Hallelujah. We made it through. My Man finished his last test Thursday– beginning almost 30 days of semi-freedom and familial bliss!
I have so many (many) posts in my head, gathering to a complex hurricane of thoughts. But I’m really trying to relax just a bit, instead of charging into my free time with the panic of starvation. Instead of diving straight off the deep end, I thought I’d start with this simple, season-appropriate DIY project.
Up until recently my kiddos largely drank out of plastic. It always bothered me, bothered the shit out of me in fact. I hate to drink out of plastic, so why was I allowing my tiny budding babies to pollute their otherwise pure systems with leaching chemical compounds? I’d give them jam jars when I could, but so often I just couldn’t face up to the possibility of yet another wipe-up of spilled fluids, number 57 of the day. So I’d defer to plastic, oh beneficent god of the spill-proof sippy cup.
But a few moths ago I was grazing Simple, Frugal, Green and I found these kids’ cups made out of jam jars (half pint mason jars) with a hole punched in the lid to put a straw through. Brilliant! How had I never thought of that?
My mind worked at it a bit more though, and I thought, why jars? Why not these cute apple shaped bottles I’d gotten at the store to use as small sized glass water bottles? And instead of just a plastic straw, like Abby used, why not invest in a set of stainless steel straws?
Thus, my (half mine anyway) brainchild was born.
Don’t you want one? Don’t you want half a dozen, since 5 are always lost under the couch anyway?
As you might imagine, this cute apple shaped bottle was sold with apple juice in it. For $1.75. How’s that for a cheap sippy cup? With free drink no less!
The stainless steel straws get you though. $10.99 for 4. I strongly recommend you get ones that come with a special straw cleaning brush. (You know I hate to link to Amaz*n, but here they are if you don’t want to mess around looking for them.)
So, how to punch that sweet little hole that brings it all together. Of course drilling a hole just the size of the straw would be the logical way to do it, these lids are pretty soft metal and would be easy to drill. But my drill bit chuck is stuck tight, I can’t get the phillip’s head out to put in a drill bit. (Any advice?) So short of that I used the phillips head bit and a screw to make a hole, which wasn’t big enough, so then I used a phillips head screwdriver by hand, just yarfing it back and forth, to open the hole up enough to get the straw through. Don’t overdo it though, the tighter the hole around the straw, the less leaking action you’ll see.
And no, these aren’t spill-proof. But then, no sippy is. Even the best ones we found (Playtex) would start leaking after the kids chewed the plastic mouthpiece enough. These apple bottles are a good shape for the sippy, partly because they’re squat– low center of gravity– but also because if they’re less than half full when they get tipped over, the level of the liquid doesn’t reach the hole, and they don’t leak at all! But even when mostly full, if you’ve been careful to make the hole perfectly fit the straw, the leaking isn’t too bad.
4 apple juice bottles $7
4 straws + cleaning brush — $11
no more worrying about poison laced orange juice — priceless
Apron Stringz 
The recycled approach is always preferable, but just as an aside, I did find just the other day that Kleen Kanteen makes stainless steel baby bottles, and if I’m not mistaken, sippy cups as well. (expensive, of course)
oh yes, they make stainless sippies, we have several. but they don’t work. i mean they don’t leak at all, they’re extremely clean. but you have to work hard to suck the water out of them. and what little does come out, comes all mixed up with air. they’re awful. at least the ones we tried.
I’m wondering if a rubber washer might solve the leaking issue. Have no idea if they’d be food grade, though.
i tried chewing gum. thought i was so smart. chewed it up thoroughly (yech, why do people like that?) then stuck it all around the straw. the toddler peeled it off and ate it. so i put on another wad, on the underside of the lid this time. it molded. whoops.
a washer is a good idea. i wonder how you could make it stay put though?
Very clever idea!
Very clever! I am wondering if the lid will rust where the hole has been made? We have the stainless steel straws, have had them for a couple of years now, and they are great… we had some pipe cleaners from a craft box we use to clean them, but a little brush is a much better idea, I’d reckon!
(EcoTanka have these Teeny Tankas too, and like Danielle said, not as cheap, frugal, or recyclable as yours! http://www.ecotankas.com.au/)
Good to see you back again.
Love! I hate our plastic sippy cups but have been loath to spend the money for alternatives. Especially when half of them have resin glues and liners anyway.
I can’t wait to try this!
One more thought…
We finally got the idea (I don’t remember how, it may be a stolen idea) to try our plastic lids from the plastic cups you get at restaurants on our glasses. It worked but now that the cups in restaurants are smaller, the lids are smaller and therefore once they wear out, that’s it. We bought some glasses from walmart that we needed and the large lids fit on them better than the ones we were using. We haven’t tried the hard plastic lids from the gas stations yet but that will be what we try next. Good luck!
This is a great idea!
In the interest of safety, though – and I know that responsible parents already do this – but just keep in mind that straws for little ones can be dangerous when they are not properly supervised.
Yet I still like this idea – maybe a ring of food-grade or aquarium-grade silicone around the opening in the lid would work.
oo, do they make food grade silicone caulk? that would be awesome.
it’s true about the straws, especially when they’re made from such hard material as stainless steel.
Reblogged this on theclarifiedblackman and commented:
Great idea! I was just thinking how cool it would be to have a Mason jar ti carry and look cool with. Thanks!!