Bloom First Sipper, Soft Spout

Details

A first cup for around six months, when a baby can sit up and hold something with both hands. The spout is soft silicone rather than hard plastic, and it is wide and flat rather than teat shaped, which is the point of moving on. Name the material, then the grade. The body is polypropylene random copolymer, food contact grade to IS 10910, the Indian standard for polypropylene used against foodstuffs. Polypropylene has never contained a bisphenol of any kind, so BPA-free here is a true sentence with nothing behind it. The substitution cheat the phrase was invented to describe lives elsewhere: polycarbonate bottles were made with bisphenol A, and when BPA was withdrawn some of what replaced it was bisphenol S and bisphenol F, which are the same family. This cup has no polycarbonate in it, so it never took part in that swap. The spout and valve are platinum-cured silicone, which is also outside that chemistry. Capacity is stated twice on purpose. 150 ml is the fill line moulded into the wall; 190 ml is what the cup holds to the brim. Sellers quote whichever number is larger, and a cup sold as 190 ml that only ever gets filled to 150 ml is a short measure told honestly by nobody. The valve is the part that matters. It lifts out in one piece, and a valve you cannot get behind is a valve that grows things you cannot see. Everything separates by hand: lid, spout, valve, cup, and the two handles come off as well.

• Body polypropylene random copolymer, food contact grade to IS 10910. Spout, valve and lid seal in platinum-cured silicone
• Capacity stated twice: 150 ml to the moulded fill line, 190 ml to the brim. The 250 ml holds 300 ml to the brim
• Spout at 40 Shore A, soft enough to give against new gums, and pull-tested to 60 N so it cannot be worked off and choked on
• Overall migration below 10 mg per square decimetre in 3 percent acetic acid, 50 percent ethanol and 95 percent ethanol, run on the cup assembled and filled, not on the raw pellet
• N-nitrosamines below 0.01 mg per kg and nitrosatable substances below 0.1 mg per kg on the silicone parts, which is the specific test that exists for silicone a baby sucks
• Tested to EN 14350, the standard for child care drinking equipment, at a NABL-accredited materials laboratory
• Markings moulded into the wall, never printed, so nothing rubs off into the drink
• Leak-tested filled and inverted for 24 hours with the lid shut
• Every part sold on its own. A chewed spout is a spout, not a new cup
• Honest position on what a valved spout is: it is spill control, not a drinking lesson. A valve makes a baby suck, which is what they already do. Move to the straw cup or an open cup as soon as you reasonably can, and use this for the months in between
• Honest trade-off: a soft spout is chewable, and a determined baby will destroy one in a few weeks. That is why spares exist and why they cost what a spare should cost. Replace it every three months anyway, or sooner if the silicone goes cloudy or sticky
• Not for hot drinks. Top dishwasher rack, steam sterilisable, or five minutes of boiling