(bump for edit at bottom)
OK, I KNOW I’m not the only parent out there to experience this.
You know those sippy cups with the lids that have so many tiny hard to clean crevices? The ones that make you scratch your head at the design? The ones that make you ask – What jokester thought it would be a good idea to make a child’s cup with so many mold friendly hiding spots?
If you have kids, then you know what I’m talking about. The cup stays looking good and fairly easy to clean for about a week and then it’s like the your competing in the cup cleaning olympics to keep up with the darn mold!
And I’m not talking about the cup that went missing under the seat of the car for a month either! I’m talking about the cup you filled up in the morning thats NASTY by evening.
You KNOW it was clean prior to filling it up, because you damn near hit it with a jackhammer during it’s previous cleaning. You’ve used knives and pipe cleaners, tried different soaps, different settings on a dishwasher and even boiled them! Yet still, the mold returns and nothing short of buying those replacement lids and little rubber valves solves it… mmm hhhmm.
Well I’ve had enough! There has GOT to be a way to keep these things clean!!
The moms of the world need to band together and force the sippy cup making overlords to MAKE BETTER LIDS!!
Update!!!
I’ve found a solution! Thanks to someone’s suggestion over on CafeMom, I visited a little site called Sippy Stuff and found some neat little cleaning tools!
They paired a nifty little straw cleaner with an AWESOME tiny cleaning brush! I only needed the bitty cleaning brush, since I’ve already got some badass straw cleaners for my stainless steel straws, and I got it over at Lil’ Tulips (which has superfast FREE shipping!).
And the best part is, IT WORKS!!! Easily too! I went right to the sink when I pulled it out of the envelope this afternoon an grabbed the lids I had put aside (to bring to my mothers dishwasher) and in SECONDS I had them all clean!! No mom’s cleaning arsenal should be without one of these!
Threaded Alchemy 
When my daughter was little I had the same problem with the kind of bottles I was using. It’s been 11 year though so I’m assuming they have improved them. It’s very annoying, I agree totally. Seems as though they could come up with a much better design.
@fortheloveofblogging – You would think they could have improved on the design, but I have Playtex sippies from when my 16 yr old was little and the new ones are identical in design! I swear they make them like that so you HAVE to buy new ones!
Maybe a more rubbery lid that turns inside out for cleaning…
@nevragn – That’s a great idea!
we soak our lids and valves in a bleach water solution prior to washing them – kills all the germs and will usually get the gross particles out of the tops. Then we soak them in water and give them a good scrub. My sister has a dishwasher so runs her’s thru there – not so lucky at my house, so its the old sanitizing way for us.
@reed44 – I can’t use bleach because my younger son and I are allergic to it so we don’t even keep it in the house. I do soak in vinegar and get the same results though.. and we don’t have a dishwasher either but sometimes I’ll bring them to my mothers and she’ll run them through the dishwasher for me. It’s just one more task I’d like to cross off my list of chores đŸ™‚
Ah…why didn’t I think of that. My son’s Dr. Brown bottles come with that neat little cleaning tool!
@fortheloveofblogging – Oh really? That’s cool, you already have one! My kids never took bottles so I was behind.. haha