PSA re: Gerber Sippy Cups

[misshollygolightly]

I don't want to unduly alarm anyone, but I did want to let you all know about a problem we just experienced with my son's Gerber/Nuk Graduates Fun Grips Soft Starters Sippy Cups. Basically, he managed to chew off and swallow a small chunk of the soft plastic that forms the sippy spout. Our cups are less than a year old and DS doesn't go around the house gnawing on the things, so I found this alarming. He appears to be fine, and the piece of plastic was pretty small, but this seems like something that could happen to others and be dangerous. I emailed the NUK folks who manufacture this product under the Gerber name this afternoon, so hopefully I'll hear back from them soon. Here is a link to a picture of the product:
http://www.amazon.com/NUK-Gerber-Sta...ref=pd_cp_ba_2

Here is the text of the email I sent the company:
Hi! I purchased several GRADUATES® Fun Grips®
Soft Starters Cups around the time my son turned 12 months old (about seven months ago). We've always taken good care of them (washed them according to directions, son uses them with adult supervision etc.) and have loved them, but I recently discovered that my son had managed to chew off and apparently swallow a small piece of the soft plastic from the sippy spout. This seems like a potentially dangerous construction flaw in your cups, as an infant or toddler with any front teeth whatsoever could easily gnaw off small pieces of the spout and swallow them (or even choke on them!). I understand that the sippy cups are marketed as being intended for babies age "7 months and up", and many babies that age do have teeth. It also seems to me that a sippy cup should reasonably be expected to stand up to at least a couple years of use and not start coming apart in less than a year. I will be replacing all of our Gerber sippy cups with other brands and styles, as I can't risk my son swallowing chunks of plastic. I will, however, be happy to mail our chewed-on cup to you or send you photographs if you'd like to investigate further. I also want to say again how much we've liked this product--it really is "spill-proof" and it was easy for my son to learn to use--but now the risks to my son's health outweigh the benefits.

[nov04]

Not sure where you are, but here there's a warning on them to inspect the spout for wear and tear much like a paci or bottle nipple because they're so soft. that's actually a major reason why I stopped buying them and went for avent because the spout is replaceable.

[dhano923]

Most cups do tell you to check them before each use for signs of wear and tear. I've never had a sippy cup for more than 4-5 months -- I would replace them regularly because both my kids would start gnawing on them. I wouldn't expect a sippy cup to last "at least a couple years of use". Our cups used to look awful after just 3-4 months.

[JBaxter]

Am in agreement with the pp's Nathan was a big chewer we replaced the avent sippy spout every few months and the nuby ones maybe 2 months.

[KrisM]

I'm glad your son is okay!

We also replace ours every few months and once the kids mastered soft spouts/straws, we moved to harder ones to avoid this issue altogether.

Please post any reply you get.

[misshollygolightly]

Wow! I guess my expectations were off then. It's entirely possible that there was a warning label on the package itself (which was long since thrown away), but I don't think there is on the actual cups. We'll definitely be using the harder plastic cups from now on. It still seems odd to me, as we never had anything like this happen with a paci or anything, but maybe DS never chewed on them as much or something. It also seems a little weird as the cups never showed any signs of wear until there was a chunk missing and by then it was too late! Oh well. We'll know better next time! (And I will let y'all know what the manufacturers say if they reply to my message.)

[infocrazy]

I won't buy these cups anymore. Our problem with these wasn't the spout, but DS2 pulled all of the rubber or whatever it is out of the handles... It wasn't even hard! We pretty much used the Take 'n Toss cups only. I didn't care if one got lost/damaged etc, but I wish they sold just lids. We have a THOUSAND cups but only a few lids now.

[liz]

I won't buy these cups anymore. Our problem with these wasn't the spout, but DS2 pulled all of the rubber or whatever it is out of the handles... It wasn't even hard! We pretty much used the Take 'n Toss cups only. I didn't care if one got lost/damaged etc, but I wish they sold just lids. We have a THOUSAND cups but only a few lids now.

I agree, we love our take-n-toss cups! Easy to clean, inexpensive, and the lids stay on so well. I just recently purged a ton of bottoms (it doesn't matter what type of cup we got, our boys loved to chew on the spout/straw). Best part is, the cups are recyclable, so no guilt for me!

As far as the gerber cup, we had one but we chucked it- the white valve always seemed to fall out into liquid-such a pain to put back together.

OP I am sorry to hear of your experience- I am curious to hear your response from gerber.