Housecleaning: Sippy Cup Lids, Straws, Valves and Spouts

Sippy cup lids and parts have always been a pain in the neck to clean. I've tried using cotton swabs, denture tablets and pipe cleaners and nothing seemed to do the trick.

I've thrown out numerous sippy cup parts and even whole cups because of my inability to get them properly cleaned. In an "enough already!" moment, I recently came across a site (Sippystuff.com) that sells all things sippies, including two great sippy part cleaners: 1) the Sippy Stuff Spout Cleaning brush for sippy cup spouts, valves and parts and 2) the Sippy Stuff Straw Cleaning Brush (which I found to work well to clean the side "walls" of the Playtex sippy cup nozzles and the Nuby silicon spout valves).

Cleaning tips:

Step 1: If you have dried formula, molded juice, curdled milk or some other form of gunk in your sippy cup parts you will need to soak it in warm soapy water for a few minutes.

Step 2: Select your mini-brush of choice, and gently brush away the gunk. Be sure to use warm soapy water as it helps to kill germs.

Step 3: Rinse the parts thoroughly. You probably do not need to sterilize the sippy parts at this point, but if you have concerns, talk to your child's health-care provider. Also, be sure to check with your sippy cup's manufacturer. Many manufacturers recommend against sterilizing their sippy cups.

Happy cleaning!