How Often Do You Wash/Sterilize Sippy Cup? - Page 2

[JudiAU]

Sippy cups are washed at least every day, somtimes they get replaced more often if they get grimy. They almost always contain water. Have you tasted the water in an old one? Nasty. We have clear plastic in the house which I prefer because I can easily monitor volume. After a few hours there is always gross stuff floating around in there. Toddlers are horrible backwashers, even through a sippy cup. They need to be cleaned every day. We don't use the valves so they leak more than often but otherwise they mold over.

We use Siggs when out and they get the same treatment.

[MamaPhD]

Eeeeeeeeeeek you guys! Sippy cup gets washed after every use in my house. We go through 5-6 sippies in a day, and then wash them all in the dish washer in the evening. It's not the water, it's the saliva and all the bits from the child's mouth that goes back into sippy, especially the spout. Also the handles get dirty from touching food/mouth/floor, whatever.

OP, the black bits you see are probably fungi or bacteria. Since both of these are microscopic, there must be millions of them for you to even see them, so eeeeeeeew.

[Baby_Cakes]

Originally Posted by bubbamummy

They straws are SO hard to get clean, I notice black stuff in them which worries me. I end up using a q-tip to try and clean them. He has his morning milk in his sippy which i think is the culprit for the black nastiness

The straws are the worst! But DD will only drink from those. I take a bamboo skewer and wrap some paper towel at the end, and push it through. Works pretty well!

I wash the cups every day with soap and hot water. I put them in the dishwasher maybe 2-3 times a week, depending.

My rule of thumb is simple -- I think to myself, if I fill this w/water again, would *I* drink from it? Once, I sipped from one that I didn't wash, just rinsed and refilled, and the water tasted fishy - probably had some mildew or algae. Gross. So now I always wash w/hot water & soap.