My health visitor said something at my son Finn's eight-month check that I hadn't expected: skip the sippy cup. Go straight to an open cup. The research, she explained, increasingly suggests that sippy cups — with their spouts and valves — can affect dental development and jaw formation in ways that open cup drinking doesn't. The recommendation from speech and language therapists and many paediatricians is to move from bottle to open cup as directly as possible.
I went home and immediately felt overwhelmed. An open cup. With an eight-month-old. Who had not yet demonstrated reliable control over his own hands, let alone a vessel containing liquid.
Then I found the Doidy Cup, and it made sense.
What Makes the Doidy Different
The Doidy Cup is not a sippy cup. It's an open cup — no spout, no valve, no lid — but with a unique slanted design that makes open cup drinking accessible to babies and young children in a way that a standard cup isn't. The slant means the child can see the contents without having to tip the cup forward and thrust their head down, which is the movement that makes standard open cups difficult for small children to manage. The liquid comes to the lip naturally as the cup is raised, at a pace the child can control.
The two handles are sized and positioned for small hands. Finn could grip both handles from about nine months, which gave him the stability to hold the cup himself rather than relying on me to support it. That independence — the child controlling the cup rather than the parent managing it — is the whole point of the design.
Made in Scotland from BPA-free, food-safe HD polyethylene. Dishwasher proof on the top shelf, sterilisable, freezer proof, microwave safe. Comes with a resealable bag for travel and a free weaning guide. Everything practical covered in a single, well-designed product.
Starting Out
The weaning guide that comes with the cup is genuinely useful — it explains the approach clearly and sets realistic expectations. You start with a very small amount of liquid, support the cup with the child, and gradually reduce your involvement as they develop the coordination to manage it themselves. It's not instant, and there is spillage. But the spillage is manageable, and the progress is visible.
Finn's first attempts at eight months involved a lot of looking at the cup, some tentative sipping, and a fair amount of water on his bib. By ten months he was holding both handles himself and drinking with reasonable reliability. By twelve months he was using the Doidy Cup at every meal with minimal assistance from me.
That progression — from supported to independent in about four months — was faster than I'd expected and more straightforward than I'd feared.
What the Slant Actually Does
I want to explain this properly because it's the thing that makes the Doidy genuinely clever rather than just different. With a standard open cup, a child has to tip the cup significantly to get the liquid to the rim, which requires them to simultaneously tilt their head back and manage the cup angle — two coordinated movements that are difficult for a baby or young toddler. The Doidy's slant means the liquid is already angled towards the drinking edge when the cup is held upright. The child raises the cup, the liquid meets their lip, they drink. One movement instead of two.
It's a small design insight that makes a significant practical difference. Finn figured out the basic mechanics within a few sessions in a way that I don't think he would have with a standard open cup.
Eight Months of Daily Use
Finn is now sixteen months old. The Doidy Cup has been in daily use since he was eight months old — eight months of meals, snacks, and drinks throughout the day. It goes in the dishwasher after every use and comes out looking the same as it did when we bought it. The blue colour is unfaded, the handles are intact, the cup holds its shape. HD polyethylene is a robust material and it shows.
His speech and language development has been commented on positively at his check-ups. I can't attribute that entirely to the cup — there are many factors — but the health visitor who recommended open cup drinking in the first place noted that children who skip sippy cups often show better oral motor development. Whether that's the cup or coincidence, I'm glad we made the switch.
What I'd Tell Other Parents
If your health visitor or paediatrician has mentioned moving to an open cup, the Doidy makes that transition genuinely manageable. It's not a sippy cup with a different name — it's a properly designed open cup that works with a baby's developmental stage rather than against it. The learning curve is real but shorter than you'd expect, and the outcome — a child who drinks from a proper cup independently — is worth the few weeks of bibs and patience.
The Doidy Cup is made in Scotland, costs very little, and has been in continuous production for decades because it works. That's a track record worth trusting.
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Elspeth Cairns is a physiotherapist and mother of one based in Perth. She followed her health visitor's advice, bought the Doidy Cup, and has not once regretted skipping the sippy cup stage entirely.
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