My exclusively breastfed baby has, to put it mildly, never really taken to bottles. We did manage for a while over the summer to get her to use a sippy cup as a chew toy, which had the added side effect of squirting valuable drops of water in her mouth.
Then we discovered the Doidy cup, and I was rather intrigued by its unusual shape. The idea behind this design is so that babies as young as three months could hold it, tip it slightly enough to see the liquid and be able to drink without a gush of water falling on them.
In theory I love the idea and to an extent it worked – I gave it to my then eight month old and she was perfectly capable of holding it steadily in two hands, taking a sip, swallowing and then lowering. Unfortunately that is where it fell apart for her as she would then start swinging the cup around, turning it upside down and using it as a handwash basin, causing water to fly everywhere.
A workaround was for me to hold the cup for her (which can be done from birth), and here the elongated slant made it much easier for me to see when the water was at her lips, which helped reduce spillage too and means she can drink ‘normally’ without having to tilt her head too far backwards.
I think it’s an ideal first drinking cup, but perhaps for an older child, unless you have the time and patience to teach a younger one that the drinking cup is not a toy; something I failed miserably at.
The Doidy cup is dishwasher safe and made from food safe HD Plyethylene and BPA free and confirms to the EN14350 standard for child use and care. According to their website, various health professionals are “advising use of the Doidy Cup to prevent long term health problems caused by delayed weaning and prolonged use of feeding bottles and spouted cupsâ€.
The cup is a durable and hard plastic, and I would love to see Doidy produce a more environmentally friendly alternative, such as bamboo, but until they do, it is still a great purchase and incredibly helpful if you want your bottle-refusers to drink something other than milk.
A Diary of a First Child reader can win a Doidy Cup simply by looking at their website, choosing your favourit of the 10 colours the Doidy Cup comes in and leaving a comment here to let me know which it is. The competition closes at 12 GMT on 11 October 2010, a winner will be chosen at random using Random.org and is open to UK entries only.
If you can’t wait that long, you can buy the Doidy cup from their website at £3.70 or from John Lewis at £3.50.
You do not have to tweet or share this competition to enter, but doing so helps ensure that I can keep bringing you giveaways every week! You can subscribe to Diary of a First Child by RSS, email or through Google Friend Connect (see the bottom to the right). You can also follow us on Facebook or on Twitter. We hope to see you back again soon!
Small Print:
The colour of prize cup is yellow.
Please leave an email address/blog address/twitter name where I can contact the winner. If I am unable to make contact within one week I will select a new winner and the previously selected winner will have no recourse to the prize.
The winner is: Ruth Mulcaster! Congratulations 🙂
Blue!
I like the red one!
I love the purple – its so bright and vibrant!
My favourite is the light blue cup
its yellow for me
I love the light pink one.
I like the red and the light blue. Think my daughter would probably go for the pink though!
I love the purple one.
Purple is my favourite – but babies will probably like the brighter colours
Hot pink is my fave, it’s pretty 😀
Red is nice
Love the red!
The baby pink one has to be my favourite.
Red please. Thanks.
I like the darker pink.
I like the green and the purple – hard to choose a favourite but I think the green just wins!
I love the yellow… My little ones favourite colour!
Purple!
I love the purple one, quite simply because it’s my favourite colour!
My favourite colour is yellow – these cups look great – thank you so much for the giveaway!
I love the purple one, thanks
Love the Red colour – its classic and would be suitable for a boy or girl
ooooooooh definately yellow! my sons fav colour too xx
I love the light purple colour. these cups look great really good idea
My favourite is the purple, my daughter would love it! 🙂
The dark pink one is my favourite. I can safely say that after having 3 children,i must have tried every cup going[my husband will vouch for that!] but have not yet tried this one and would love to. My 17 month old will be eager to try it out… :o]
I would love one of these, my daughter is 13 months now and she wants to join us grown ups, drinking from “proper cups”. I especially like the purple one, as it would show (m)any stains….lol
What a wonderful idea. My favourite is the red cup as it’s such a happy young boys colour
loving the bright colours, especially the RED.
purple for me, great colours 🙂
i love the yellow
Yellow! I’ve spent sooooooo much on beakers and all my baby will drink form is them with out their lids….but the water just spills everywhere so I’m gonna give these a go and see if they work.
Has to be the orange one
I like the blue one.
I like the green one best!
Doidy Cup – Yellow is the best!
The red cup is my favourite. I found this cup to be brilliant for my first baby and he now is 20 months old and drinks so well out of a proper glass.
LOVE the aqua
Never heard of Doidy before, looks very stylish. Purple or blue are just perfect. Thank you!
Has to be purple for my great niece Jessica.
I love the purple one
Blue looks nice to me!
Both pinks and the purple one.
I would love one of these for my grandaughter to use. I would pick the blue one as my favourite, simply because I remember my mum used a blue one for my brother and sister approx 50 years ago. Well done Doidy, keep on!
I love love love the bright pink one, hope the baby will too!
My favourite is definitely the Sparkle Cerise Pink really girly and sparkly to encourage interest from my little one.
I like the green best
I love the purple one!
I love the red one, it’s so bright
Has to be the funky purple 🙂
I love the purple one!
so many colours to choose from, but I think I like the blue best, for a boy :o)
i like the look of them
the bright blue one! Such a great idea!
I LOVE THE PURPLE ONE
A red one would be perfect for either boy or girl (although at such a young age I don’t think they really care which colour!)
Purple is the best!!
green is my favourite
red – always a great colour
Definiatly the fusha pink one. My daughter would LOVE this.
I would love a purple one for my daughter, she is just giving up her bottle, what a great idea
the yellow one.
these look great been thinking about getting my 18 month old off sippy cups. fab idea shall be buying one of these if i dont win thanks
I LOOOVE the YELLOW one. Have one granddaughter who already has one, but hope to have another grandchild soon. And by the way I am not in the UK, but I know someone who is coming out to South Africa real soon. And also I think the DOIDY will be great for when I am older, so I wont spill my wine down my chest.
love the pink one
I am loving the jade green doidy.
purple
I love the deep pink one, but for my children i would want the yellow, lovely ad bright (and more unisex than the pink!)
This cup is great! The yellow is bright and positive colour which will help my child.
The darker blue one for me please!!! (or should I say my grandson!)
I really like the dark green one (although the purple one is a very close second!!).
4 Boys 1 Girl
Purple one
I like the blue one.
I have a disabled daughter she not a baby(In fact she is 20)But she drinks from a doidy cup with help from me.They are great cos it means she can drink from a grown up cup not a training cup.She has a white cup but the cerise one is lovely, never seen that colour before.
Havent seen these before,fantastic idea,will have a look for stockists in my area.I love the purple cup best,my favourite colour.
I would really like a Fuchsia Pink cup please. My DD is 13 months old and is not too keen on her sippy cups, she much prefers to try and drink out of my glass. Good job I only drink water in the day and save the glass of wine for when she’s in bed!
Quite taken with the grey/silver colour.
I love the green but would be happy with yellow! My little one is just starting to use a cup but isn’t getting on very well with any of the ones we’ve bought so far!
We have a doidy cup also – so please don’t enter me in the drawing. Let someone else get one. It was a great start for cup drinking. I started my daughter with one in August, when she was 7 months old(?). She was using a Born Free or a Kleen Kanteen. I like the Doidy, however, you do have to start with just a little in the bottom. And, my girl likes to spill the water on the table then splash her hands in it. I will tell you, though, she is also using a small Williams Sonoma juice glass quite well. It is clear glass so it is easy for her to judge where the water sits. Of course, I need to watch that she doesn’t bang it on the glass table. (This kid is a pistol.) I like that she can drink out of a regular glass. If I forget to bring her a Kleen Kanteen, she can always use a cup.
I totally agree with your review. The Doidy didn’t work so well for us until DD was over 12 mos. She also like to tip it up and let the water spill. But I kind of think they need to get this out of their systems. I just let her! (she was allowed 1 refill, after that only a sippy cup) Now (18 mos) she realises that if she wants to drink it she shouldn’t tip it! She much prefers an open cup to a sippy cup and drinks far more from an open cup.
I love the purple one!
I dont wish to entered in the draw, but both my boys used a Doidy cup, initially they used it at the table nad I only ever put a tiny amount in, but they soon progressed from there. They are a great step up from sippy cups or bottles
Purple! All the way. Though I also like the turquoise and pink. 😉