Elasticated neck syndrome (Tommee Tippee Tip-It-Up First Cup Plus)

Member Name: sue26

Product:	Tommee Tippee Tip-It-Up First Cup Plus
Date:	19/12/01 (486 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None really

Disadvantages: Almost everything about it

I`m forever trying out different spill-proof beakers on my daughter because she has a very annoying habit of losing them, she never loses them outdoors just in the house, so when we come to move house and find them all she should have pretty big collection.

In a previous op I mentioned that we`d found the tesco cup to be perfect, so when she lost yet another cup last week I was fully intending to get another tesco cup today. My plans were spoiled however when I found out that my local Tescos had run out of these and weren`t expecting new stock for a while.

I decided I couldn`t wait that long, as I was having to clean up loads of ribena stains while she was using a beaker that didn`t have the no-spills action.

We eventually settled on this tommee tippee one, and I can say already that I do not like it, or more to the point, my daughter doesn`t like it.

This one has yet another different type of device to stop juice from spilling out of it. Just inside the lid, underneath the spout, there is a special valve with two circular slots that you press into to the circular slots inside the lid. The way this works is that one of the circles had a two way valve inside it that can only make the juice flow by a sucking action.

This part in itself is good because at least it renders the spout drip-proof. What lets it down though is the overall design of the rest of the cup.

I`ll tell you about the good parts first and then where the flaw lies in the design.

The beaker and lid are made from very tough plastic so even with lots of banging on the furniture it shouldn`t acquire any dents or scratches. There is a handle on each side which are quite large so no child will have trouble gripping it properly.

The base of the cup has a large ridge sort of like a built on stand, I`m assuming this is for stability, but I can`t see it toppling over even without this added part.

The lid also comes with a protecti
ve cover for use when you`re out and about. This is a good idea as it stops the spout getting clogged up with bits of fluff when you`ve got it stored in a changing bag, and it also adds to the security that the spout definitely won`t be able to leak. The downside to this though is that it was hard to remove, as every time I tried to pull it off it just took the lid with it, in the end the only way I could remove it was by levering it with the edge of a knife.

The spout itself is of a good size, not too big or too small, and it only has the one drinking hole.

The colours of the beaker are brilliant, the cup itself is bright yellow but transparent, so you can see when it needs refilling, and the lid is bright purple with a bright pink spout. There are no pictures on the cup, just the usual tommee tippee logo.

Now for the downside. This cup is a fair bit wider than your usual toddler beaker, so when the cup is half empty it needs to be tipped almost totally upside down before the juice can enter the valve. This makes it totally impossible to drink from unless your child is lying down or they have an extremely flexible neck.

This leads me to the other drawback which is the main reason I don`t like it. The lid is just a press on one which seems fairly snug at first, although I did notice that there isn`t a tiny ridge for it to click over to keep it in place tighter. When my daughter had half emptied the cup, she started losing her temper with it because she couldn`t tip it up far enough to get the rest of the juice out. This led her to throw it accross the room where the lid instantly popped off, relieving the cup of the rest of it`s contents all over my nice clean carpet. I never once had this problem with the tesco cup, no matter how hard she threw it.

Another downside is the price, this cup comes at a lovely price of £3.50 which I think is rather expensive. So overall I`d definitely say this cup is worse than useless, and w
ill be dispensed to the back of the cupboard along with the other rejects.

Summary: