Baby BornFree Trainer Cups

We’ve never really been successful with bottles. We did try at 11 days once breast feeding was well and truly established, to introduce expressed and bottled milk and for two whole months all was well in our world. Then, one day, my daughter Ameli decided no more. Since then we’ve been on breast only. To be honest, this never worried me.

But, seasons change and this summer has been an exceptionally hot one. Although I’m aware that breastmilk is sufficient for both her dietery and her hydration needs, I still wanted to introduce water.

We tried a bottle. She was still not interested.

We tried using a straw to transfer water from the bottle to her mouth. It worked, but was time consuming.

We tried using a squirty bottle. Not being bottle fed, and not being puree fed, she really didn’t ‘get’ the whole sucking thing.

We tried a cup. It successfully hydrated her, but very little went in her mouth.

So then I approached Baby BornFree for some advice, and they very kindly sent me a set of their training cups to try out.

These 9 oz. (290ml) cups are BPA, phthalates and PVC free which means that no harmful ingredients seep in to the baby’s drinking water. The spout itself has proven to be a very useful teething toy too: Ameli bites it, enjoys the squeaky sound and it releases little bits of water in to her mouth, which makes me happy. The trainer cup also arrived with two different teats so that more or less water can flow freely, depending on the child’s capabilities.

The valve allows a free flow of liquid – in other words, not much sucking is required, which lowers the risk of middle-ear infections. The handles on either side seem to prepare little hands for holding a cup and otherwise make an interesting plaything.

The negatives for this product are few. I have heard some say that they are ‘fiddly’ due to all the components, but that hasn’t been a problem for us. These are the only ‘bottles’ that we use so time spent in preparation is minimal.

When held upside down, the cup does leak a little from the teat, but this is solved by keeping the lid on. It would be great if BornFree sent a spare lid for each cup however, as we have somehow lost the lids from both cups already!

Baby BornFree are very active in their own marketing and have a fantastic handle on social media. You can follow them on twitter @BabyBornFreeUK and on Facebook and since they run regular givaways, special offers and competitions, doing so could be really worth while.

They have also very kindly offered to give Diary of a First Child readers a chance to win a set of four training cups, by simply leaving a comment below telling me which your favourite colour cup would be.
If you can’t wait that long, you can also buy these cups at a competitive £6.99

Competition closes at noon (GMT) on 19 July 2010 and the winner will be drawn randomly using Random.org

Diary of a First Child is a blog about natural parenting and learning how to be a natural parent. If you like what you see here, please subscribe to my RSS Feed or become a friend on Google Friend Connect (sidebar on the right). I would love to hear from you, so please feel free to contact me by email on diaryofafirstchild @ googlemail.com or on twitter @diaryfirstchild.

Small print:

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.

Prizes are sent out by sponsors directly. Please get in touch if you do not receive your prize within four weeks of the closing date.

And the winner is:

Keira O’Mara
Congratulations Keira and thank you again Baby BornFree for sponsoring the giveaway!