The Sippy Rx is a special sippy cup that has a reservoir in the lid that holds liquid medication and is designed to deliver it to your child without them having to taste it. This would help many parents administer medicine of all types but how well does it actually work?
Overview
Certain medications can taste really bad, and if your child’s cold is making them cranky as well you might have a bear of a time giving them what they need. Medicines only work if they make it into their system, so if they’re spitting it out, or moving their heads so that it’s spilling all over their chin and shirt, it’s not going to get the job done. With this product you are craftily sneaking it with a drink they like, but not mixing it together to make their drink taste bad.
The Claim
The makers of Sippy Rx claim that the unique design of the cup makes it so the medicine is delivered further back on the tongue to it avoids the taste buds. This means that your child only tastes the beverage that is in the actual cup, and not the medicine.
The Hype
Of course this product appeals to a parent’s strong desire to do what’s best for their child, and also promises an easier way to give medicine to your child. At the same time it is basically just showing how the product is used. It may be exaggerating a bit by showing kids drinking their drinks with no sign at all that they’re tasting medicine. There’s a chance that they’d still be able to taste some of the medicine, especially if they like to hold their drink in their mouth before swallowing.
The Cost
The Sippy Rx is $26 which includes shipping. This includes a second cup for free, with no additional shipping costs being applied. That is a big because it’s a real 2 for 1 offer and gets you two cups so you can have one in the dishwasher and still have one available for use. This is much more than an ordinary sippy cup, which is understood as it has a special use. There really isn’t anything else to compare this to price wise, as we haven’t seen anything quite like it. The 30 day money back guarantee is in place so if it’s not what you’re expecting you can send them back and get $20 back.
The Commitment
The major selling point for Sippy Rx is that you’ll have much less hassle giving your child medicine. In fact, you may even be able to give it to them without them even knowing. If it’s a constant battle when it comes to medicine time you will likely notice an improvement in that area, and if you play your cards right there won’t be any more “medicine time” events going forward.
Evaluation
It’s a pretty interesting design being employed by the Sippy Rx. They have a special top of the cup that holds the medicine. The spout of the cup is designed so that there’s a longer piece that the medicine comes out of. To your child it feels and works like a regular sippy cup. But what’s really going on is that the medicine is being delivered to the back of the tongue, where there are fewer taste buds, so it’s not like the medicine gets dispersed all throughout their mouth like it does when given with a spoon.
It’s really smart the way this works, because the beverage and medicine don’t mix, the beverage is used to wash the medicine right down so they likely won’t taste it, but may have a little residual aftertaste.
One thing to consider is using the Sippy Rx as their sippy cup all the time. This is because they might figure out that something is up if they are only being given it when they are sick. A lot of the success of this rests on being a bit sly and not really letting them know what’s going on.
It’s nice that they’re using FDA approved materials, and that there are no BPAs. They seem to have a pretty good handle on what parents would want for their children.
Final Sippy Rx Review
The Sippy Rx is getting our Thumbs Up rating. The design and quality of the product are both great, and the concept is a solid one. Early reports show that this works well in real world situations, and of course it has a guarantee in place if you find that it’s not working the way you anticipated.
Our Recommendation
If you’ve had trouble in the past giving your child their medication, this could be one way to make things much easier. If they are sippy cup age then you’ll likely have no trouble handing them their sippy cup and letting them drink their usual beverage from it.
I bought the SippyRX cups for my 3 yr old who hates taken any kind of liquid medicine. The instructions want you to use the cup without the medicine so the child will learn to insert the full spout into their mouth. I did this practice and she figured out in order to drink the beverage, she had to insert the spout further. After this was learned, I added the liquid medicine and she drank the full dose without tasting the medicine!! I was so pleased!!
The instruction as mentioned that if the liquid medicine is thick, add a few drops of water to thin it out for the proper ratio. I mixed the few drops with the liquid medicine before adding it in the medicine tank. All the medicine was administered with only 4 ozs of beverage.
She uses the cup everyday now and when I need to administer liquid medicine, she does not associate with medicine. Follow the instructions and it works very well!!
Rebecca
Allison,
I read your comment about this product and you are getting your wish!!
The price is NOT $19.95 for two, but $14.95 + $5.95 s+h. Google, Bing or MSN “sippy rx” and it will bring you to the ordering page for the product (www.sippyrx.com). This product has just become available to the public.
The Sippy Rx is a good idea, but I agree with the other comments. Kids are pretty smart. When you try putting the medicine in the Sippy Rx cup once and they still taste the medicine, then the kids will know I don’t want to drink from that cup anymore. A regular Sippy cup cost a few dollars so why would anyone spend twenty dollars for this cup when you can try it with a regular one for way less? I think it would be a big waste of money, but who knows, maybe would work.
I think this is a fabulous idea – I still have traumatic memories of a few incidents with that thick, pink Augmentin that, unless they’ve changed the taste a lot by now, was pretty nasty. Actually, I think my daughter may have objected to the texture as much as the taste. But my only hesitancy with this product is the possibility of giving a lower dose than ordered if the thicker liquids don’t make it all the way out of the reservoir. It sounds like the reservoir and the drinking liquid don’t mix. But – I definitely would have tried it a couple of decades ago….
I agree with David that children who taste the medicine once with this cup will come to realize it’s the “medicine cup” and might stop wanting to use it. I can just imagine a finicky two year old not wanting you to tell her to put the drinking part all the way in her mouth, and so she drinks it so that the medicine ends up in the front of her mouth and tastes it anyway.
However, I can see this working for many children if they use it the right way. Although my daughter doesn’t mind taking her medicine (seriously…these days kids’ medicine tastes so good!) if I had a child who hated taking medicine I would give this a try because of the excellent return policy.
When it comes to the Sippy Rx I find that it is a good product in theory, but if it doesn’t work then what? Granted, if it does do what it is supposed to then brilliant, but if not then your children will still taste the medicine and will then only turn this cup away even if it doesn’t have medicine in it. Now this product, again if it works, would have been better invented ten plus years ago, but now in this day and age companies are making medicines that taste somewhat better and therein are slightly more appealing to take. My experience however is that liquid medications aren’t a big problem, it’s medication in pill form that is almost impossible to have my kids take, and hey you might say “well just ask your child’s for a liquid form of the prescription” been there done that, a lot of medications are only available in pill form. So the day they invent the product that can help with that will be great.
If there is anything you should know about our house, it’s that no one likes to take their medicine. Not any of the adults. Not any of the children. Sippy RX would have helped us avoid many a fight had it been invented 10 years ago. And honestly, I woudln’t even be embarrassed to buy an adult version if they came out with one. I hated medicine as a child and I hate it as an adult. This product is kooky and genius all at the same time. The only thing that makes me hesitate about this cup is that it’s $10 a piece before shipping and handling. Kids are kids and the cups won’t last long. It would be great if they were a little more affordable!