Sippy Cup Straws

Even when I thought I was getting mine clean, I looked really close inside and there were millions of tiny black dots inside. I realized it was bacteria that didn't go away no matter how I cleaned it. I decided to throw all the straws away and just use disposable straws. I didn't want to take the chance of making my kids sick. Plus, my kids love picking out a new color straw each day. I have them reuse he same straw the whole day so we don't go through them too fast. Works great!

M.

Hi S. - for those I use a good old fashioned pipe cleaner. I was getting pretty tired of having to clean those valves all the time though and started using the FirstYears disposable cups with straws and lids. The lids snap on well enough to handle most little drops and they wash well.

UGH!! What a mess. I dripped a little bit of soap down into the straw and then rinsed like crazy. Beyond that, I have no idea. I finally gave up on them. They were just too hard to keep clean. My kids used sippy cups with the suction-cup typy lid. They were much easier to clean.

THROW OUT THE SIPPY CUPS! A 4 year old (and certainly not a 7 year old) doesn't need a sippy cup anymore, and you're going to have speech and dental problems like you won't believe. My little boy is having problems saying his "Z's" (he's 8) and I have been throwing money at speech therapist for over a year, plus we're doing the free therapy they do in the school. (His is from allergies and sleeping with his mouth open, but the therapist said their schedules are FULL now due to the parents that let their kids use sippy cups.)

I'm worried that he'll grow up and in his everyday speech he'll still be talking like this.

I haven't tried this, but my aunt swears by it. She uses denture cleaner tablets (you know the ones, that you drop in water and they fizz up) to clean straws and sippy cup inserts. Then she gives them a good rinse and they are good to go.

My 18 month old loves drinking through a straw and I am not into using the cruddy straws either so I bought plastic cups with lids in the baby department (like the disposable ones that you get at a restaurant)and a box of disposable straws. I threw out the straws that came with it and use the disposable ones. Now I can wash the cup and lid in the diswasher and use a fresh straw every time. Good luck! ;)

We mostly drink water, so there isn't junk inside the straws. When the girls do have anything else, I take the cup apart and rinse the straws totally. Then they get clean in the dishwasher. If any crud does stay inside, we have a very small brush that works great. We got ours when we bought a Podee bottle, but you might be able to find some very thin bottle brushes at Toys R Us in the bottle section, or maybe at a specialty home store like Bed Bath and Beyond.

Cheers,
S.

Q-tips worked for me ;) And then replacing them fairly often as well.

You can clean sippy cup straws with a dot of dish soap on a fat craft type pipe cleaner. :D

2 ideas that worked for us:
1) small nipple brush (that comes w the bottle brush)
2) small brush that is used for cleaning Camelback bladder and tubes

I simply use a Q-Tip (and a long skewer if needed to push it all the way through), it works great!

Boy do I understand this one. I serve my daughter green smoothies in her sippy cup, and the little chunks of spinach really get stuck in there. Here's what works for me.

Rinse them out as soon as your child is done. That way a direct stream of water goes through the straw, clearing out all the gunk before it hardens. In a dishwasher the outside of the straw will get clean and the heat will sanitize it, but the inside won't get clean because there's not direct water stream that goes through it.

Rinsing them out can be annoying, as your child will go through several in a day, but it is much easier. If you are out somewhere without a sink, just remember to do it as soon as you get home.

Good luck!

I'm a cake decorator. I have a little brush used for cleaning the decorating tips that works really well. Sometimes i have to go in from both ends of the straw. It won't work on the seriously long straws so I stick to the short cups with the short straws.

I use pipe cleaners, you know the ones from the craft store. You just wet them and put a little soap on it and put it through each side until you think it's clean, just make sure you rinse them really good. When your done you can just throw them away and get a new one.

I hope this helps.

Hi S.,

I don't know if anyone has responded or not, but I did read about using compressed air to clean out sippy cup straws. You know, the kind used to clean computers and small electronics. I've never used it, but it makes sense. I tried to not let my son drink anything but clear liquids from the straw types! LOL ... I'm too lazy.

Second the suggestion about the little brushes. Also, some of the cups are easier to take apart than others, but for some of my daughter's cups I try to take them apart as much as possible. Also, she has some cheap cups from wal-mart that has a straw built in the lids. I think I found them in the cheap "summer" plastic stuff they sell every year. Those clean up amazingly well and don't spill all that much, and they are the type of cups that you can put in the freezer so they will stay cold (although I don't usually put them in the freezer - I never think that far ahead!). Good luck!

Try Q-tips - if the straws are longer than one Q-tip, use another to push the first one through.

i make sure not to use any straws with ridges or sippy cups where the straws are attached to the lid. i just get the cheap cups from walmart with the straight straws that come out, but they fit tight in the cups and are not too easy for little kids to take out. i wash the straws with hot soapy water pretty soon after use so the drink doesn't have a chance to stick to the inside.

run hot water through them.

I never ran mine through the dishwasher but took them off the cup and washed them by hand, set them aside and put the rest of the cup in the dishwasher. A pain but much better method to make sure they are clean.
I can say around last year I stopped using them and we went straight to regular cups, success so far, they just aren't allowed anything but water outside the kitchen, hee hee.

My dishwasher usually does the job, but when it doesn't I thread a piece of cooking twine through and scrape it clean, then back in the dishwasher for a second time. HTH

A.

When I watch my niece, I take dish soap and quirt it in the straw and then squeeze and rub the straw back and forth to losen the crud and then soak in in REALLY REALLY HOT WATER then rinse it out. I have also taken a skewer (not the pointy end) and stuck it down the straw and kind of scraped the sides of the straw.

try a pipe cleaner-they are cheap and you can toss them after use!

Hi, S.! I know--they are so hard to get clean! I use this little brush that came with our Dr. Brown's bottles--it's the perfect size to get inside the straw. I found them on the Dr. Brown's website under replacement parts, so I think you ought to be able to buy just the brush and not the whole bottle package: http://www.handi-craft.com/bottles/ReplacementParts.shtm. Have fun cleaning!
S.

Pipe cleaners will do the job!

Pipe cleaners. I try not to put milk in cups with straws, because juice comes out better.
I didn't have one and had some crud, so I tied something small and relatively heavy (I think it was a pin or something) to a piece of yarn, threaded it through the straw, and pulled it back and forth through the straw.
And if you don't have this, there's a Munchkin dishwasher cage that has straw holders that pop out on the side. The straws get WAY cleaner in that than in the silverware tray. I love mine! They're about $3 at Walmart.