Rosemary's First Time With a Sippy Cup and Nuk Learning Cup Review

I’m sure almost all of you parents have heard of the Nuk brand. They have a wide range of products like breastfeeding items for Moms, bottles and accessories for infant feeding, pacifiers, cups, utensils and more. I recently have had the opportunity to try a Nuk Learner Cup with my daughter and here’s our first experience.

I want to start off by mentioning first that Rosemary is 6 months exactly, so this is a first time experience for both me and her. Imagine, my baby using a real cup! So grown up! I’ve never purchased these cups or had her use these before, so my opinion is going to be based on her learning experience of only a short time. Some of you may have already had children or your babies are already old enough to use these, so you may have different results with this cup.

The Nuk Learner Cup is for babies six months and up, so make sure you talk to your pediatrician first and are sure your little one is ready before giving your child the learner cup.

I opened the box when I got the cup and my first thought was that it was really cute. It’s red and pink and has pretty flowers on the bottle. The cup comes in red, blue or green.

I took the bottle apart and cleaned everything well. There are six parts to the bottle. Seems like a lot, but it’s really very simple. It has a spout (spill proof and also vents air to prevent colic), cap, sealing disc (to prevent leaks during travel), grip handles (great size for tiny hands), wide neck bottle (makes pouring into it easy) and the ring you put the spout through that screws onto the bottle (not sure of the official name).

Upon reading the instructions I learned that all of the parts are interchangeable with the other cups that Nuk has to offer as well. Yes, I do this for all products regarding my daughter, and so should you in my opinion. Even for a learner cup. I really like that these parts are interchangeable. When she moves up to the cups for older babies (Nuk has four different cups available), we can still use the handles on them if I want (the others don’t have the handles) or mix and match the parts when I’m putting a cup together. Also, everything is BPA Free and feels and looks durable.

You sterilize the spout before the first use just as you would a nipple for a bottle. The rest can either be hand washed or go on the top rack of the dishwasher. I really like that you can put this in the dishwasher as I’m completely spoiled and use my dishwasher all the time. I’ve only had the cup for a week and a half, so I’m not sure how it holds up over long periods of time.

I thought these cups all had hard spouts so I was surprised when I opened this to find that it had a removable silicone spout just like her bottles. I really like this feature of the cup. The transition to a learner cup will be so much easier if it’s the same material as her bottle. I also like it for learning purposes as my daughter tends to forcefully put things to her face. I feel like a hard spout would hurt her, so I’m glad this spout is soft for safety issues as well. The spout is also spill proof so when she’s learning to hold it and misses her mouth or drops the cup, nothing will come out. This is great for beginners for obvious reasons! Also, I did read that these are also available with the latex spout for those of you who prefer latex.

Reassembling the cup takes just a few seconds. I did notice when I put it back together and screwed the top on that the spout wasn’t facing the same directions as the handles. Then I remembered I could MOVE the handles myself. Perfect, now we were ready to roll.

The first couple of times I gave it to her didn’t go so great. This was to be expected though as she’s just 6 months, so I don’t fault the learning cup at all. The first time, she thought it was a toy. I think the mistake I made was not putting any liquid in it so she was trying to chew on the side of the bottle. Silly girl.

The next time I decided to put an ounce of breast milk in it for her to try. This time was a disaster! Me not being so smart decided to give it to her at her bedtime feeding when she was hungry. She was furious at the bottle! Poor thing didn’t know what was going on besides that this was like a bottle, had what she wanted in it, but didn’t know how to get it out. She finally figured out that she could get some out by sucking, but she was so upset and frustrated at that point I just breast fed her like I normally do. This was a lesson learned. Don’t give a baby a new cup to drink out of when they’re hungry! Not such a bright move on my part, but I learned from it and won’t be repeating this mistake any time soon.

I did test out the spill proof spout by tipping it myself and it’s no lie, spill proof it is. Very handy for when she learns to use this herself.

The next couple of times were a bit better, but I really think she might not be ready for it yet. She could get some out and hold it herself (as you can see from the pictures I took today), but I’ve decided to take it very slow with this and will be gradually introducing this more and more in the next few weeks. I wanted to do this review for you readers, but I don’t in any way want to force her! There’s really no rush for her to do this, but I thought I’d try it out and see if she was ready as she’s constantly trying to grab at my drinks. Not quite ready yet Rosemary, soon though!

While I can’t tell you all how great it went or how the cup made it so easy for her to pick up drinking from a cup by herself right away, I can tell you I’m excited to try again and I know I’ll be picking up more of these cups. They’re cute and seem like such great quality. I love that they’re interchangeable so I’ll be able to use them for a longer time than other beginner cups. I know this is a learning experience for her, so this will just take some time at her own pace. I look forward to trying again and I know she’ll get it soon with the help of this learner cup. This was only over a week of trying the cup, so I’m sure in the future she’ll become a pro at these!

To learn more about the Nuk family check out their website for more information on their products and where to buy. I’ve personally seen these at Babies R Us and Target, but I’m sure they’re at many more as well.

I was provided with this product free of charge by the highlighted company and/or its PR agency in order to test the product first hand and to provide you with my personal opinion on it. The opinions I have provided are mine and mine alone. I am in no way required to write a positive review and my review was not influenced in any way by monetary means. Please investigate before any and all purchases as I am not liable nor responsible for any losses or damages you may incur.