Sassy Grow Up Cup Review

The Sassy Grow Up Cup is a unique BPA-free plastic cup that has no spout of mouthpiece. Kids can drink from any edge of the cup just like an ordinary cup which helps them learn the proper muscle memory for future cup use. The cup is lightweight, easy to clean, and dishwasher top rack safe. It has a inner lid seal that prevents leaks for 360 degrees. The cups come in various colors and styles and are widely available in stores and online.

Performance Comparison

Likes

This cup did great in the leak test. It scored a 9 of 10 for the sideways test, and 10 of 10 for the upside down test, complete with vigorous shaking. While we did read some reviews on Amazon complaining about leaking, we did not experience them ourselves when the cup was put together properly with the lid on tight. If the lid is loose or left untightened the cup will leak significantly, so we wonder if some of those reviews were user error or possibly malfunctioning cups. Even our little in-house testers couldn't elicit leaks from these cups, and two particularly gregarious little boys failed to urge leaks from the lid even while trying.

We really liked the design of this cup and the no spout, cup-like edge it offered. This seemed like a more intuitive cup design, when the end goal is drinking from a real cup. While children will still need to suck on the edge, unlike a real cup that requires no such sucking, the hand to mouth and 360 option is more like a real cup, than any other cup we tested. Several of the little users were drawn to this grown up looking cup based on the cup edge.

The possibility for injury is also smaller with this cup. Given that there is no spout, or hard plastic protrusions on this cup, it might mean there is less chance of lacerations, or facial injuries if a child were to fall while using or holding the cup. Certainly no more potential for injury than a regular drinking cup might have.

This cup was surprisingly easy to use, once you understood the underlying concept. If the user attempted to adjust the cup lid before really giving it a good sip, they might have found themselves wet, but when used correctly with a secure lid this cup was easy to drink from, easy to maneuver with the ability to drink from all sides, and easy to hold with the tapered cup design. This cup earned a perfect 10 for ease of sucking; a key metric in whether of not a sippy will be used.

Dislikes

This cup did not score well for eco-health, or for ease of cleaning. The cup is made of plastic, which we feel is the least healthy option available when it

comes to cups and bottles. BabyGearLab prefers cups made of stainless steel or glass, because they do not have the potential to leach chemicals into their contents. Which means that as a parent, you can feel confident that the cup your child drinks from is for sure safe. This issue was not unique to this cup, we weren't a big fan of any plastic cup, not for eco-health anyway.

This cup was harder to clean than some of the other cups in our test. Primarily the inner seal, or leak proof component of the cup, was somewhat difficult to get on and off, but worse still it was hard to get truly clean given the tiny groove nature of the gasket. The seal has very narrow, groove-like channels, that zig zag from one end of the seal to the other. It is this mechanism that makes the cup leak-proof (plus it looks kind of cool). However, this is also what makes this cup harder to clean. If the cup only contains water, then it isn't such a big deal, but if it has dried milk or similar in the cup, then these grooves become a real bear to tackle. Soaking and massaging are necessary, but its the time and effort that makes it a real problem, and it takes significantly longer to clean properly than most of the other cups we tested.

Conclusion

If concerns over mouthpiece spout types is high on your list for whatever

reason, this cup is a nice alternative to the majority of cups out there. We felt it had many redeeming qualities including spill-proof and easy to drink from. The only real reason not to love this cup was the difficulty of cleaning, and the plastic composition. So if the plastic doesn't bother you, and you don't mind the slightly higher than usual for a plastic cup price, then this might be a fun cup to try. This cup did not win any wards in our tests, but it did rank number 5 out of 21 cups tested. Not too shabby for a cup that broke the mold of what a sippy cup should look like.