a satisfying drink you do need to suck properly. Sucking whilst squeezing the base with your teeth gets the best results. My daughter most definitely sucks it and there's nothing wrong with that. It's fine. The beaker seems absolutely fine too. When drinking from it it doesn't spill. If it gets shaken all around the place it will leak a bit, but I suppose you can't expect miracles.

My daughter got the hang of this instantly and had no problem getting the liquid out satisfactorily, I've carried it around all day in my rather cluttered bag without any spillage problems and it's been dismantled washed and put back together with no problems. Hopefully we won't lose this one and I have entered the complicated baby drinking cup market place for the last time.

The Tommee Tippee Easiflow beaker cost me £2.06 in Boots. A pack of two replacement spouts sell on the Tommee Tippee website for £2.93.

UPDATE - 2 months on
I no longer use this cup. The spout has been pretty well chewed up and needs replacing but I won't bother because the cup leaks too much, more and more as time has gone on. I was getting a wet bag whenever I went out. I've reduced the star rating to one as a result as I don't think it's worth the money at all now.

Summary: Quite Satisfactory